Jacob Koppel "Jack" Javits (May 18, 1904 – March 7, 1986) was a Jewish-American politician who served as United States Senator from New York from 1957 to 1981. A moderate Republican, he was originally allied with Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller, fellow U.S. Senators Irving Ives and Kenneth Keating, and New York City Mayor John V. Lindsay.
The son of Morris Javits, a janitor, and Ida Littman, Javits grew up in a teeming Lower East Side tenement, an...
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Jacob Koppel "Jack" Javits (May 18, 1904 – March 7, 1986) was a Jewish-American politician who served as United States Senator from New York from 1957 to 1981. A moderate Republican, he was originally allied with Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller, fellow U.S. Senators Irving Ives and Kenneth Keating, and New York City Mayor John V. Lindsay.
The son of Morris Javits, a janitor, and Ida Littman, Javits grew up in a teeming Lower East Side tenement, and when not in school he helped his mother hawk dry goods from a pushcart in the street. Javits graduated in 1920 from George Washington High School, where he was president of his class. He worked part-time at various jobs while attending night school at Columbia University, then in 1923 he enrolled in the New York University Law School, from which he earned his J.D. in 1926. He was admitted to the bar in June 1927 and joined his brother Benjamin Javits, who was nearly ten years older, as partner to form the Javits and Javits law firm. The...
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