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

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.

Born Florence Prag in Salt Lake City to Polish-Jewish immigrant parents, her family moved to San Francisco in 1869 where she attended public schools, eventually graduating from the San Francisco Girls' High School in 1883 before receiving an A.B. from the University of California, Berkeley in 1887. Following graduation, she taught for more than a decade at Lowell High School in San Francisco. In 1899, she married Julius Kahn, a former Broadway actor, state legislator, and, at the time, a first-term U.S. Representative from San Francisco. For the next quarter century, Florence Kahn helped her husband manage his congressional workload. She acted as his aide and confidante in addition to writing articles for the San Francisco Chronicle.

Following her husband's death after his election to a thirteenth term in Congress, local Republican Party leaders asked Kahn to run for the vacant seat. Winning the special election, she became the first woman to sit on the House Military Affairs Committee as well as the influential Appropriations Committee during her time in Congress. Despite passionately believing that women should actively participate in politics, she never considered herself a feminist. After easily winning re-election four times, electoral shifts in her district ultimately brought Kahn's House career to an end. After a narrow victory in 1934, Franklin Roosevelt's 1936 re-election landslide swept Democrats into Congress, Kahn losing her final House race by nearly 20 points.

In 1937 Kahn retired to San Francisco, and her Nob Hill home was a gathering place for the city’s political elite. During the 1939 Golden Gate Exposition, she was named one of the 12 outstanding women in the state’s history. She remained active in civic affairs after she left Congress as a member of the National Council of Jewish Women and co-chair of the northern California chapter of the American Women’s Voluntary Service, a World War II citizen’s organization. Kahn continued her efforts to involve women in the political process and to assert their rights as citizens.