Story Summary:
Lewis Jacob Lefkowitz was an American Lawyer and Politician. He served as Attorney General of New York State for twenty two years. He also became a municipal Judge.For many years, Lefkowitz was a delegate at the Republic National Conventions. He was a liberal Republican who was part of the Thomas E. Dewey and Nelson A. Rockefeller faction of the New York Republican Party.Lefkowitz was the State's longest-serving
attorney general. Throughout his career, he rubbed shoulders with the likes of ordinary New Yorkers and well known personages such as Frank Sinatra, Francis Cardinal Spellman and boxer Jack Dempsey. Lewis Jacob Lefkowitz will be remembered for
all of his accomplishments and also by the Louis J. Lefkowitz building, located at 80 Centre Street in Manhattan, which was named in his honor. ~Blog by Renee Meyer
Louis J. Lefkowitz- American Lawyer and Politician
Louis Lefkowitz was born on July 3, 1904 to a Jewish family in Manhattan, New York City. He was the son of Samuel Lefkowitz and Mollie (Isaacs) Lefkowitz. Louis had two siblings: Leo and Helen (Schlesinger).
Louis attended P.S. 188 and then The High School of Commerce in New York City. He graduated in 1921 when he was 16 years old. After his graduation from Commerce, Louis worked as a full-time law clerk and served summonses. He maintained his full-time job while starting his college degree pursuing law studies. Louis was enrolled in the evening division of Fordham Law School In New York City. He graduated from Fordham in 1925.
From 1928 through 1930, Louis was a member of the New York State Assembly. On June 14, 1931, Louis married Helen Schwimmer and they had two children: Stephen (who became a lawyer and professor of Law) and Joan (Feinbloom). In 1935, Louis became a municipal judge. His wife passed away in 1986.
In 1957, Louis was elected to be the New York Attorney General by the New York State Legislature. He was re-elected several times (1958, 1962, 1966, 1970 and 1974). Louis held this office for twenty-two years which was the longest tenure since 1777 when the office was first established. In 1961, Louis ran as a Republican candidate for the position of Mayor of New York City. He lost to Democrat Robert F. Wagner Jr. who had been the current mayor at the time.
Louis was a delegate at the 1944, 1948, 1960, and 1964 Republican National Conventions. and he was also an alternate delegate to the 1956 Republican National Convention. Louis was a moderate or a liberal Republican and was a part of the Thomas E. Dewey and Nelson A. Rockefeller faction of the New York Republican Party.
Louis Lefkowitz died on June 20, 1996 at the age of 91. He died from Parkinson's disease at his home in Manhattan. There were hundreds of people who mourned and celebrated Louis’s life at the Park East Synagogue. Officials of both parties, as well as Liberal Party leaders listened to Rabbi Arthur Schneier tell Lefkowitz, “mission accomplished.” Louis Lefkowitz was laid to rest at Mount Hebron Cemetery in New York.
Louis rose from his boyhood on the lower East Side to become “the people’s lawyer. He was remembered by former Governor, George Pataki, as being the last of an “era of giants” (including Nelson Rockefeller) who led New Yorkers through two decades of dynamic growth.
Mayor Giuliani, Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes and former Rockefeller counsel Bobby Douglas all referred to Lefkowitz as the pioneer of consumer protection and merit hiring. However, Lefkowitz was also remembered as “a master politician with a remarkable memory for faces and names who loved the hurly-burly of the streets.”
Lefkowitz was as comfortable with ordinary New Yorkers as he was with the giants from entertainment, politics, religion and sports, including singer Frank Sinatra, former Gov. Al Smith, Francis Cardinal Spellman and boxer Jack Dempsey, mourners said.
The Louis J. Lefkowitz State Office Building at 80 Centre Street in the Civic Center district of Manhattan had been given its name to honor Lefkowitz.
~Blog by Renee Meyers
