Jonah J. Goldstein, 1886-1967

Jonah Jamison Goldstein was born April 6, 1886 in Ontario, Canada to Abraham Getzel and Chaia (Jamison) Goldstein. His family moved to Madison Street on New York’s Lower East Side in 1891. Between 1905 and 1910, young Goldstein became a leader in the Educational Alliance, Jewish Big Brother Movement and East Side Neighborhood Association. In 1907, Goldstein graduated New York University Law School and started a law office with a brother and other lawyers. Goldstein claims that his law firm was one of the first in New York City to extend employment to African-American lawyers in 1919 and female lawyers in 1921.

In 1931, Goldstein was appointed to the bench of the New York City Magistrates’ Court. While in that position, he authored The Family in Court (1936), which advocated for the extraction of domestic relations cases from the criminal court system. In 1939, he was elected Judge of the New York County Court of General Sessions and would be the judge presiding over the controversial Morris U. Schappes case of 1941. During his tenure as judge, he successfully pushed for reforms in the city court’s handling of domestic relations, women and youthful offenders. After his 1956 retirement from the Court of General Sessions, he remained active in legal affairs, for example, by pressing for shifts in drug law reform in New York State.

Judge Goldstein ran for New York City Mayor in 1945 on the Republican-Liberal-City Fusion ticket, losing to William O’Dwyer.

Goldstein was actively involved in such organizations as the Grand Street Boys’ Association, Federation of Jewish Philanthropies of New York, New York Jewish Committee of the Boy Scouts of America, Jewish Education Association and University Settlement.

In 1920, Goldstein married Harriet B. Lowenstein, who was a lawyer, advisor to Felix Warburg, and comptroller of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee. Harriet Goldstein died in 1961 and Jonah six years later in July 1967.

References

American Jewish Yearbook (Necrology, p. 608), 1968. Accessed August 2, 2010: http://www.ajcarchives.org/AJC_DATA/Files/1968_15_DirectoriesLists.pdf

Biographical Materials, 1940-1967 ; Jonah J. Goldstein Papers; P-61; Box 1; Folder 2; American Jewish Historical Society, Boston, MA and New York, NY.

From the guide to the Jonah J. Goldstein Papers, [1890]-1967 (bulk 1931-1966), (American Jewish Historical Society)