Kahn, Florence P. (Florence Prag), 1866-1948

<p>Florence Prag Kahn (November 9, 1866 – November 16, 1948) was an American teacher and politician who in 1925 became the first Jewish woman to serve in the United States Congress. She was only the fifth woman to serve in Congress, and the second from California, after fellow San Franciscan Mae Nolan. Like Nolan, she took the seat in the House of Representatives left vacant by the death of her husband, Julius Kahn.</p>

<p>Kahn was born in Salt Lake City, Utah to Conrad and Mary Prag, Jewish Polish immigrants who befriended the Mormon leader Brigham Young, and sold supplies during the gold rush. Her family moved to San Francisco, California in 1869. She graduated from the San Francisco Girls' High School in 1883, and received an A.B. from the University of California, Berkeley in 1887. She taught high school English and History at Lowell High School. She married Julius Kahn 19 March 1899, who served in Congress until his death on December 18, 1924. She was his aide and, in parallel, she would write articles in the San Francisco Chronicle.</p>

<p>Florence Kahn was elected as a Republican to the 69th Congress, by special election, to fill the vacancy caused by the death of her husband, who had just been re-elected to a 13th term. She was reelected to the 70th, 71st, 72nd, 73rd, and 74th Congresses, serving from December 7, 1925 to January 3, 1937. She replaced her husband and became the first woman on the House Military Affairs Committee.</p>

<p>Succeeding her husband, Florence P. Kahn used charisma and humor to carve out her own political accomplishments as a California Representative. Going well beyond her husband’s service on the Hill, Kahn quickly earned the respect of her colleagues; according to one contemporary observer, “Congress treats her like a man, fears her, admires her, and listens to her.” Kahn used her successful career as an example of why the Republican leadership should encourage women to participate in party politics.</p>

<p>Florence Prag was born in Salt Lake City, Utah, on November 9, 1866. The daughter of Polish-Jewish immigrants Conrad and Mary Goldsmith Prag, Florence and her family relocated to San Francisco when her father’s business failed. Mary Prag served as an important influence on her daughter. As one of the first Jewish members of the San Francisco board of education, Mary Prag formed political connections with the city’s most prominent leaders—these ties invariably assisted her daughter in her future congressional career. After graduating from Girls’ High School in 1883, Florence enrolled in the University of California at Berkeley, where she graduated with an AB in 1887. Unable to pursue a law degree because she needed to help support her family, Florence Prag taught for more than a decade at Lowell High School in San Francisco. On March 19, 1899, she married Julius Kahn, a former Broadway actor, state legislator, and, at the time, a first-term U.S. Representative from San Francisco. The couple had two sons, Julius Jr. and Conrad.</p>

<p>For the next quarter century, Florence Kahn helped her husband manage his congressional workload. She acted as his aide and confidante, increasingly so as he fought a long illness late in his career while serving as chairman of the Committee on Military Affairs. Julius Kahn was re-elected in 1924 to the 69th Congress (1925–1927) but died on December 18, 1924. Local Republican Party leaders asked his widow to run for the vacant seat. Steeped in a tradition in which Jewish politicians from San Francisco typically aligned with the GOP, Kahn accepted the invitation to enter the special election because she felt she had already “carried on the work alone” during her husband’s prolonged sickness. As she noted, “I feel that through a sense of obligation and duty to my late husband I should accept the responsibility of continuing his work for the people of his district.” Kahn won the special election on February 17, 1925, for the San Francisco district, earning 48 percent of the vote against three opponents: Raymond Burr, H. W. Hutton, and Henry Claude Huck. At age 58, she became the first Jewish woman elected to Congress, and was re-elected with little opposition five times.</p>