Leading Jewish Nebraska Political Figures
Harry Zimman (1879-1936) was Omaha’s political prodigy in the early twentieth century.
At twenty-one, he won a three-year term on the city council and was re-elected twice.
In 1903, the council chose the twenty-four year old young man to be council president, which carried the duty of acting mayor.
When the city mayor suffered incapacitating illnesses, Zimman served as acting mayor from June 1904 to June 1905 and returned for another three months in 1906.
He returned to office in 1918, after the city adopted commission governance, to serve a four-year term as commissioner.
Mark Levy (1854-1936) was born in Germany, came to the U.S. in 1871, and relocated to Hastings, Nebraska, in 1885.
He introduced beet farming into that area, owned a clothing store, and later acquired farms in Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Texas.
Levy won election to the first of six terms on the Hastings city council in 1891 and served as council president in 1901-1902.
Carl Kramer (1845-1925) was born in Bavaria in 1845 and came to America in 1857.
He settled in Columbus, Nebraska, in 1879 and operated a general store, a newsstand, and coal supply.
He won the mayoral race for a one-year term in 1886, and won a county supervisor seat the following year.
Almost twenty years later, he returned to politics by winning a two-year term on the Columbus city council.
Kramer’s primary public passion was the Columbus school board, where he served for over forty years.
Carl Kramer
Benjamin Lowenthal (1855-1935), a clothing merchant, served as treasurer in Chadron, Nebraska in 1886-1887 and 1893-1894.
He was on the Dawes County board of commissioners in 1893-96 and was commission chairman in 1896.
Lowenthal won a two-year term as Chadron mayor in 1913-14. In 1935, his son Charles Loewenthal followed him as Chadron mayor.
Benjamin Goldsmith (1844-93) was elected to the West Point, Nebraska town commission and was chosen as its president in 1889.
Goldsmith served as a Nebraska state representative in 1893.
That same year he was also elected mayor of West Point.
Simon Fishman, previously noted as a Nebraska councilman, treasurer, and mayor, relocated to Kansas in 1923, served as a state representative in 1927-1928, and was elevated to the state senate in 1933-1937.
After a Nebraska career as a Republican, Fishman became a Democrat in Kansas.
Alexander Bear (1841-1924) was a medical doctor who served as a surgeon in the Confederate Army during the Civil War and then relocated to Norfolk (pronounced “Norfork), Nebraska.
In 1874 the Norfolk voters elected him to the state senate for 1875-1877 and in 1876 they elected him to the state house of representative for 1877-1879. He served as Norfolk mayor for 1896-1898.
Other state legislators
Edward Rosewater (1841-1906), Omaha, 1871-1873.
Edward Rosewater
Samuel Wolbach (1851-1931), Grand Island, representative, 1885-1887, senator, 1887-1891.
Jacob Klein (1848-1926), Beatrice, senator, 1909-1911, 1913-1915.
Edward Simon (1886-1922), Omaha, 1913-1915.
Martin Sugarman (1881-1928), Omaha, 1913-1915.
Other City Council Members
Israel Gluck (1841-1923), Columbus, 1881-1893, 1888-1890.
Louis Meyer (1841-1924), Lincoln, 1888-1890.
Leopold Weidenfeld (u.-1912), Broken Bow, 1889-1890.
Sol Prince (1852-1902), Omaha, 1892-1894, 1895-1897.
Frederick Sonnenschein (1853-1912), 1893-1894.
Albert Cahn (1818-1903), Omaha, 1894-1895.
Joseph Einstein (1861-1951), Arapahoe, 1909-1911.
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 Political Figures exhibit.