Well off from a successful family. Well educated. Elevated from a lesser statewide office, succeeding a Governor with presidential ambition. A liberal committed to political reform, slashing taxes, curbing big business and protecting working people. And Jewish. What more could New York want in a Governor? Maybe not the Jewish part, as the description above is that of Herbert Lehman, Governor of New York from 1933-1942, after whom more than sixty years would pass before the election of the next Jewish Governor, Eliot Spitzer.

Why so long? Lehman was able to ride a wave of immigration that brought so many Jews to New York at the turn of the century, although his upbringing was more Upper than Lower East Side. Also riding that wave were New York's other long serving statewide figures Arthur Levitt and Louis Lefkowitz, and later Jacob Javits. But none emerged to be Governor.

Was it was the dissipation of the Diaspora, Jewish association with New York City during a much more severe upstate/downstate split, or just the luck of the draw? Perhaps a Jewish candidate needed to be extraordinary to overcome historical anti-Semitism and subsequent candidates were merely good. Or perhaps it was the opposite: with anti-Semitism on the wane, there were many more fields in which Jews could aspire to success. Certainly luck played a part, but New York City did not elect a Jewish Mayor until 1973 in Abraham Beame. (I recall some Jews were reluctant to support Beame for fear that all Jews would be blamed if he failed as Mayor; that didn't stop them from voting for Ed Koch four years later).

Lehman's career turned from domestic issues to international as he headed up several key refugee relief organizations during and after WWII and as a United States Senator. But after leaving public office, he proved that all politics is local by working with Eleanor Roosevelt to break the political bosses. He may not have been able to change the political culture Day 1, but a long memory and independence eventually paid off. One can certainly hear Eliot Spitzer echo Lehman's words, "I must respect the opinions of others even if I disagree with them." Just before he reminds them of what happened to Lehman's foes.