Solomon Levitan, Jewish immigrant from Germany who started in America as a peddler and rose to the position of a prominent banker, six-term treasurer of the State of Wisconsin and leader of the Progressive Party, died today of heart disease at the age of 77.
Levitan came to the U.S. from East Prussia when he was 16, settled in Glarus, Wis., in 1887 as a pack peddler, later founded a little store and some years later became president of the Commercial National Bank of Madison. He entered politics as a justice of the peace and was elected State treasurer in 1922, which position he held until 1938.
In a speech in Washington in 1938, he summed up his advice to Jews: “If we can, as Americans of Jewish descent, give to America something of the idealism and desire for service which have marked the Jew down through the ages, we will accomplish a great good for America and the Jew will hold his place in the sun of America’s gratitude.”
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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.
