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==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/>​