The next Congress may have at least two fewer Jewish members than the present one as a result of New York’s Democratic primaries yesterday. Rep. Bella Abzug lost to Rep. William Ryan in Manhattan’s 20th Congressional District and Rep. James Scheuer was defeated by Rep. Jonathan Bingham in the 22nd District in the Bronx. Abzug and Scheuer are Jewish.
Both contests were held in districts newly created by reapportionment and the race in each case was between staunch liberals. In the Bronx, where Bingham defeated Scheuer by a margin of about 5000 votes, appeals to Jewish voters who make up 60 percent of the district highlighted the campaign. Scheuer received national prominence when he was ordered to leave the Soviet Union after meetings with Russian Jews during a visit to the USSR. Bingham’s campaign literature showed him photographed with Foreign Minister Abba Eban and Jerusalem’s Mayor, Teddy Kollek.
In Brooklyn’s heavily Jewish 16th Congressional District, Rep. Emanuel Celler, 84, a veteran of 50 years in Congress–he came in with the Harding administration–was upset by an attractive 30-year-old woman lawyer, Elizabeth Holtzman, also Jewish. But in the 14th District, a Jewish challenger, former Rep. Allard K. Lowenstein, was beaten by incumbent Congressman John J. Rooney. Rep. Bertram Podell won handily over his challenger, State Assemblyman Leonard Simon in Brooklyn’s 13th District. Both are Jews.
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.
