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 History Department
Southern Jewish Mayors Throughout History
Alabama
| Demopolis |
Morris Ely |
Elected in 1905 |
| |
Isidore Bley |
|
| Madison |
Ann van Leeuwen |
1990 - 1992 |
| Mobile |
Leon Schwarz |
1926, 1932, 1933 |
| |
Lazarus Schwarz |
1911-1915 |
| Montgomery |
Henry Faber |
1875 |
| |
Morris Moses |
1884-1888 |
| Pollard |
Nathan Strauss |
Late 19th century |
| Selma |
Simon Mass |
1887-1889 |
| |
Marcus Meyer |
1895-1899 |
| |
Louis Benish |
1915-1920 |
Arkansas
| Dumas |
Gus Waterman |
1904 – the town’s first mayor |
| |
Charles Dante |
1920’s |
| El Dorado |
Irving Leon Pesses |
1967-1975
re-election campaign slogan: “Izzy’s Been Busy” |
| Little Rock |
Jonas Levy |
1860-1864 |
| Helena |
Aaron Meyers |
1878-1880 |
| |
Jacob Fink |
1906 |
| Holly Grove |
Ralph Abramson |
1947-1958 |
| Pine Bluff |
Simon Bloom |
1900-1912 |
| West Memphis |
Kent Rubens |
|
Florida
| Pensacola |
Adolph Greenhut |
1913-1916 |
| |
Max Bear |
1937-1939 |
| |
B.I. Greenhut |
1965-67
Adolph’s son |
Georgia
| Alma |
Nathan Cohen |
Elected 1960 – born in Poland; came to US in 1913. Started out as peddler in rural Georgia. Opened his own store in 1924. Active in local Chamber of Commerce, Lions Club, Shriners, and Masons. Elected in 1960 with 90% of the vote. |
| Atlanta |
Sam Massell, Jr. |
1969-1973 |
| Athens |
Heidi Davidson |
Elected in 2002. |
| Albany |
|
|
| Columbus |
I.I. Moses |
He served Columbus before the Civil War, serving as the 3rd mayor of Columbus. He is one of the Confederate soldiers who was buried at the historic Linwood Cemetery in Columbus. The Jewish section of this cemetery is maintained by Temple Israel and there is a marker designating the section. |
| Eastman |
Elias Hermann |
|
| Dublin |
Jefferson Davis Hermann |
1909-1910 |
| |
Solomon Hermann |
(His brother) succeeded him |
| Rome |
|
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| Mercer |
|
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| Jessup |
|
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| Fitzgerald |
|
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| Carrollton |
|
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| Alma |
|
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| Gulf Breeze |
|
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| Savannah |
|
Two Jewish mayors |
Kentucky
| Ashland |
David Aronberg |
1951-1955 |
| Somerset |
Abraham Wolf |
1921-1923 |
| Middlesboro |
Isaac Ginsberg |
1933-1935 |
| Central City |
W.J. Hirschberg |
1933-1935 |
| Paducah |
Meyer Weil |
1871, 1877 |
| Louisville |
Jerry Abramson |
(1985-1998; 2003 - current ) He served initially from 1985-1998 when he left office because of term limits. During that period he served as President of the United States Conference of Mayors and in that capacity accompanied President Bill Clinton to the funeral of Yitzhak Rabin. He ran for re-election in 2003, winning by a huge margin. |
Louisiana
| Alexandria |
Edward Weil |
1875-1876 |
| Donaldsonville |
Myer Lemann |
1881 |
| |
David Israel |
|
| |
Walter Lemann |
1912 |
Haughton
(close to Shreveport) |
Henry Bodenheimer |
1885-1887
Was the town’s first mayor, elected with 98 out of 148 votes. |
| Lake Charles |
Adolph Meyer |
1874-1888 |
| Lake Providence |
Eliaz Stockner |
|
| Morgan City |
M.E. Norman |
Was mayor of Morgan City, LA. in the late 1920's or early 1930's. Also several Jews served on the city council of that era in Morgan City including my father Sol Loeb and uncle Henry Loeb. |
| Napoleonville |
Solomon Klotz
Samuel Klotz |
1922-1931
1939-1945 |
Shreveport
Had several Jewish mayors |
Samuel Levy |
Mayor for four months in 1873. He was born in France. He was appointed mayor pro tem by the governor during the Yellow Fever epidemic of 1873. He had been administrator of city finance (an elected position) previously. An election was held on December 22, 1873, which brought his term to an end. |
| |
Ben Holzman |
1900-1902
Was born in Germany in 1844. Came to the US in 1857; Civil War veteran – was a gunner on the Merrimac! Lived in DC after the war; was reportedly in audience when Lincoln was assasinated. One of the organizers and presidents of B’nai Zion and local B’nai B’rith chapter. First president of the Hebrew Relief Society of Shreveport. Kitty Carlisle was his granddaughter. |
| |
Ernest Bernstein |
1906-1908; born in Baton Rouge in 1868. Married Fannie Hirsch of Vicksburg in 1908. Had been a city alderman. Regional president of IOBB; VP of Bnai Zion. |
| South Highlands Village |
Emmanuel Mahne Bodenheimer |
1920’s. Was the only mayor of this area, which was incorporated into Shreveport in 1927. |
| Vidalia |
Lewis Arnheim |
1869-1871 |
| Waterproof |
A.G. Yamer |
Mayor in 1878 |
Mississippi
| Alligator |
Robert Kaplan |
|
| Greenville |
Jacob Alexander |
Leopold Wilcinski |
| Vicksburg |
Lawrence Leyens |
|
| Brookhaven |
Abraham Lewinthal |
1889 |
| |
Sam Abrams, Harold Samuels |
1977-1985 |
| Yazoo City |
Harry Applebaum |
1954-1960 |
| Hazlehurst |
Paul Kemp |
|
| Jonestown |
Sam Friedman |
1940’s-50’s |
| Natchez |
Isaac Lowenberg |
1882-1886 |
| |
Saul Laub |
1929-1936 |
| Rolling Fork |
Sam Rosenthal |
1929-1969; raised in Natchez. |
| Meridian |
Al Rosenbaum |
|
Port Gibson
|
Simon Unger |
1891-1898 |
| Pace |
Mose Hyman |
|
| Shaw |
Jacob Cohen |
1892-1897 |
| Summit |
Solomon Hyman (town’s first mayor) |
|
| Louise |
William Sklar |
“Mayor for Life” served for 25 years, often ran unopposed; retired in the early 1970’s. He died in 1974. |
| Rosedale |
M.J. Dattel |
|
| Glendora |
Nutty Moyer; Harold Moyer |
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North Carolina
| Durham |
Mutt Evans |
1950-1962 |
| Fayetteville |
Monroe Evans (Mutt’s brother) |
Elected in 1965 |
| Greensboro |
Ben Cone |
1949-1951 |
| Gastonia |
Leon Schneider |
|
| Holly Ridge |
Alfred Popkin |
|
| Wilmington |
Solomon Fishblate |
1878-1882 |
| |
Bill Schwartz |
|
| |
B.D. Schwartz |
|
Oklahoma
| Cordell |
J.J. Aberson (mayor three times) |
Leo Meyer (his was the only Jewish family in town at the time) |
| Sayre |
|
|
| Seminole |
Melvin Moran |
Elected in 1975 |
South Carolina
| Abbeville |
Joseph Savitz, Sr. |
1950’s – 1970’s |
| Clover |
Herbert Hirsch |
|
| Columbia |
Mordecai De Leon |
1833-1836 |
| |
Henry Lyons |
1850-1855 |
| |
Abraham Alexander |
1897-1899 |
| |
Oscar Alexander |
1931-1937 |
| Barnwell |
Herman Mazursky |
1938-1970 |
| Greenville |
Max Heller |
Elected in 1971 |
| Georgetown |
|
Five Jewish mayors in the 19th century; three before 1818, and several more since then. |
| Spartanburg |
William Barnet III |
Current mayor as of 1/2005 |
Tennessee
| Chattanooga |
George Washington Ochs-Oaks (brother of Adolph Ochs) |
1895-1899 |
| |
Joseph Wasserman |
1900 |
| Memphis |
Henry Loeb |
1960’s |
| Moscow |
Phil Bacharach |
Late 1920’s, early 1930’s |
| North Knoxville |
L.A. Gratz |
Elected in 1870 |
Texas
| Alto |
Fred Florence |
1919 |
| Amarillo |
Kel Seliger |
1993-2001 |
| Austin |
Jeffrey Friedman |
Elected 1975 at age 30 |
| Beaumont |
Maury Meyers |
1978-1982; 1986-1988 |
| Brownsville |
Benjamin Kowalski |
1975-1979 |
| |
Ruben Edelstein |
|
| Galveston |
Michael Seeligson |
1853 |
| |
Isaac Kempner |
1917-1919 |
| |
Adrian Levy |
1935-1939 |
| |
Barbara Crews |
1989 |
| |
Eddie Schreiber |
|
| Corpus Christi |
A.A.Lichtenstein |
1953-1954 |
| Corsicana |
Gus Gappelberg |
1991-1993 |
| Dallas |
Adlene Harrison |
1976 |
| |
Annette Strauss |
1987-1991 |
| |
Laura Miller |
Elected 2002 |
| Dickinson |
Veta Winick |
1990’s |
| Dublin |
Morris Hoffman |
|
| Eagle Pass |
Samuel Schwartz |
|
| El Paso |
Solomon Schutz |
Elected 1881 |
| |
Adolph Krakauer |
1889 – had to resign after two months when it was discovered that he was not yet a citizen |
| |
Adolph Solomon |
1893-1894 |
| Fort Worth |
Bayard Friedman |
1963-1965 |
| Jefferson |
I.L. Goldberg |
|
| |
Ben Bloomingdale |
|
| Kaufman |
Dr. Milton Davis |
1989-1991 |
| Laredo |
Louis Franklin |
|
| Lockhart |
Sam Glosserman |
|
| Luling |
Ben Jacobs |
Elected 1936
Owned an insurance firm. His family had deep roots in town, going back to its founding. His father was the oldest living settler in Luling. Ben headed the local PWA work, was president of the Luling Charity Association and the local Red Cross. He was president of the local Retail Merchants Association and commander of the American Legion Post. |
| Marshall |
Louis Kariel |
1935-1947 |
| |
Audrey Kariel |
(His daughter-in-law; 1994-2001) |
| Padre Island |
Minnie Solomonson |
1982-1986 |
| Plano |
Florence Shapiro |
1989 |
| Rosenberg |
Henry Wertheimer |
|
| San Saba |
Harry Shapiro |
|
| Schulenberg |
Michael C. Levey |
Born in France Jan 15 1836, was the third mayor of
Schulenburg, elected in 1883. He served as postmaster in Moulton and in 1862
Enlisted in the Confederate Army as a member of Dashiell's battery of light
Artillery and served to the end of the war. Levey served three terms as
Mayor (six years) from 1883 to 1889. He died in 1923. |
| |
Hirsh Schwartz |
Mayor of Schulenburg in 1964 and served until his
Death in 1981. Born 1909 in Schulenburg to Julius and Helen Straus Schwartz,
He was an attorney and banker. |
| Sherman |
William Levy |
|
| |
Jake Levy |
|
| Temple |
Augustus Lewy |
1880’s – later served as DA of San Antonio |
| Waco |
A.M. Goldstein |
|
| Wichita Falls |
Max Kruger |
|
| Ysleta |
I. Berg |
|
Virginia
| Alexandria |
Henry Strauss |
1886, 1891, 1893 |
| |
Lewis Stein |
1915 |
| |
Leroy Bendheim |
1957 |
| Danville |
Samuel Kushner |
|
| Falls Church |
Herman Funk |
|
| Harrisonburg |
Lawrence Loewner |
Late 1940’s |
| Newport News |
Harry Reyner |
|
| |
Joe Frank |
2005 |
| Richmond |
Solomon Jacobs |
1818-1819, acting mayor |
| Lynchburg |
|
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| Virginia Beach |
Meyera Ellenson Oberndorf |
1988-2008
recognized by Newsweek as one of the best mayors in America. |
| Winchester |
Charles Zuckerman |
1980’s |
165 mayors in 118 communities in the 12 states.
If you'd like to inform ISJL of an addition to this listing of mayors, please email us at information@isjl.org
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