Jacob Javits

From Grokipedia

Jacob Koppel Javits (May 18, 1904 – March 7, 1986) was an American lawyer and Republican politician from New York who served as U.S. Representative for the state's 21st congressional district from 1947 to 1956, state attorney general from 1955 to 1956, and U.S. Senator from 1957 to 1981. Born to Jewish immigrant parents in a Lower East Side tenement, Javits attended public schools and New York University School of Law at night while working as a traveling salesman; he later served as a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army during World War II. A self-described "Lincolnian" Republican known for his energetic work ethic and bipartisan collaboration, Javits advanced liberal-leaning policies on social issues within his party, including key contributions to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Act of 1965, as well as authorship of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 establishing federal protections for private pensions.

In brief

Jacob Koppel Javits grew up on the Lower East Side, the son of Jewish immigrants, and treated the law as a way out and a way back — out of poverty, back into the city’s public business. He became New York’s attorney general, then a senator who lasted long enough to become furniture in the chamber and still surprise people.

He supported the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act from the Republican side of the aisle, a reminder that those bills were built with a broader coalition than later memory admits. He also helped write the War Powers Resolution, an attempt to put a leash on undeclared war.

He lost a primary late, got sick, and kept working. The Javits Center in New York is the name most tourists know. The record is the better monument.

A Jewish kid from Orchard Street became a national legislator without dropping the city from his voice. The accomplishment is statutes, not a brand.