Harry Emerson Lewis (March 16, 1880 – August 23, 1948) was a Jewish-American lawyer and judge from New York.
Life
Lewis was born on March 16, 1880 in
New York City, New York
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
, the son of Leopold J. Lewis and Emma Lowenthal.
Lewis began working as a clerk for the Kings County District Attorney's office when he was 16. After graduating from the
Boys High School
Single-sex education, also known as single-gender education and gender-isolated education, is the practice of conducting education with male and female students attending separate classes, perhaps in separate buildings or schools. The practice of ...
in
Brooklyn
Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...
, he began to study law in the law office of
Foster L. Backus. He was admitted to the bar in 1901, and continued working for Backus for the next five years, partly as a law partner. In 1906, he became a law partner with his brother Oscar A. Lewis in Brooklyn, working with him for the next nine years.
Lewis served as the legal advisor for the
Republican Party in Brooklyn. In 1915, Governor
Whitman appointed him County Judge of Kings County; he was previously elected to be a delegate to the
1915 New York Constitutional Convention, but he was replaced as a delegate upon his appointment as judge. He lost the election for the office later that year to
Mitchell May
Mitchell May (July 10, 1870 – March 24, 1961) was an American lawyer and politician from New York. From 1899 to 1901, he served one term in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Life
He attended the public schools and Brooklyn Polytechnic Inst ...
. In April 1916, he was appointed
Brooklyn District Attorney
The Kings County District Attorney's Office, also known as the Brooklyn District Attorney's Office, is the district attorney's office for Kings County, coterminous with the Borough of Brooklyn, in New York City. The office is responsible for the ...
. He was elected to the office later that year and was re-elected in 1921. As district attorney, he disclosed police wire-tapping facilities were being used in an investigation for the Catholic Charities, which resulted in the indictment of the commissioner of charities and the attorney of the investigating body. In 1919, he investigated and indicted the people responsible for the
Malbone Street wreck
The Malbone Street wreck, also known as the Brighton Beach Line accident, was a rapid transit railroad accident that occurred on November 1, 1918, on the New York City Subway's BMT Brighton Line (now part of the BMT Franklin Avenue Line) in the ...
and convicted the bandits Chapman and Hanby.
In 1921, Lewis was elected as a Republican to the
New York Supreme Court, Second District. He started serving as Justice in 1922.
He served as a member of the Appellate Term of the Supreme Court in 1929. In 1931, Governor
Franklin Roosevelt appointed him to preside in a special Supreme Court session for cases involving bank scandals in Manhattan and Brooklyn. In 1935, he was re-elected for a second term to the Supreme Court with a joint nomination from the two major political parties. He was elected a delegate-at-large to the
1938 New York Constitutional Convention, where he was chairman of the Bill of Rights Committee, proposed wire-tapping be made legal by court order (which was objected at the time), and instrumented a civil rights section to the State Constitution that guaranteed no one could be discriminated regardless of race or creed.
In 1943, Lewis was named to the
Appellate Division, Second Department. In 1946, Governor
Dewey appointed him Presiding Justice of the Court. As Justice, Lewis favored capital punishment, life imprisonment for habitual offenses, and a simplification of the laws. He was still serving as Presiding Justice when he died.
Lewis was a trustee of the
Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences
The Brooklyn Museum is an art museum located in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. At , the museum is New York City's second largest and contains an art collection with around 1.5 million objects. Located near the Prospect Heights, Crown H ...
, vice-president of the
Jewish Hospital of Brooklyn
The Brooklyn Jewish Hospital and Medical Center was an academic, sectarian hospital in Crown Heights and Prospect Heights in Central Brooklyn. It merged with St. John's Episcopal Hospital to form Interfaith Medical Center in 1983.
History
Ear ...
, and a director of the
Federation of Jewish Philanthropies
UJA-Federation of New York (United Jewish Appeal – Federation of Jewish Philanthropies of New York, Inc.) is the largest local philanthropy in the world. Headquartered in New York City, the organization raises and allocates funds annuall ...
. He was a member of the
American Bar Association
The American Bar Association (ABA) is a voluntary bar association of lawyers and law students, which is not specific to any jurisdiction in the United States. Founded in 1878, the ABA's most important stated activities are the setting of aca ...
, the
New York State Bar Association
The New York State Bar Association (NYSBA) is a voluntary bar association for the state of New York. The mission of the association is to cultivate the science of jurisprudence; promote reform in the law; facilitate the administration of justic ...
, the Brooklyn Bar Association, the
Montauk Club, and the
Inwood Country Club
Inwood Country Club is a private Golf, Tennis & Beach Club in Inwood, New York, located adjacent to Jamaica Bay and just southeast of John F. Kennedy International Airport.
Originally established as nine-hole course in 1901, it is one of the olde ...
. In 1906, he married Rose Nathan. Their daughter, Mrs. Barnett J. Nova, was the daughter-in-law of New York Supreme Court Justice Algernon I. Nova.
Lewis died of a heart attack while vacationing in the
Saranac Inn
The Saranac Inn was a large, luxurious hotel located on a peninsula at the northern end of the Upper Saranac Lake in the town of Santa Clara in the Adirondacks in New York State, United States. It was frequented by US Presidents Grover Cleveland ...
in
Upper Saranac on August 23, 1948.
After a funeral service in
Congregation Beth Elohim
Congregation Beth Elohim ( he, בֵּית אֱלֹהִים), also known as the Garfield Temple and the Eighth Avenue Temple, is a Reform Jewish congregation located at 274 Garfield Place and Eighth Avenue, in the Park Slope neighborhood of ...
, he was buried in
Mount Carmel Cemetery.
References
1880 births
1948 deaths
Boys High School (Brooklyn) alumni
Kings County District Attorneys
20th-century American lawyers
20th-century American judges
New York Supreme Court Justices
Jewish American attorneys
New York (state) Republicans
Burials in New York (state)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lewis, Harry E.