Southern Jewish Mayors Throughout History

We are working to build a list of all Jewish mayors who have served in Southern towns. If you know of any Southern Jewish mayors who should be added to this list, please email our historian.

Alabama

Demopolis	Moris Ely	1905
	Isidore Bley	Dates unknown
Madison	Ann van Leeuwen	1990-1992
Mobile	Lazarus Schwarz	1911-1915
	Leon Schwarz	1926, 1932, 1933
Mongomery	Henry Faber	1870-1875
	Mordecai Moses	1875-1881
Pollard	Nathan Strauss	Late 1800s
Selma	Simon Maas	1887-1889
	Marcus Meyer	1895-1899
	Louis Benish	1915-1920
Sheffield	Albery Moses	1885

Arkansas

Dumas	Gus Waterman	1904: the town's first mayor.
	Charles Dante	1920s
Dermott	David Kimpel	1897-1898
El Dorado	Irving Leon Pesses	1967-1975: re-election campaign slogan, "Izzy's Been Busy."
Little Rock	Jonas Levy	1860-1864
	Frederick Kramer	1873-1875, 1881-1887
Helena	Aaron Meyers	1878-1880
	Jacob Fink	1906
Holly Grove	Ralph Abramson	1947-1958
Pine Bluff	Simon Bloom	1900-1912
West Memphis	Kent Rubens

North Florida

Gulf Breeze	Beverly H. Zimmern	2009-2014
Pensacola	Adolph Greenhut	1913-1916
	Max Bear	1937-1939
	B. I. Greenhut	1965-1967: Son of Adolph Greenhut.

Georgia

Alma	Nathan Cohen	Elected 1960 – born in Poland; came to US in 1913.  Started out as peddler in rural Georgia.  Opened his own store in 1924.  Active in local Chamber of Commerce, Lions Club, Shriners, and Masons.  Elected in 1960 with 90% of the vote.
Atlanta	Sam Massell, Jr.	1969-1973
Athens	Heidi Davidson	Elected in 2002.
Bainbridge	Max Nussbaum	1920-1921
Columbus	Jacob I. Moses	He served Columbus in 1844. He is one of the Confederate soldiers who was buried at the historic Linwood Cemetery in Columbus. The Jewish section of this cemetery is maintained by Temple Israel and there is a marker designating the section.
Eastman	Elias Hermann
Dublin	Jefferson Davis Hermann	1909-1910
	Solomon Hermann	(His brother) succeeded him
Sandy Spring	Eva Galambos
Savannah	Herman Myers	1895-1897; 1899-1907
	Susan Weiner	1992-1995
Sandersville	Louis Cohen	1887

Kentucky

Ashland	Clyde Levi	1944-1947
	David Aronberg	1952-1955, 1960-1964
Somerset	Abraham Wolf	1921-1923
Middlesboro	Isaac Ginsberg	1933-1935
Central City	W.J. Hirschberg	1933-1935
Paducah	Meyer Weil	1871-1875, 1877-1881
Louisville	Jerry Abramson	1985-1998, 2003 - 2011: First left office due to term limits. In the interim period, Abramson served as President of the United States Conference of Mayors and in that capacity accompanied President Bill Clinton to the funeral of Yitzhak Rabin.
Shelbyville	Leon Rothchild	1912-1922

Louisiana

Alexandria	Edward Weil	1875-1876
Donaldsonville	Myer Lemann	1881
	Marx Schoenberg	1870: killed during dispute over ballots
	Solomon Weinschenck	1872, 1874
	David Israel
	Walter Lemann	1912
Haughton (near Shreveport)	Henry Bodenheimer	1885-1887 Was the town's first mayor, elected with 98 out of 148 votes.
Lake Charles	Adolph Meyer	1874-1888
Lake Providence	Eliaz Stockner
Mandeville	Naphthalie Levy	1872-1873
Monroe	Arnold Bernstein	1918-1937
Morgan City	M.E. Norman	Served in late 1920s or early 1930s; Also several Jews served on the city council of that era in Morgan City, including Sol Loeb and Henry Loeb.
Napoleonville	Solomon Klotz	1922-1931
	Samuel Klotz	1939-1945
Shreveport Had several Jewish mayors	Samuel Levy	Mayor for four months in 1873.  He was born in France.  He was appointed mayor pro tem by the governor during the Yellow Fever epidemic of 1873.  He had been administrator of city finance (an elected position) previously.  An election was held on December 22, 1873, which brought his term to an end.
	Ben Holzman	1900-1902: Was born in Germany in 1844.  Came to the US in 1857; Civil War veteran – was a gunner on the Merrimac. Lived in DC after the war; was reportedly in audience when Lincoln was assasinated.  One of the organizers and presidents of B'nai Zion and local B'nai B'rith chapter.  First president of the Hebrew Relief Society of Shreveport.  Kitty Carlisle was his granddaughter.
	Ernest Bernstein	1906-1908: born in Baton Rouge in 1868.  Married Fannie Hirsch of Vicksburg in 1908.  Had been a city alderman.  Regional president of IOBB; VP of Bnai Zion.
South Highlands Village	Emmanuel Mahne Bodenheimer	1920s.  Was the only mayor of this area, which was incorporated into Shreveport in 1927.
Vidalia	Lewis Arnheim	1869-1871
Waterproof	A.G. Yamer	Mayor in 1878

Mississippi

Alligator	Robert Kaplan
Greenville	Jacob Alexander	1881
	Leopold Wilcinski	1875
Vicksburg	Lawrence Leyens
Brookhaven	Abraham Lewinthal	1889
	Sam Abrams, Harold Samuels	1977-1985
Yazoo City	Harry Applebaum	1954-1960
Hazlehurst	Paul Kemp
Jonestown	Sam Friedman	1938-1942
Indianola	Steve Rosenthal	2009-
Natchez	Isaac Lowenberg	1882-1886
	Saul Laub	1929-1936
Rolling Fork	Sam Rosenthal	1929-1969; raised in Natchez.
	Fred Miller	2016-
Meridian	Alfred Rosenbaum	1977-1985
Port Gibson	Simon Unger	1891-1898
Pace	Mose Hyman
Shaw	Jacob Cohen	1892-1897
Shuqualak	Julius Yaretzky
Summit	Solomon Hyman (town's first mayor)
Louise	William Sklar	"Mayor for Life" served for 25 years, often ran unopposed; retired in the early 1970's.  He died in 1974.
Rosedale	M.J. Dattel
Glendora	Nutty Moyer
	Harold Moyer

North Carolina

Asheville	Kenneth Michalove
Chapel Hill	Ken Broun	Elected in 1991
Durham	Mutt Evans	1951-1963
Elizabethtown	Wallace Leinwand	1990s
Fayetteville	Monroe Evans (Mutt's brother)	Elected in 1965
Greensboro	Ben Cone	1949-1951
Gastonia	Leon Schneider
Hendersonville	Don Michalove
Holly Ridge	Alfred Popkin
Lumberton	David Weinstein	1980s
Morganton	Mel Cohen	1985 -
Tarboro	Henry Morris	1880s
Wilmington	Solomon Fishblate	1878-1882
	Bill Schwartz	1980s
	B.D. Schwartz	Elected in 1972

Oklahoma

Cordell	J.J. Aberson (mayor three times)
Enid	Joseph Meibergen	1897-1901
Perry	Frederick Kretsch	Served four terms. Elected in 1915, 1917, 1931, 1937.
Sayre	Leo Meyer
Seminole	Melvin Moran	Elected in 1975
Stroud	Jacob Smulian	1912-1914

 

South Carolina

Abbeville	Joseph Savitz, Sr.	1950's – 1970's
Clover	Herbert Hirsch
Columbia	Mordecai De Leon	1833-1836
	Henry Lyons	1850-1855
	Abraham Alexander	1897-1899
	Oscar Alexander	1931-1937
Barnwell	Herman Mazursky	1938-1970
Florence	John Kuker	1870s
Greenville	Max Heller	Elected in 1971
Georgetown		Five Jewish mayors in the 19th century: three before 1818, and several more since then.
Lake City	Henry Nachman
Spartanburg	William Barnet III	Current mayor as of 1/2005

 

Tennessee

Chattanooga	George Washington Ochs-Oaks	1895-1899: (brother of Adolph Ochs)
	Joseph Wasserman	1899-1901
	Andy Berke	elected 2013
Memphis	Henry Loeb	1960's
Moscow	Phil Bacharach	Late 1920's, early 1930's
North Knoxville	L.A. Gratz	Elected in 1870

 

Texas

Alto	Fred Florence	1919
Amarillo	Kel Seliger	1993-2001
Austin	Jeffrey Friedman	Elected 1975 at age 30
Beaumont	Maury Meyers	1978-1982; 1986-1988
Brownsville	Benjamin Kowalski	1912-1914
	Ruben Edelstein	1975-1979
Calvert	Gerson Bedach	1931
Colorado City	H.I. Berman	late 1950s. early 1960s
Corpus Christi	Albert .Lichtenstein	1953-1954
Corsicana	Gus Gappelberg	1991-1993
Dallas	Adlene Harrison	1976
	Annette Strauss	1987-1991
	Laura Miller	2002-2007
Dalworthington Gardens	Albert Taub	1986-2006
Dickinson	Veta Winick	1990's
Dublin	Morris Hoffman	1949-1959
Eagle Pass	Samuel Schwartz
El Paso	Solomon Schutz	1880-1881
	Adolph Krakauer	1889: had to resign after two months when it was discovered that he was not yet a citizen
	Adolph Solomon	1893-1894
Fort Worth	Bayard Friedman	1963-1965
Galveston	Michael Seeligson	1853
	Isaac Kempner	1917-1919
	Adrian Levy	1935-1939
	Barbara Crews	1989
	Eddie Schreiber
Henderson	Moses H. Marwil	elected in 1936; served two terms
Jefferson	I.L. Goldberg
	Ben Bloomingdale
Kaufman	Dr. Milton Davis	1989-1991
Lockhart	Sam Glosserman
Longview	G.A. Bodenheim	1904-1916; 1918-1920
Luling	Ben Jacobs	Elected 1936: Owned an insurance firm.  His family had deep roots in town, going back to its founding.  His father was the oldest living settler in Luling.  Ben headed the local PWA work, was president of the Luling Charity Association and the local Red Cross.  He was president of the local Retail Merchants Association and commander of the American Legion Post.
Marshall	Louis Kariel	1935-1947
	Audrey Kariel	(1994-2001: Louis Kariel's daughter-in-law)
Missouri City	Jerry Motley
Padre Island	Minnie Solomonson	1982-1986
Plano	Florence Shapiro	1989
Rosenberg	Henry Wertheimer
San Saba	Harry Shapiro
Schulenberg	Michael C. Levey	Born in France Jan 15 1836, was the third mayor of Schulenburg, elected in 1883. He served as postmaster in Moulton and in 1862 Enlisted in the Confederate Army as a member of Dashiell's battery of light Artillery and served to the end of the war. Levey served three terms as Mayor (six years) from 1883 to 1889. He died in 1923.
	Hirsh Schwartz	1964-1981. Born 1909 in Schulenburg to Julius and Helen Straus Schwartz, He was an attorney and banker.
Sherman	William Levy
	Jake Levy
Temple	Augustus Lewy	1880's – later served as DA of San Antonio
Waco	A.M. Goldstein
Weimar	Davis Gindler	1978-1982
Wichita Falls	Max Kruger
Yoakum	Sam Lewis	elected in 1900
Ysleta	I. Berg

Virginia

Alexandria	Henry Strauss	1891-1897
	Lewis Stein	1915
	Leroy Bendheim	1957
Danville	Samuel Kushner
Falls Church	Herman Funk
	Nader Baroukh	2010-2012
Harrisonburg	Lawrence Loewner	1948-1955
Lynchburg	Michael Gillette	2012
Newport News	Harry Reyner	1930-1932
	Joe Frank	1996-2010
Richmond	Solomon Jacobs	1818-1819 (acting mayor)
Virginia Beach	Meyera Ellenson Oberndorf	1988-2008: recognized by Newsweek as one of the best mayors in America.
Winchester	Charles Zuckerman	1980s