This is a list of Jewish American political figures.
This page is part of the List of Jewish Americans series.
Politicians
Presidential Candidates
Cabinet Members
- Judah Benjamin, confederate secretary of war (1861) & state (1862-64)
- Oscar Straus, secretary of commerce & labor (1906-09)
- Henry Morgenthau, Jr., secretary of the treasury (1934-45)
- Pierre Salinger, white house press secretary (1961-64) (Jewish father)
- Henry Kissinger, national security advisor (1969-75), secretary of state (1973-77)
- W. Michael Blumenthal, secretary of the treasury (1977-79)
- Harold Brown, secretary of defense (1977-81)
- Robert Reich, secretary of labor (1993-97)
- John M. Deutch, CIA director (1995-96)
- Robert Rubin, secretary of the treasury (1995-99)
- Madeline Albright, secretary of state (1997-01) (raised Catholic)
- Sandy Berger, national security advisor (1997-01)
- William Cohen, secretary of defense (1997-01) (Jewish father)
- Larry Summers, secretary of the treasury (1999-01)
- Ari Fleischer, white house press secretary (2001-03)
- Michael Chertoff, homeland security secretary (not yet confirmed)
Senators
- David Levy Yulee, senator (D-FL: 1845-51, 1855-61)
- Judah Benjamin, senator (Whig-LA: 1853-61)
- Benjamin F. Jonas, senator (D-LA: 1879-85)
- Joseph Simon, senator (R-OR: 1898-03)
- Isidor Rayner, senator (D-MD: 1905-12)
- Simon Guggenheim, senator (R-CO: 1907-13)
- Herbert Lehman, senator (D-NY: 1949-57)
- Richard L. Neuberger, senator (D-OR: 1955-60)
- Jacob Javits, senator (R-NY: 1957-81)
- Ernest Gruening, senator (D-AK: 1959-69)
- Abraham Ribicoff, senator (D-CT: 1963-81)
- Howard Metzenbaum, senator (D-OH: 1974, 1976-95)
- Richard Stone, senator (D-FL: 1975-80)
- Edward Zorinsky, senator (D-NE: 1976-87)
- Rudy Boschwitz, senator (R-MN: 1978-91)
- Carl Levin, senator (D-MI: 1979-)
- Warren Rudman, senator (R-NH: 1980-93)
- Arlen Specter, senator (R-PA: 1981)
- Frank Lautenberg, senator (D-NJ: 1982-01, 2003-)
- Jacob Hecht, senator (R-NV: 1983-89)
- Herb Kohl, senator (D-WI: 1989-)
- Joseph Lieberman, senator (D-CT: 1989-)
- Paul Wellstone, senator (D-MN: 1991-02)
- Dianne Feinstein, senator (D-CA: 1992-)
- Barbara Boxer, senator (D-CA: 1992-)
- Russ Feingold, senator (D-WI: 1993-)
- Ron Wyden, senator (D-OR: 1996-)
- Charles Schumer, senator (D-NY: 1999-)
- Norm Coleman, senator (R-MN: 2003-)
Representatives
Prominent representatives only – for a full list see jewishvirtuallibrary.org (http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/US-Israel/housejews.html).
- Lewis Charles Levin, first Jewish representative (Amer-PA: 1845-51)
- Victor L. Berger, socialist (Soc-WI: 1911-13, 1919, 1923-29)
- Florence P. Kahn, first Jewish woman representative (R-CA: 1925-37)
- Bella Abzug, feminist leader & gay rights activist (D-NY: 1971-77)
- Henry Waxman, liberal leader (D-CA: 1975-)
- Tom Lantos, holocaust survivor (D-CA: 1981-)
- Barney Frank, liberal, openly gay politician (D-MA: 1981-)
- Bernie Sanders, independent (Ind-VT: 1991-)
- Jerrold Nadler, WTC district congressman during 9/11 (D-NY: 1992-)
Governors
- Moses Alexander, governor of Idaho (D-ID: 1915-19)
- Simon Bamberger, governor of Utah (D-UT: 1917-21)
- Arthur Seligman, governor of New Mexico (D-NM: 1931-33)
- Julius L. Meier, governor of Oregon (Ind-OR: 1931-35)
- Henry Horner, governor of Illinois (D-IL: 1933-40)
- Herbert H. Lehman, governor of New York (D-NY: 1933-42)
- Ernest Gruening, territorial governor of alaska (D-AK: 1939-53)
- Abraham Ribicoff, governor of Conneticut (D-CT: 1955-61)
- Samuel H. Shapiro, governor of Illinois (D-IL: 1968-69)
- Frank Licht, governor of Rhode Island (D-RI: 1969-73)
- Marvin Mandel, governor of Maryland (D-MD: 1969-77)
- Milton Shapp, governor of Pennsylvania (D-PA: 1971-79)
- Madeleine M. Kunin, governor of Vermond (D-VT: 1985-91)
- Neil Goldschmidt, governor of Oregon (D-OR: 1987-91)
- Bruce Sundlun, governor of Rhode Island (D-RI: 1991-95)
- Linda Lingle, governor of Hawaii (R-HI: 2002-)
- Ed Rendell, governor of Pennsylvania (D-PA: 2002-)
Mayors
Prominent mayors/major cities only.
Jurists & Military
Supreme Court
Lawyers
- Gloria Allred, feminist lawyer
- Marcia Clark, lawyer
- Roy Cohn, McCarthyist lawyer
- Alan Dershowitz, lawyer
- William Kunstler, civil rights lawyer
- Edward Levi, US attorney general (1975-77)
- Peter Neufeld, Innocence Project
- Barry Scheck, Innocence Project
- Robert Shapiro, lawyer
- Eliot Spitzer, New York attorney general
Military
- Jeremy Michael Boorda, admiral
- Mark Clark, WW2/Korea general (half Jewish)
- Wesley Clark, Kosovo general, NATO supreme allied commander (Jewish father)
- David Camden DeLeon, confederate surgeon-general
- William F. Friedman, army cryptologist
- Uriah P. Levy, commodore, abolished flogging
- Ben Moreel, admiral, founder of the Seabees
- Ben Rich, co-inventor of the stealth fighter
- Hyman Rickover, admiral, father of the nuclear navy
- Maurice Rose, WW2 general, killed in action
- Milton Wolff, head of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade
- Haym Salomon, financer of the War of Independence
- Joseph Seligman, unionist civil war financer
Activists
Social Leaders
- Saul Alinsky, social organizer
- Daniel De Leon, socialist leader
- David Dubinsky, labor leader
- Emma Goldman, anarchist leader
- Samuel Gompers, labor leader
- Sidney Hillman, labor leader
- Abbie Hoffman, social activist, Yippie
- Jackie Presser, labor leader, racketeer
- Jerry Rubin, social activist, Yippie
Political & Civil Liberties
- Michael Albert, co-founder of Z Magazine
- Leslie Cagan, founder of UPJ
- Ben Cohen, founder of TrueMajority
- Jeff Cohen, founder of FAIR
- Daniel Ellsberg, leaked the Pentagon Papers (Jewish parents)
- Felix Frankfurter, helped found the ACLU
- Mitch Kapor, co-founder of EFF
- William Kunstler, civil rights lawyer
- Aryeh Neier, head of HRW, ACLU, OSI
- Eli Pariser, campaigns director of MoveOn.org
- Bruce Perens, open source advocate, co-founder of SPI
- Marcus Raskin, co-founder of IPS
- Kenneth Roth, head of HRW
- George Soros, founder of OSI
- Richard Stallman, founder of FSF
- Nadine Strossen, head of ACLU (father half Jewish holocaust survivor)
Anti-Racism
- Abraham Foxman, head of the ADL
- Kivie Kaplan, head of the NAACP
- Winona LaDuke, Native American acitivst & environmentalist (Jewish mother)
- Stanley Levison, advisor of Martin Luther King
- Abel Meeropol, composer of Strange Fruit
- Mickey Schwerner & Andrew Goodman, CORE activists, KKK victims
- Joel & Arthur Spingarn, early NAACP leaders
- Simon Wiesenthal, Nazi-hunter
- Tim Wise, anti-racism activist
Feminism & Gay Rights
- Bella Abzug, feminist politician
- Gloria Allred, feminist lawyer
- Andrea Dworkin, feminist writer
- Susan Faludi, feminist writer
- Leslie Feinberg, transgender activist & author
- Betty Friedan, co-founder & first president of NOW
- Arnie Kantrowitz, co-founder of GLAAD
- Harvey Milk, gay rights activist & openly-gay politician
- Robin Morgan, editor of Ms. Magazine
- Ernestine Rose, feminist
- Gloria Steinem, founder of Ms. Magazine
- Rebecca Walker, feminist writer (half Jewish)
- Naomi Wolf, feminist writer
- Evan Wolfson, gay marriage activist
Health & Environment
- Judi Bari, environmentalist (Jewish mother)
- Bernard Lown, co-founder of IPPNW, Nobel Peace Prize (1985)
- Ed Rosenthal, canabbis activist
- Elizabeth Glaser, founder of the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation
- Rose Kushner, breast cancer activist
- Mathilde Krim, founder of amFAR (converted)
- Larry Kramer, co-founder of GMHC
- Henry Spira, animal rights activist
- Irving & Dorothy Stowe, co-founders of Greenpeace
Controversial
Criminals
- Lori Berenson, activist convicted of terrorism in Peru
- David Berkowitz, serial killer (adopted by Jewish parents)
- Samuel Byck, failed assassin of Richard Nixon
- Heidi Fleiss, hollywood madam
- Dylan Klebold, columbine massacre (half Jewish)
- Meyer Lansky, gangster
- Leopold and Loeb, murderers
- Kevin Mitnick, hacker
- Sara Jane Moore, failed assassin of Gerald Ford
- Jonathan Pollard, jailed spy
- Ethel & Julius Rosenberg, executed spies
- Arnold Rothstein, gangster
- Jack Ruby, killer of Lee Harvey Oswald
- Dutch Schultz, gangster
- Bugsy Siegel, gangster
Other
- Alan Berg, murdered radio host
- Nick Berg, beheaded entrepeneur
- Josephine Earp, wife of Wyatt Earp
- Leo Frank, lynching victim
- Jeremy Glick (1), September 11 victim (UA flight 93)
- Jeremy Glick (2), activist & son of September 11 victim (WTC)
- Ronald Goldman, murdered friend of Nicole Brown Simpson
- Chandra Levy, disappeared intern
- Monica Lewinsky, sex scandal intern
- Joshua A. Norton, eccentric & self-proclaimed emperor
- Daniel Pearl, beheaded journalist
- Judith Resnik, Space Shuttle Challenger victim
- Mickey Schwerner & Andrew Goodman, KKK victims
- William James Sidis, child prodigy
- Nancy Spungen, murdered girlfriend of Sid Vicious
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