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Senate Years of Service: 1957-1981 Party: Republican
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JAVITS, Jacob Koppel, a Representative and a Senator from New York; born in New York City, May 18,
1904; attended the public schools; traveling salesman; attended night classes at Columbia University;
graduated from the New York University Law School in 1926; admitted to the bar in 1927 and
commenced practice in New York City; lecturer and author of articles on political and economic
problems; during the Second World War, served with the Chemical Warfare Service 1941-1944,
with overseas service in the European and Pacific Theaters; discharged as a lieutenant colonel in 1945;
resumed the practice of law; elected as a Republican to the Eightieth and to the three succeeding
Congresses and served from January 3, 1947, until his resignation December 31, 1954; had been
renominated in 1954 to the Eighty-fourth Congress but withdrew; attorney general of New York
1954-1957; elected as a Republican to the United States Senate in 1956 for the term commencing
January 3, 1957, but did not assume his duties until January 9, 1957; reelected in 1962, 1968, and
again in 1974, and served from January 9, 1957, to January 3, 1981; unsuccessful Republican
candidate for renomination in 1980; unsuccessful Liberal candidate for election to the United States
Senate in 1980; resumed the practice of law; adjunct professor of public affairs at Columbia
Universitys School of International Affairs; author; awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom on
February 23, 1983; died in West Palm Beach, Florida, on March 7, 1986; interment in Linden Hill
Cemetery, Queens, New York City.
BibliographyAmerican National Biography; Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives; Javits, Jacob, and Steinberg, Rafael. Javits: The Autobiography of a Public Man. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1981.
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