President-elect John F. Kennedy announced today the appointment of Arthur J. Goldberg, Chicago-born labor lawyer, as Secretary of Labor. The appointment puts two Jews into a United States Cabinet for the first time in American history. Senator Kennedy previously had chosen Governor Abraham Ribicoff of Connecticut as his Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare.
The Secretary of Labor nominee has been special counsel of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) since 1948 and he is also general counsel for the United Steelworkers of America.
The 52-year-old labor law expert is known as a friend of Israel. He recently accepted appointment as chairman of the board of trustees of the Histadrut Development Foundation, an American organization established to help Israel’s Labor Federation. He is a member of Temple Sinai here.
Mr. Goldberg was the negotiator between the U.S. State Department and the two seafaring unions which picketed the Egyptian ship, the Cleopatra, at a New York dock earlier this year in retaliation for Arab blacklisting of American ships touching at Israel ports. He was instrumental in the issuance of a statement by the State Department promising to take action to meet the grievances of the two maritime unions.
The new Cabinet appointee is a graduate of Northwestern University and is a member of the American, Illinois and Chicago Bar associations. He served as a major in the U. S. Army during World War II.
He is a director of the National Legal Aid Association, a member of the executive committee of the American Committee on United Europe and a director of the Amalgamated Trust and Savings Bank and the Amalgamated Health and Life Insurance Company, both of Chicago.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
