Jacob K. Javits

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Jacob K. Javits
United States Senator from New York
In office January 9, 1957 – January 3, 1981
Preceded by	Herbert H. Lehman
Succeeded by	Alfonse D'Amato
58th New York State Attorney General
In office January 1, 1955 – January 9, 1957
Governor	W. Averell Harriman
Preceded by	Nathaniel L. Goldstein
Succeeded by	Louis Lefkowitz
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New York's 21st district
In office January 3, 1947 – December 31, 1954
Preceded by	James H. Torrens
Succeeded by	Herbert Zelenko
Born	May 18, 1904 New York City, New York
Died	March 7, 1986 (aged 81) West Palm Beach, Florida
Political party	Republican
Spouse	Marian Ann Borris Javits (born 1925)
Religion	Judaism

Jacob Koppel "Jack" Javits (May 18, 1904 – March 7, 1986) was an American politician who served as United States Senator from New York from 1957 to 1981. A liberal Republican, he was originally allied with Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller, fellow U.S. Senators Irving Ives and Kenneth Keating, and New York City Mayor John V. Lindsay.

[edit] Political career

Javits graduated from New York University and its law school in Manhattan. He was admitted to the bar in 1927. During World War II, he was a lieutenant colonel in the United States Army.

He was initially elected to New York's 21st congressional district (since redistricted) in the United States House of Representatives during the heavily Republican year of 1946. He was a member of the freshman class along with John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts and Richard M. Nixon of California. He served from 1947 to 1954, then resigned his seat after his election as the New York Attorney General.

In 1956, he defeated Mayor of New York City Robert F. Wagner, Jr., in a U.S. Senate race to succeed the retiring incumbent Democratic Senator Herbert Lehman. Like Lehman, Javits was for a time the only Jew in the U.S. Senate.

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 even though Goldwater had said in 1962 that he would vote to reelect Javits were Goldwater a New York voter.

Senator Javits sponsored (1) the first African-American Senate page in 1965 and (2) the first female page in 1971. His background, coupled with his liberal stands, enabled him to win the votes of many historically Democratic voters. He was highly successful in all elections in which he was a candidate from 1946 to 1974.^{[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). He was also one of the main forces behind the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act that by removing immigration quota that favored Western European nations helped to make the U.S. a truly diverse and multicultural country.

[edit] 1980 Senate race

Javits served until 1981; his 1979 diagnosis with amytrophic lateral sclerosis (also known as Lou Gehrig's Disease) led to a 1980 primary challenge by the comparatively lesser-known Long Island Republican county official Alfonse D'Amato. D'Amato received 323,468 primary votes (55.7 percent) to Javits' 257,433 (44.3 percent). Javits' loss to D'Amato stemmed from Javits' continuing illness and his failure to adjust politically to the rightward movement of the GOP brought about by Ronald W. Reagan.^{[citation needed]}

Following the primary defeat, Javits ran as the Liberal Party candidate in the general election, having split the Democratic base vote with United States Representative Elizabeth Holtzman of Brooklyn and giving D'Amato a plurality victory.

[edit] Death

Javits died of Lou Gehrig's disease in West Palm Beach, Florida, at the age of eighty-one. In addition to Marian, he was survived by three children, Joshua, Carla, and Joy.

Among those who attended the funeral were Governor Mario Cuomo, Mayor Ed Koch, former President Richard Nixon, Attorney General Edwin Meese, former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, Senator D'Amato, John Cardinal O'Connor, former Mayor Lindsay, former Governor Hugh Carey of New York, and former State Attorney General Louis Lefkowitz.

Also there were U.S. Representative Bella Abzug of Manhattan; then Senators Nancy Kassebaum Baker of Kansas, Bill Bradley of New Jersey, Lowell Weicker of Connecticut, and Gary Hart of Colorado; David Rockefeller, the banker; Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, publisher of The New York Times; Victor Gotbaum, the labor leader; Kurt Vonnegut, the writer, and Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., the actor.

[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:

• Jacob K. Javits at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress

Specific references:

• Who's Who in America, 1966–1967

1. ^ Jacob K. Javits Federal Building, New York City
2. ^ Jacob K. Javits Fellowships Program, from the U.S. Department of Education website

[edit] External links

• Jacob Javits at Find-A-Grave

v • d • e United States Senators from New York Class 1: Schuyler • Burr • Schuyler • Hobart • North • Watson • Morris • Bailey • Armstrong • Mitchill • German • Sanford • Van Buren • Dudley • Tallmadge • Dickinson • Fish • P. King • Morgan • Fenton • Kernan • Platt • Miller • Hiscock • Murphy • Depew • O'Gorman • Calder • Copeland • Mead • Ives • Keating • Kennedy • Goodell • Buckley • Moynihan • H. Clinton Class 3: R. King • Laurance • Armstrong • D. Clinton • Armstrong • Smith • R. King • Sanford • Marcy • Wright • Foster • Dix • Seward • Harris • Conkling • Lapham • Evarts • Hill • Platt • Root • Wadsworth • Wagner • Dulles • Lehman • Javits • D'Amato • Schumer