Jacobstein, Meyer, 1880-1963

Meyer Jacobstein (January 25, 1880 – April 18, 1963) was an American academic and politician. A member of the Democratic Party, he represented New York's 38th congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives between 1923 and 1929.

Born on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, his family moved to Syracuse, New York in 1881 and Rochester, New York a year later. After attending public schools in Rochester, New York, he attended the University of Rochester and graduated from Columbia University in 1904. Jacobstein pursued postgraduate courses at the same university in economics and political science and became a special agent in the Bureau of Corporations and Department of Commerce in Washington, D.C., in 1907. Between 1909 and 1913, he worked as an assistant professor of economics at the University of North Dakota at Grand Forks and, one year later, became professor of economics in the University of Rochester. Jacobstein was a director in emergency employment management at the University of Rochester under the auspices of the War Industry Board from 1916 to 1918.

Jacobstein was elected as a Democrat to the Sixty-eighth, Sixty-ninth, and Seventieth Congresses (March 4, 1923 – March 3, 1929); he was not a candidate for renomination in 1928. While in Congress, Jacobstein declined the nomination of mayor of Rochester in 1925. He served as a delegate to the Democratic National Conventions in 1924 and 1932. Jacobstein's political career is notable for his staunch opposition to the Immigration Act of 1924.

After leaving Congress, Jacobstein engaged in banking in Rochester, N.Y., from 1929 to 1936 and in 1936 became chairman of the board of the Rochester Business Institute. He was a member of the Brookings Institution staff from 1939 to 1946 and economic counsel in the legislative reference service of the Library of Congress from 1947 until his retirement May 31, 1952. Jacobstein resided in Rochester, N.Y., until his death there on April 18, 1963 and was laid to rest at Mount Hope Cemetery.