Jacob K. Javits

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Jacob Koppel Javits (May 18, 1904 – March 7, 1986) was a New York politician.

A Republican, he represented New York's 21st congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1947 to 1954, then resigned his seat after his election as the state's Attorney General. In 1956, he defeated Mayor of New York City Robert F. Wagner, Jr. in a U.S. Senate race. Javits assumed the seat of retiring incumbent Democratic Senator Herbert Lehman in 1957. Like Lehman, Javits was, for a time, the only Jew in the U.S. Senate, a status that prompted one senator, James O. Eastland, Democrat of Mississippi, to say "I don't like you - or your kind."^{[citation needed]}

A graduate of the New York University School of Law, Javits was generally considered a liberal Republican, and was supportive of labor unions and movements for civil rights. In 1964, Javits refused to support his party's presidential nominee, his conservative colleague, Barry M. Goldwater of Arizona. He sponsored both the first African-American Senate page in 1965 and the first female page in 1971. His background, coupled with his liberal stands, enabled him to win the votes of many historically Democratic New Yorkers and enjoy great electoral success for many years.^{[citation needed]}

Javits played a major role in legislation protecting pensioners, as well as in the passage of the War Powers Act; he led the effort to get the Javits-Wagner-O'Day Act passed. He reached the position of Ranking Minority Member on the Committee on Foreign Relations while accruing greater seniority than any New York Senator before or since (as of 2007).

Javits served until 1981; his 1979 diagnosis with amytrophic lateral sclerosis (also known as Lou Gehrig's Disease) led to his 1980 defeat for renomination by Al D'Amato. Javits' loss to D'Amato, then an obscure figure, stemmed both from his illness and the fact that he did not adjust to the rightward movement of his party in the latter part of his career.^{[citation needed]}

Following the loss, Javits ran as the Liberal candidate in the general election, splitting the Democratic base vote with Congresswoman Elizabeth Holtzman and giving D'Amato a plurality victory.

Javits died in 1986.

[edit] Honors

Javits received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1983.

New York's Javits Center is named in his honor, as is a playground at the southwestern edge of Fort Tryon Park. The Jacob K. Javits Federal Building^[1] at 26 Federal Plaza in lower Manhattan's Civic Center district, as well as a lecture hall on the campus of the State University of New York at Stony Brook on Long Island, are also named after him.

The United States Department of Education awards a number of Javits Fellowships to support graduate students in the humanities and social sciences.^[2]

[edit] References

General references:

• Biography at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress

Specific references:

1. ^ http://www.emporis.com/en/wm/bu/?id=113749
2. ^ Jacob K. Javits Fellowships Program, from the U.S. Department of Education website

[edit] External links

• Jacob Javits at Find-A-Grave

Attorneys General of New York This box: view • talk • edit

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Preceded by James H. Torrens	Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New York's 21st congressional district 1947–1954	Succeeded by Herbert Zelenko
Preceded by Nathaniel Goldstein	New York Attorney General 1955–1957	Succeeded by Louis Lefkowitz
Preceded by Herbert H. Lehman (D)	United States Senator (Class 3) from New York 1957–1981 Served alongside: Irving Ives, Kenneth Keating, Robert F. Kennedy, Charles Goodell, James L. Buckley, Daniel Patrick Moynihan	Succeeded by Alfonse M. D'Amato (R)