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JACK LESSENBERRY SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS

Metro Detroit sent two Jewish 
representatives to Congress in 2018. 

T

here’
s nothing new about Michigan 
having two Jewish members in 
Congress at the same time. As a mat-
ter of fact, that was always the case for almost 
a third of a century, from 1983 to 2015.
Except, as most people know, those were 
the brothers Levin, Carl in the U.S. Senate 
and his older brother Sandy in the House.
Carl got to Washington four years before 
Sandy, and Sandy stayed four years after his 
brother. Each of the Levins served 36 years 
— and retired from Congress undefeated.
Now, Michigan has two Jewish represen-
tatives in Congress again, and this time they 
are both freshman members of the House of 
Representatives: Andy Levin, succeeding his 
father in the Ninth Congressional District, 
which includes a chunk of both southern 
Oakland and Macomb counties, and Elissa 
Slotkin in the nearby, but not-quite adjacent 
Eighth District, which stretches from north 
Oakland County through Brighton and 
Howell to Lansing.
Not only is this the first time Michigan 
has had two new members of Congress who 
happen to be Jews, it is also the only time 
the state has had two Jewish members of the 
House at the same time.
Actually, Michigan might have had three 
Jewish freshmen in the House this year, had 
Republican Lena Epstein not lost her bid in 
the neighboring 11th District. That meant 
that Elissa Slotkin became the first Jewish 
woman to represent Michigan in Congress. 
And, in an interesting historical twist, this 
is the first time since 1885 that the state has 
had a Jewish congressperson not named 
Levin!
Surprisingly, records indicate Michigan 
has had only one other Jewish congress-
man in history — the rather amazing Julius 
Houseman, who was born in Bavaria, came 
to America at 19, became the first Jewish cit-
izen of Grand Rapids and made a fortune in 
lumber and real estate before being elected to 
Congress in 1882.
Houseman apparently didn’
t like 
Washington much; he served a single term, 
didn’
t run again and went back to the private 
sector.
Levin and Slotkin, however, clearly have 
longer political careers in mind. They’
ve 
both drawn a fair amount of national atten-
tion. Levin has become the third member 
of an impressive family dynasty. Slotkin has 
gotten even more attention; she defeated an 
incumbent GOP congressman in a district 
drawn to favor Republicans.
But with a new census next year, a com-
pletely new system of redistricting due to 
take effect and the state certain to lose a seat 
in Congress in three years, the question is — 
can both survive?
Both have hit the ground running. They 

drew important committee assignments, 
have the pleasure and power of serving in 
the majority, since Democrats won decisive 
control of the House the day they were elect-
ed, and each has a variety of diverse experi-
ences that may make them better equipped 
to lead than many newly minted members of 
Congress.
Interestingly, neither missed a single 
one of the first 123 roll call votes taken in 
Congress this session. 
A snapshot of where both stand now:

ANDY LEVIN
Andy Levin landed committee assignments 
that seemed tailor-made for his background 
and strengths — principally, the House 
Committee on Education and Labor, with 
a seat on the subcommittees for Higher 
Education and Workforce Development, and 
Health, Employment, Labor and Pensions. 
He also got a seat on the prestigious com-
mittee on Foreign Affairs. Within his first 
two months, Levin also introduced bills to 
require transparency in corporate political 
spending and to change the Internal Revenue 
Service tax code to provide equal dignity for 
same-sex as well as heterosexual married 
taxpayers.
Levin, now 58, insisted during his cam-
paign that he wasn’
t running to perpetuate a 
family dynasty — but to help reach his goals 
of “high-quality jobs with living wages, qual-
ity education for every child, and health care 
and a dignified retirement for all.
” 
Still, there was no doubt he didn’
t mind 
being known as the son of the beloved long-
time congressman and the nephew of the 
longest-serving and perhaps most popular 
U.S. senator from Michigan in history.
Andy Levin has indeed had a wide variety 
of both labor and entrepreneurial experience; 
his jobs have included stints working for the 
AFL-CIO in Washington, assisting immi-
grants with legal challenges and running the 
state of Michigan’
s No Worker Left Behind 
program in Gov. Jennifer Granholm’
s admin-
istration.
Later, he turned to the private sector and 
founded Levin Energy Partners LLC and cre-
ated Lean and Green Michigan, a statewide 
market to help convert older buildings to 
clean energy.
Though he’
s said he had a largely secular 
upbringing, Levin has served as president of 
Congregation T’
chiyah, a Reconstructionist 
synagogue in Oak Park.
But despite his name, he didn’
t have a 
guaranteed lock on the seat. Former State 
Rep. Ellen Lipton of Huntington Woods, also 
a graduate of Harvard Law School, won the 
endorsement of Emily’
s List and raised more 
than a million dollars.
He also faced a bare-bones, low-budget 

Capitol 
Newcomers

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in 
the

Andy Levin

Elissa Slotkin