Everything about Louis B Marshall totally explained
Louis B. Marshall (
December 14,
1856 –
September 11,
1929) was a
corporate and
constitutional lawyer,
mediator and
Jewish community leader who worked to secure
religious,
political, and
cultural freedom for all
minority groups. He was among the founders of the
American Jewish Committee (AJC), defended Jewish and minority
rights and, though not a
Zionist, he supported the
Balfour Declaration. He was also a
conservationist, and helped found the
State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry.
Early life and education
Marshall was born to German-Jewish immigrants, Zilli Strauss and Jacob Marshall, who arrived in the US from Germany in
1849, at which time Zilli was self-educated and Jacob barely literate. From childhood, Marshall was both a scholar and a
linguist. He applied himself to studying
French,
German,
Latin,
Greek and
Hebrew. After completing his studies in
1877 at
Columbia Law school in half the usual time, he was admitted to the
New York State Bar Association in
1878 and joined the Syracuse law firm of William C. Ruger. Between then and
1894, he argued over 150 cases before the Court of Appeals and rose to prominence in the Syracuse Jewish community.
Career
In
1894, Marshall was recruited by
Samuel Untermeyer to join the law firm of Guggenheimer and Untermyer law firm in
New York City. After moving there, he became heavily involved in Jewish religious and political affairs. He also was involved in
alternative dispute resolution (ADR), acting as the
mediator in cloak-makers’ strike in New York City in
1910, and in
1919 was the
arbitrator in a clothing-workers’ strike.
In
1914, during a wave of anti-Semitic hysteria, he was part of the legal team representing
Leo Frank, a Jewish pencil factory manager convicted of raping and murdering a 14-year old girl. Marshall initiated an appeal of the case to the
United States Supreme Court.
Marshall was active in protecting the
human rights and
civil rights of Jews and on behalf of the
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and fought major legal battles on behalf of all minorities.
Political leader
Marshall was life-long
Republican, endorsed Republican candidates for election, and worked closely with Republican congressmen and state legislators.
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In
1906, Marshall helped found the American Jewish Committee, as a means for keeping watch over legislation and diplomacy relevant to American Jews, and to convey requests, information, and political threats to US government officials. Marshall eventually became the AJC’s primary strategist and lobbyist; after becoming its president in
1912; he held the post until his death. In this position, he opposed Congressional bills that would prevent many
illiterate Jews from entering the US. Despite a Presidential veto, one of the bills was enacted in
1917, after a Congressional override.
He was a strong advocate of abolishing the literacy test and said, "We are practically the only ones who are fighting [theliteracy test] while a 'great proportion' [ofthe people] is 'indifferent to what is done". Marshall was also the leader of the movement that led to the
abrogation, in
1911, of the US-Russian Commercial Treaty of
1832.
After
World War I, Marshall attended the
Paris Peace Conference in
1919, and helped formulate minority rights clauses for the constitutions of the newly created states of eastern
Europe.
He fought a proposal to have the
US Census Bureau enumerate Jews as a race.
Although he'd some differences with political Zionists, Marshall contributed to efforts that led to the establishment of
Israel as a Jewish homeland in
Palestine. He was instrumental in organizing the
Jewish Agency, which brought together Zionists and non-Zionists for the management of Jewish colonization efforts.
Religious leader
After serving as an officer for several years at
Congregation Emanu-El of the City of New York, a Reform congregation, he became its president in
1916. Marshall also became the chair of the
Jewish Theological Seminary of America, conservative Judaism’s
rabbinical school. Despite the implicit contradiction, to Marshall there was only one
Judaism.
Marshall also attempted to stop a newspaper owned by
Henry Ford, the
Dearborn Independent, from spreading
anti-Semitic propaganda.
(External Link) Marshall and Untermeyer entered the fight against the
libelous attacks featured in the paper in
1920, which led to a
1927 libel lawsuit against the automaker in federal court.
Immigration official
In
1902, Marshall was appointed chairman of a commission investigating the slum conditions on New York City’s Lower East Side, where many Jewish immigrants had settled. In
1909, he was appointed chairman of the Commission of Immigration of New York State.
Conservationist
Marshall spearheaded
conservation efforts to protect New York's
Adirondack Mountains and
Catskill Mountains, and at the
1894 New York state
constitutional convention, he helped establish the state's
forest preserve. He also led a floor fight in
1915 to protect the
forever wild clause of the New York State Constitution. For eighteen years after the founding of the
New York State College of Forestry (now the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry), Marshall served as president of its board of trustees. He was a leader in its founding, and the second building on its campus, the Louis Marshall Memorial Hall, was dedicated in his honor in
1933.
Family
In
1895, Marshall married Florence Lowenstein (d. 1916); two of their children,
Bob Marshall, and
George Marshall became noted conservationists. The sprawling
Bob Marshall Wilderness, comprising over a million acres (4000 km²) of pristine wilderness straddling the
continental divide in northwestern
Montana, is named after Marshall's son, who was director of the Forestry Division of the federal
Bureau of Indian Affairs, head of the
U.S. Forest Service Division of Recreation and Lands, and wrote several books and articles about wilderness protection.
Honors
Marshall Street, the anchor street of a major business district in Marshall's city of birth,
Syracuse, New York, is named in his honor.
P.S. 276, in Brooklyn, New York, is an elementary school also named in Louis Marshall's honor.
Louis Marshall's family continues to help out local communities and take interest in politics. Through the Marshall Foundation, the Marshall's helped countless Phoenix children.
Further Information
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