`Rags to
Riehes"--Abrahaess
By HENRY W. LEVY
(Copyright 1974, JTA, Inc.)
NEW YORK — New York
has its first Jewish mayor—
Abraham David Beanie—and
he's a real Jew, a member
of an Orthodox synagogue
who refused to campaign on
Shabat.
Winning t h e Democratic
primary runoff against Con-
gressman Herman Badillo,
Beame as the favorite in a
four-cornered election accom-
plished last November what
six other Jews — and he him-
self — had failed to do. He
moved into Gracie Mansion
Jan. 1, succeeding John V.
Lindsay.
path to the New York
Ti.
ralty of an East Side
boy, who came to this coun-
try as a 3-month-old infant
some 60 years ago, is in the
typical Horatio Alger "rags
to riches" success story, that
was so much of our children's
paperback reading 50 years
ago.
From a cold water flat in
New York's East Side ghetto,
public schools, graduating
from P.S. 160 at Suffolk and
Rivington Sts., the High
School of Commerce, and the
then university of the poor,
New York's City College.
For his recreation and so-
cial life, he was a regular at
t h e University Settlement
House, where he met Mary
Ingerman, who he married
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Friday, January 4, 1974-23
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,Ifientsteas Tale on Reaching
in 1928 after a seven-year
courtship.
To start their new life, the
young couple moved to
Brooklyn, where they have
lived ever s i n.c e . With a
brand new bachelor of busi-
ness administration degree,
cum laude, Beame continued
his accountancy partnership,
which he had entered into on
a part-time basis three years
earlier while still in college.
It is Beame, the accountant
the fiscal expert, who will be
the best trained mayor in the
history of the city. He has
spent more than 40 years in
the city's service, 15 years as
a teacher of accounting in the
city's high schools, and at
Rutgers University, and 20
years in the fiscal office of
the city, seven years as as-
sistant budget director, nine
years as budget director and
eight years as city comp-
troller=
As with any man in public
life, there were those who
are pro-Beame and those op-
posed to him, but never,
throughout his entire career
and in the campaign with the
usual ugly overtones of parti-
san politics, has there been
an accusation against his in-
tegrity, his honesty.
Similarly, there has been
unanimous agreement about
his intellect; he passed his
state regents exam in book-
keeping with 100, the only
NIT
illnyoralty
one in the class with a per- Under the Stars," which dillo were on the Beame side.
feet' mark.
raised over $100,000 for the It has been estimated that
Beanie, the third son of support of cultural programs 70 to 80 per cent of the Jew-
Israel.
ish vote went to Beanie
Polish-Jewish parents, w a s
Polish-Jewish
born with the family name Abe Beame has always In the largest Jewish corn-
of Birnbaum which was been a devoted Jew. With his munity of the world, with its
legally changed to Beanie friend and colleague, the late almost 2,000,000 Jews, corn-
when he was 6 years old. He Borough President Abe Stark, prising over 20 per cent of
first saw the light of day in he has been in the forefront the population, seven Jews
London on March 20, 1906 in in Brooklyn. He has been ac- have previously r u n f o r
the home of his aunt, while in Brooklyn. e has been a‘:- mayor including a congress-
his mother was enroute to tive as a trustee of the Fed- man, Edward Einstein, Mor-
the U.S. She died six years eration of Jewish Philanthro- ris Hilquit, a socialist; Judge
later. His father, an old-line pies; he has similarly served Jonah G. Goldstein, a life-
socialist, remarried. Beame the Zionist Organization of long Democrat; a Republi-
has two sons, Bernard, who America, the Brooklyn Jew- can, Harold Riegelman;
ran his campaign, and Ed- ish Community Council, Bnai Reform-Liberal, Rudolph
mond, a professor of history, Brith Hillel and ADL, the Halley and Republican State
at a Canadian university. Brooklyn Hebrew Home and toAttorney-General Louis Lef-
Although he was never ,a Hospital for the Aged, and kowitz.
socialist, Beame always con- Israel Bonds, among others.
In 1965, Beanie, then the
sidered himself in the liberal
But dearest to his heart,
tradition, though in the cur- over the years, has been his Lindsay_
rent mayoralty campaign he congregation the Yeshiva of
Jews, however, have served
was labeled a moderate.Crown Heights. He has al-
In the early days, Beame's ways believed in yeshiva as acting mayor for brief
father ran a restaurant, in education, -and in the past 25 intervals: Jonas N. Phillips,
which Abe and his brothers years he has helped that con- president of the city council
worked before and a f ter, gregation and school weather in 1857, and Adolf Sanger,
school. Later his father went many difficult periods. He president of the board of
to work as a paper-cutter also helped the Lubavitcher aldermen , in 1886.
The only Jew who it is
foreman in a stationery fac- Yeshiva and the Haym Salo-
generally believed could have
tory, where Abe .was to hold. mon Home for the Aged.
his first real job.
Beanie won the Democratic been mayor of New York was
I got to know Abe Beanie mayoralty nomination in a Nathan Straus, the beloved
intimately during my years four-cornered race in which philanthropist ; who was nom-
with the American-Israel Cul- there were unfortunate man- mated by the Democrats in
ture Foundation, an organiza- ifestations of racism. The re- 1884 in an effort to clean up
tion to which he has long sults showed that the middle the Tammany image , but who
been devoted. One year, he class went along with Beame, refused to run.
Thus, although Herbert
was the chairman of its an- and that many Jews who or-
nual Madison - Square Garden dinarily would have sup. Lehman was both governor
fund-raising event, "Music ported the more radical Ba . and senator from New York,
and Jacob K. Javits is cur-
rently a senator, and there
have been a number of Jew-
ish chief justices of the New
York State Court of Appeals,
including a new one who was
elected in 1973, Charles D.
Breitel; seven presidents of
the borough of Manhattan
beginning with Jacob Cantor
in 1901, innumerable con-
gressmen and judges, there
has never been a Jewish
m ayor.
It is particularly strange
in that there have been Jew-
ish mayors of many major
American communities —
among them Baltimore, New-
ark, Seattle, St. Paul, Cincin-
nati and Salt Lake City, to
name just a few.
Abe Beanie, a courageous
fighter, and - a conscientious
hard worker, is New York's
105th mayor, a post which,
next to the presidency, has
been called the second most
difficult job in the U.S.
THE BIG DAY IS DRAWING NEAR!
SUNDAY, JAN. 13, 1974 at 7:30 p.m.
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Latin Americans Get
Israel Scholarships
JERUSALEM — The OAS
(Organization of American
States) has just released fig-
ures showing that, during the
first half of the year, 131
scholarships were granted by
the OAS to Latin Americans
for training programs in Is-
rael—more than were given
for - any other country.
Spain ranks second, with
93, and the U. S. third, with
* 68.
I L.
Altogether, 379
scholar-
"IT ships were awarded, for train-
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outside the Western Hemi-
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Pursuing Justice
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The verse: "Justice, jus-
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