Oregon’s Stellar Jewish Election Record from 1850 to 1920
Oregon’s first Jewish settlers arrived in 1849 and Oregon Jews quickly became the most politically active of any state west of the Mississippi River.
By 1877, when Oregon’s Jewish community numbered 868, Oregon’s Jews had already won thirty-seven elections.
In the same era, the 18,580 Jews in California won twenty-nine elections and the 1,500 Jews in Washington state won eight elections.
Oregon’s closest competitor in the west was Texas, where 3,300 Jews won thirty-three elections.
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Oregon recorded four nationwide Jewish electoral achievements.
The 1870 Oregon treasurer race between Louis Fleischner (1827-1896) and Maier Hirsch (1829-1876) was the first time two Jews competed for a statewide office.
Louis Fleischner
Solomon Hirsch
Portland elected Bernard Goldsmith (1832-1901) in 1869 and Philip Wasserman (1828-1895) in 1871 as the first consecutive Jewish mayors of any American city.
Bernard Goldsmith
Philip Wasserman
Edward Hirsch (1836-1901) served as Oregon treasurer in 1881-82 while his brother Solomon Hirsch (1839-1902) was Oregon senate president—the first time Jewish brothers held statewide offices at the same time.
Edward Hirsch
Portland’s Ben Selling (1852-1931) became the first, and very likely only, Jewish American elected to head both chambers of a state legislature—senate president in 1911-1912 and house Speaker in 1915-1916.
Source
- Mark Rutzik, Breaking New Ground: The Untold Story of Early America’s Jewish Electoral Pioneers – 1788 to 1920, 2025.
Mark Rutzick is the curator of this Jewish Officeholders exhibit.