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Two Jewish Senators, Eleven Congressmen to Sit in 84th Congress

November 5, 1954
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Two members of the Jewish faith will serve simultaneously in the United States Senate for the first time in 43 years as a result of the election of Richard L. Neuberger in Oregon.

Mr. Neuberger, a 41-year-old writer and authority on water-power development, won election after a bitter campaign marked by anti-Semitic appeals. He is the first Jew to represent Oregon in the Senate since Joseph Simon’s term ended in 1903 and the first Democrat to be sent to the Upper House from Oregon in 40 years. He has been a member of the Oregon State Senate since 1948.

NEUBERGER’S ELECTION GIVES DEMOCRATS CONTROL OF SENATE

Mr. Neuberger’s election gave the Democrats 48 Senate seats in the 84th Congress and enabled the party to organize the Senate. The Democrats will organize the House of Representatives. Rep, Emanuel Celler, of New York, is scheduled to resume chairmanship of the important House Judiciary Committee.

In the capital, Mr. Neuberger will join Sen. Herbert H. Lehman of New York and II Jewish members of the House of Representatives, all of them Democrats, For the first time in several years there will be no Jewish Republican member of the House, Rep, Jacob K. Javits, New York Republican, did not run for Congress this year but was elected Attorney General of New York.

In New York, in addition to Rep, Javits, Col, Arthur Levitt was elected to state office. A Democrat, he was elected Controller.

MRS. ALLEN ELECTED STATE SECRETARY OF CONNECTICUT

In Connecticut, where Abraham A. Ribicoff, a Democrat, was elected Governor–the first time a Jew has ever won that post in the history of the State–Mrs. Mildred Pomerantz Allen, a Republican, was elected Secretary of State. Mrs. Allen, wife of the retiring Lieutenant Governor, is the mother of two children and is known as a civic worker and musician.

A feature of the Neuberger campaign in Oregon was the fact that Mrs. Neuberger, a member of the State House of Representatives, campaigned alongside her husband, seeking election to the State Senate. She won with pluralities exceeding those given her husband in his campaign.

The last time two Jews served simultaneously in the U.S. Senate was in 1912 when Simon Guggenheim, of Colorado, and Isador Rayner, of Maryland, occupied seats in the Upper House.

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