Herbert H. Lehman

Herbert Henry Lehman (March 28, 1878 – December 5, 1963) was an American investment banker and Democratic politician who served as the 45th Governor of New York from 1933 to 1942 and as a United States Senator from New York from 1949 to 1957. Born in New York City to German-Jewish immigrant parents who founded the Lehman Brothers banking firm, he graduated from Williams College in 1899 and joined the family business in 1906, rising to partner. Lehman's political career began in the 1920s through association with Al Smith and Franklin D. Roosevelt; he was elected Lieutenant Governor in 1928, serving until 1932, then succeeded Roosevelt as governor, winning four terms by implementing state-level social welfare programs dubbed the "Little New Deal" to address unemployment and economic hardship during the Great Depression. In 1943, he resigned the governorship to direct the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA), coordinating postwar aid to war-torn Europe and Asia until 1946. As senator, Lehman supported Truman's Fair Deal, advanced civil liberties legislation, and criticized Senator Joseph McCarthy's tactics, contributing to the latter's censure. A philanthropist and advocate for Jewish causes, he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1963 for his public service.

The Lehman family adhered to Reform Judaism and traced its roots to German-Jewish immigrants; Babette Newgass, born around 1836, came from a similar Bavarian background and outlived her husband until 1919. Herbert was the youngest of Mayer and Babette's eight children, which included siblings Sigmund (1859–1930), Pauline, Harriet, Lisette (1864–?), Clara (who died in 1932), Irving, and Arthur. Raised in an affluent Manhattan household amid the firm's transition from commodities trading to investment banking, Lehman grew up in financial security, reflecting the upward mobility of mid-19th-century German-Jewish immigrant entrepreneurs in New York.

Herbert H. Lehman married Edith Louise Altschul on April 28, 1910, in New York City. The couple met at a picnic organized by mutual friends, and Edith, born December 8, 1889, in San Francisco to a prominent Jewish family, was the sister of investment banker Frank Altschul. She had spent much of her early life in California, engaging in outdoor activities such as swimming and horseback riding before relocating to New York.

The Lehmans had three children: son Peter, born in 1917; daughter Hilda, born in 1921; and son John. Edith Lehman prioritized family as her central focus, viewing marriage and child-rearing as her primary vocation while supporting her husband's political career through volunteer efforts in social welfare and Jewish community organizations, including co-founding the Henry Street Settlement's lay advisory committee in 1917. She remained actively involved in family matters and philanthropy into her later years, traveling with relatives such as her brother Frank and visiting grandchildren abroad. The family resided primarily in New York, maintaining close ties to the Lehman banking legacy through Herbert's partnerships.