OPINION:
The approaching 250th anniversary of U.S. democracy should celebrate the vital role Jewish Americans played in encouraging religious minorities to enter the nation’s electoral dynamic. My recent book, “Breaking New Ground: The Untold Story of Early America’s Jewish Electoral Pioneers — 1788 to 1920,” describes how it happened.
The Colonial era barred religious minorities from elective office, and after independence, 12 of the original U.S. states maintained that exclusion. In 1786, Virginia’s legislature opened officeholding to citizens of all faiths; in 1787, the U.S. Constitution guaranteed every American the right to hold federal offices. Other U.S. states began to allow religious minorities to hold state and local offices, and eventually every state did so.
Jews were the principal religious minority in early America, numbering 2,500 when the Constitution was ratified. Whether they would exercise their new rights to seek elective office was unknown. The answer came immediately: In 1788, German-born merchant Isaiah Isaacs became the nation’s first Jewish officeholder by winning election to the Richmond, Virginia, City Council. From that year to 1800, Jewish candidates won 11 more elections: seven in Virginia, three in Georgia and one in South Carolina.
Those three Southern states dominated Jewish electoral success for the next 40 years, choosing Jewish candidates in 137 elections to just 50 in the rest of the country.
By the 1841-1850 decade, Jewish electoral success had spread: Jews won 106 elections in 18 states, including the nation’s first U.S. senator, U.S. representative and state attorney general. By the period from 1871 to 1880, Jewish elections rose to 608 in 43 states. Jews won 101 elections as mayor; 39 as city, county or borough council president; 24 as U.S. representative; 19 as statewide officers; and four as U.S. senators. Jewish elections rose further to 1,094 in 1910-1920.
In the nation’s first five decades, Jewish candidates won 14 leadership positions (statewide and federal offices, mayors, council presidents) out of 216 electoral victories — 6% of Jewish successes. From 1910 to 1920, Jewish leadership elections rose to an astounding 66% of ballot-box wins. After more than a century of Jewish political figures serving in public office, American voters throughout the country showed no hesitation in entrusting Jews with the duties of the highest offices. These leadership achievements are unmistakable proof of the breadth of American Jews’ role in U.S. politics — and of the bias-free democratic spirit of American voters.
MARK RUTZICK
Reston, Virginia
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