Changes

[[Columbia University]]<br>

[[Columbia University]]<br>

[[New York University]] School of Law

[[New York University]] School of Law

| spouse=Marjorie Joan Ringling (married 1933-1936, divorced)<br>

| spouse=Marjorie Joan Ringling (married 1933–1936, divorced)<br>

Marian Ann Borris Javits (married 1947-1986, his death)

Marian Ann Borris Javits (married 1947–1986, his death)

|children=From second marriage:<br>

|children=From second marriage:<br>

Joshua Javits<br>

Joshua Javits<br>

​

​

==Background==

==Background==

 

Javits was born to Morris Javits (1862–1919), a native of the [[Ukraine]] and a former Talmudic scholar. Morris earned his living as a janitor and worked as well for the New York [[Democratic Party|Democratic]] [[Tammany Hall]] political machine. His mother, of whom little information is available was the former  Ida Littman, a native of Palestine. Javits was reared in a tenement house on the Lower East Side of [[New York City]]. As a boy he helped his mother sell dry goods. He graduated as the senior class president of George Washington High School.  While attending [[Columbia University]], he worked part-time at various jobs. In 1923, at the age of nineteen, he enrolled in the [[New York University]] Law School, from which he earned his [[Juris Doctor]]ate three years later  in 1926. He and his brother, Benjamin Abraham "Jawetz" Javits (1894–1973), formed the Javits & Javits law firm, which handled bankruptcy cases and stock disputes. In 1933, Javits married Marjorie Joan Ringling (1911–1973), a [[Roman Catholic]] and the daughter of circus owner Alfred T. Ringling. The couple divorced after three years of marriage.<ref name=wpost>{{cite web|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1986/03/08/former-senator-jacob-javits-is-dead-at-81/f86e8a21-6461-431c-b766-f20dcc942401/|title=Former Senator Jacob Javits is Dead at 81|publisher=''[[Washington Post]]''|date=March 8, 1986|author=Richard Pearson|accessdate=May 24, 2020}}</ref>

Javits was born to Morris Javits (1862-1919), a native of the [[Ukraine]] and a former Talmudic scholar. Morris earned his living as a janitor and worked as well for the New York [[Democratic Party|Democratic]] [[Tammany Hall]] political machine. His mother, of whom little information is available was the former  Ida Littman, a native of Palestine. Javits was reared in a tenement house on the Lower East Side of [[New York City]]. As a boy he helped his mother sell dry goods. He graduated as the senior class president of George Washington High School.  While attending [[Columbia University]], he worked part-time at various jobs. In 1923, at the age of nineteen, he enrolled in the [[New York University]] Law School, from which he earned his [[Juris Doctor]]ate three years later  in 1926. He and his brother, Benjamin Abraham "Jawetz" Javits (1894-1973), formed the Javits & Javits law firm, which handled bankruptcy cases and stock disputes. In 1933, Javits married Marjorie Joan Ringling (1911-1973), a [[Roman Catholic]] and the daughter of circus owner Alfred T. Ringling. The couple divorced after three years of marriage.<ref name=wpost>{{cite web|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1986/03/08/former-senator-jacob-javits-is-dead-at-81/f86e8a21-6461-431c-b766-f20dcc942401/|title=Former Senator Jacob Javits is Dead at 81|publisher=''[[Washington Post]]''|date=March 8, 1986|author=Richard Pearson|accessdate=May 24, 2020}}</ref>

Considered too old for regular military service when [[World War II]] began, Javits was commissioned in early 1942, at the age of thirty-eight, as an officer in the [[United States Army]]'s Chemical Warfare Department. He rose to the rank of [[lieutenant colonel]].<ref name=nytobit/>​

Considered too old for regular military service when [[World War II]] began, Javits was commissioned in early 1942, at the age of thirty-eight, as an officer in the [[United States Army]]'s Chemical Warfare Department. He rose to the rank of [[lieutenant colonel]].<ref name=nytobit/>​

In 1947, he wed Marian Ann Borris (1925-2017), a former actress born in [[Detroit]],  [[Michigan]], with whom he had three children. She was a strong patron of public arts and influenced the establishment of the National Endowments for the Arts and Humanities. [[U.S. President]] [[Lyndon B. Johnson]] gave her the signing pen used in the enactment of the endowments.<ref name=nydn>{{cite web|url=https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/marian-javits-longtime-champion-public-arts-dies-92-article-1.2985755|title=Marian Javits, longtime champion of public arts, dies at 92|publisher=''The New York Daily News''|date=March 1, 2017|author=Thomas Tracy and Rich Shapiro|accessdate=May 24, 2020}}</ref>

In 1947, he wed Marian Ann Borris (1925–2017), a former actress born in [[Detroit]],  [[Michigan]], with whom he had three children. She was a strong patron of public arts and influenced the establishment of the National Endowments for the Arts and Humanities. [[U.S. President]] [[Lyndon B. Johnson]] gave her the signing pen used in the enactment of the endowments.<ref name=nydn>{{cite web|url=https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/marian-javits-longtime-champion-public-arts-dies-92-article-1.2985755|title=Marian Javits, longtime champion of public arts, dies at 92|publisher=''The New York Daily News''|date=March 1, 2017|author=Thomas Tracy and Rich Shapiro|accessdate=May 24, 2020}}</ref>

==Career==

==Career==

Because of continued  corruption in Tammany Hall, Javits though a liberal joined the Republican-Fusion Party and supported colorful New York [[Mayor]] [[Fiorello La Guardia]], namesake of one of the city's airports. His liberalism tended to isolate him from his Republican colleagues. One scoring method found Javits to be the most liberal Republican to serve in either chamber of Congress between 1937 and 2002.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170526063634/https://legacy.voteview.com/Is_John_Kerry_A_Liberal.htm|author=Keith T. Poole|title=Is John Kerry a Liberal?|date=May 26, 2017|publisher=voteview.com|accessdate=May 25, 2020}}</ref>

Because of continued  corruption in Tammany Hall, Javits though a liberal joined the Republican-Fusion Party and supported colorful New York [[Mayor]] [[Fiorello La Guardia]], namesake of one of the city's airports. His liberalism tended to isolate him from his Republican colleagues. One scoring method found Javits to be the most liberal Republican to serve in either chamber of Congress between 1937 and 2002.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170526063634/https://legacy.voteview.com/Is_John_Kerry_A_Liberal.htm|author=Keith T. Poole|title=Is John Kerry a Liberal?|date=May 26, 2017|publisher=voteview.com|accessdate=May 25, 2020}}</ref>

In 1946, as part of the Republican wave that led to a GOP Congress for two years, Javits was elected to the [[United States House of Representatives]] for the New York 21st congressional district, then based in the Upper West Side but since redistricted. He left the House on January 3, 1955, to  become the attorney general of New York, a post he filled for only two years. In the attorney general's contest, he defeated the Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt, Jr. (1914-1988), son of the former president. Representative Javits supported Democratic President [[Harry S. Truman]] in [[Cold War]] foreign policy and later voted for the [[Marshall Plan]] to rebuild [[Europe]] after the war. He was elected in 1956 to the U.S. Senate, having defeated Democrat Robert Ferdinand Wagner, Jr. (1910-1991), who was in his second year as the mayor of New York City and then an ally of Tammany Hall. Javits won re-election to the Senate in 1962, 1968, and 1974, when he defeated a candidate even more liberal than he, former U.S. Attorney General William Ramsey Clark (born 1927) despite losing many Republican votes to a determined Conservative Party nominee, Barbara A. Keating, an opponent of [[abortion]].<ref name=nytobit/>​

In 1946, as part of the Republican wave that led to a GOP Congress for two years, Javits was elected to the [[United States House of Representatives]] for the New York 21st congressional district, then based in the Upper West Side but since redistricted. He left the House on January 3, 1955, to  become the attorney general of New York, a post he filled for only two years. In the attorney general's contest, he defeated the Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt, Jr. (1914–1988), son of the former president. Representative Javits supported Democratic President [[Harry S. Truman]] in [[Cold War]] foreign policy and later voted for the [[Marshall Plan]] to rebuild [[Europe]] after the war. He was elected in 1956 to the U.S. Senate, having defeated Democrat Robert Ferdinand Wagner, Jr. (1910–1991), who was in his second year as the mayor of New York City and then an ally of Tammany Hall. Javits won re-election to the Senate in 1962, 1968, and 1974, when he defeated a candidate even more liberal than he, former U.S. Attorney General William Ramsey Clark (born 1927) despite losing many Republican votes to a determined Conservative Party nominee, Barbara A. Keating, an opponent of [[abortion]].<ref name=nytobit/>​

In the House and Senate, Javits established himself as a [[Moderate Republican|liberal Republican]] and supporter of [[Governor]] [[Nelson Rockefeller]], fellow Senator Kenneth Barnard  Keating (1900-1975), and Mayor [[John V. Lindsay]]. He opposed the [[Taft-Hartley Act]] of 1947, which had broad conservative support -- enough to override Truman's veto of the measure. He also backed much of later President Johnson's [[Great Society]] and was always a steadfast supporter of [[civil rights]] legislation passed in 1957, 1960, and 1964. He backed the constitutional amendment to ban the use of poll taxes and in 1954 unsuccessfully sought to enact a bill banning [[segregation]] in federally funded housing projects.

In the House and Senate, Javits established himself as a [[Moderate Republican|liberal Republican]] and supporter of [[Governor]] [[Nelson Rockefeller]], fellow Senator Kenneth Barnard  Keating (1900–1975), and Mayor [[John V. Lindsay]]. He opposed the [[Taft-Hartley Act]] of 1947, which had broad conservative support -- enough to override Truman's veto of the measure. He also backed much of later President Johnson's [[Great Society]] and was always a steadfast supporter of [[civil rights]] legislation passed in 1957, 1960, and 1964. He backed the constitutional amendment to ban the use of poll taxes and in 1954 unsuccessfully sought to enact a bill banning [[segregation]] in federally funded housing projects.

In light of the skepticism held by many conservatives against him, Javits argued that a healthy political party had to tolerate diversity. Javits considered himself as a political descendant of [[Theodore Roosevelt]]'s [[Progressive Era|Progressive]] Republicanism. Though as a lawyer he represented business clients, he strongly supported liberal social issues, which he thought would benefit the poor and downtrodden.​<ref name=nytobit>{{cite web|url=​https://www.nytimes.com/1986/03/08/obituaries/jacob-javits-dies-in-florida-at-81-4-term-senator-from-new-york.html|publisher=''The New York Times''|date=March 8, 1986​  

In light of the skepticism held by many conservatives against him, Javits argued that a healthy political party had to tolerate diversity. Javits considered himself as a political descendant of [[Theodore Roosevelt]]'s [[Progressive Era|Progressive]] Republicanism. Though as a lawyer he represented business clients, he strongly supported liberal social issues, which he thought would benefit the poor and downtrodden.​<ref name=nytobit>{{cite web|url=​https://www.nytimes.com/1986/03/08/obituaries/jacob-javits-dies-in-florida-at-81-4-term-senator-from-new-york.html|publisher=''The New York Times''|date=March 8, 1986​