Louis J. Lefkowitz (July 3, 1904 – June 20, 1996) was an American lawyer and politician. He served as the Attorney General of

New York State New York, officially the State of New York, is a state in the Northeastern United States. It is often called New York State to distinguish it from its largest city, New York City. With a total area of , New York is the 27th-largest U.S. stat ...

for 22 years. He was a Republican.

Early life and education

Lefkowitz was born to a Jewish family in

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

, the son of Samuel Lefkowitz and Mollie (Isaacs) Lefkowitz, and brother of Leo Lefkowitz and Helen (Lefkowitz) Schlesinger.Ferretti, Fred
"The Last of the Street Politicians"
''The New York Times'', January 21, 1979. He attended P.S. 188 and then The High School of Commerce in New York City and graduated at the age of 16 in 1921.Goodman, George, Jr.

''The New York Times'', December 15, 1973 He didn't attend college after high school but worked full-time as a law clerk and served summonses. While still working full-time, he went on to study law in the evening division of Fordham Law School In New York City beginning in 1922.Cooper, Robert H., Jr
"ORAL HISTORY: Louis Lefkowitz"
Fordham University School of Law, March 3, 1989. Lefkowitz graduated from Fordham Law School in 1925.

Political career

Lefkowitz was a member of the New York State Assembly (New York Co., 6th D.) in

1928 Events January * January – British bacteriologist Frederick Griffith reports the results of Griffith's experiment, indirectly proving the existence of DNA. * January 1 – Eastern Bloc emigration and defection: Boris Bazhan ...

1929 This year marked the end of a period known in American history as the Roaring Twenties after the Wall Street Crash of 1929 ushered in a worldwide Great Depression. In the Americas, an agreement was brokered to end the Cristero War, a Catholic ...

and

1930 Events January * January 15 – The Moon moves into its nearest point to Earth, called perigee, at the same time as its fullest phase of the Lunar Cycle. This is the closest moon distance at in recent history, and the next one will b ...

. In 1935, he became a municipal judge. In 1957, Lefkowitz was elected by the

New York State Legislature The New York State Legislature consists of the two houses that act as the state legislature of the U.S. state of New York: The New York State Senate and the New York State Assembly. The Constitution of New York does not designate an officia ...

New York Attorney General The attorney general of New York is the chief legal officer of the U.S. state of New York and head of the Department of Law of the state government. The office has been in existence in some form since 1626, under the Dutch colonial government o ...

, to succeed Jacob K. Javits, who resigned after being elected to the

U.S. Senate The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and pow ...

the previous year. Lefkowitz was re-elected in

1958 Events January * January 1 – The European Economic Community (EEC) comes into being. * January 3 – The West Indies Federation is formed. * January 4 ** Edmund Hillary's Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition completes the third ...

1962 Events January * January 1 – Western Samoa becomes independent from New Zealand. * January 3 – Pope John XXIII excommunicates Fidel Castro for preaching communism. * January 8 – Harmelen train disaster: 93 die in the wor ...

, 1966,

1970 Events January * January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC. * January 5 – The 7.1 Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (''Extreme''). Between 10,000 and ...

and 1974, holding the office for 22 years, the longest tenure since the office was established in 1777. In

1961 Events January * January 3 ** United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower announces that the United States has severed diplomatic and consular relations with Cuba (Cuba–United States relations are restored in 2015). ** Aero Flight 311 (K ...

, he was the Republican candidate for Mayor of New York City. He lost to the then sitting mayor, Democrat

Robert F. Wagner Jr. Robert Ferdinand Wagner II (April 20, 1910 – February 12, 1991) was an American politician who served three terms as the mayor of New York City from 1954 through 1965. When running for his third term, he broke with the Tammany Hall leadership ...

Lefkowitz was a delegate to the

1944 Events Below, the events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix. January * January 2 – WWII: ** Free French General Jean de Lattre de Tassigny is appointed to command French Army B, part of the Sixth United States Army Group in Nor ...

, 1948,

1960 It is also known as the "Year of Africa" because of major events—particularly the independence of seventeen African nations—that focused global attention on the continent and intensified feelings of Pan-Africanism. Events January * Jan ...

, and 1964 Republican National Conventions, and an alternate delegate to the

1956 Republican National Convention The 1956 Republican National Convention was held by the Republican Party of the United States at the Cow Palace in San Francisco, California, from August 20 to August 23, 1956. U.S. Senator William F. Knowland was temporary chairman and forme ...

. He was a moderate or even liberal Republican and part of the Thomas E. Dewey and Nelson A. Rockefeller faction of the New York Republican Party. Lefkowitz died from

Parkinson's disease Parkinson's disease (PD), or simply Parkinson's, is a long-term degenerative disorder of the central nervous system that mainly affects the motor system. The symptoms usually emerge slowly, and as the disease worsens, non-motor symptoms becom ...

at his home in

. The Louis J. Lefkowitz State Office Building at 80 Centre Street in the

Civic Center A civic center or civic centre is a prominent land area within a community that is constructed to be its focal point or center. It usually contains one or more dominant public buildings, which may also include a government building. Recently, the ...

district of Manhattan was named for him."Louis J. Lekfowitz State Office Building"
on the New York City Department of Citywide Administrative Services website

Personal life

On June 14, 1931, he married Helen Schwimmer (1908–1986). They had a son, Stephen Lefkowitz, a lawyer and professor of Law, and a daughter, Joan Lefkowitz Feinbloom.

References

Notes

External links

(obituary), ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'', June 21, 1996
"MRS. LOUIS J. LEFKOWITZ"
(Helen Lefkowitz obituary), ''

'', March 19, 1986 {{DEFAULTSORT:Lefkowitz, Louis J 1904 births 1996 deaths Neurological disease deaths in New York (state) Deaths from Parkinson's disease Jewish American state legislators in New York (state) Republican Party members of the New York State Assembly New York State Attorneys General Politicians from Manhattan 20th-century American politicians 20th-century American Jews