Lewis Naphtali Dembitz (February 3, 1833 – March 11, 1907) was a German American legal scholar. He influenced his nephew Louis Brandeis, who admired him greatly, to choose law as a profession. Born into a

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

family in Zirke, in the

Prussia Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an ...

n province of Posen, he attended gymnasium in

Frankfurt Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , " Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on it ...

, Sagan, and Glogau. After one semester at the

Charles University in Prague ) , image_name = Carolinum_Logo.svg , image_size = 200px , established = , type = Public, Ancient , budget = 8.9 billion CZK , rector = Milena Králíčková , faculty = 4,057 , administrative_staff = 4,026 , students = 51,438 , undergr ...

studying law, he emigrated to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

in 1849. He continued to study American law in offices at

Cincinnati, Ohio Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wi ...

, and

Madison, Indiana Madison is a city in and the county seat of Jefferson County, Indiana, United States, along the Ohio River. As of the 2010 United States Census its population was 11,967. Over 55,000 people live within of downtown Madison. Madison is the larges ...

. After doing journalistic work for a time, he began in 1853 to practice law in

Louisville, Kentucky Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border ...

, where he remained for the rest of his career. Politically active, Dembitz was a delegate to the 1860 Republican National Convention, assistant city attorney of Louisville, 1884–1888, and was a commissioner for Kentucky to the Conference for the Uniformity of State Laws. In 1888, Dembitz drafted the first

Australian ballot The secret ballot, also known as the Australian ballot, is a voting method in which a voter's identity in an election or a referendum is anonymous. This forestalls attempts to influence the voter by intimidation, blackmailing, and potential v ...

law ever adopted in the United States, to govern elections in Louisville. His legal works include: ''Kentucky Jurisprudence'', 1890; ''Law Language for Shorthand Writers'', 1892; and ''Land Titles in the United States'', 2 vols., 1895. He is the author of "The Question of Silver Coinage," in the ''Present Problem Series'', 1896, No. 1; and has written a number of book-reviews for ''The Nation'', 1888–97, besides articles in other magazines and in newspapers. Dembitz was strongly attached to conservative Judaism. He was one of the early members of the executive board of the

Union of American Hebrew Congregations The Union for Reform Judaism (URJ), known as the Union of American Hebrew Congregations (UAHC) until 2003, founded in 1873 by Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise, is the congregational arm of Reform Judaism in North America. The other two arms established b ...

, and in 1878 a member of the commission on the plan of study for the Hebrew Union College. In 1898 he acted as chairman at a convention of Orthodox congregations, and was elected a vice-president of the

Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America The Orthodox Union (abbreviated OU) is one of the largest Orthodox Jewish organizations in the United States. Founded in 1898, the OU supports a network of synagogues, youth programs, Jewish and Religious Zionist advocacy programs, programs for ...

. In addition to memoirs, articles, and addresses which have appeared in Jewish papers, he published ''Jewish Services in Synagogue and Home'', 1898; "The Lost Tribes," in the ''Andover Review'', August 1889; and revised

Exodus Exodus or the Exodus may refer to: Religion * Book of Exodus, second book of the Hebrew Torah and the Christian Bible * The Exodus, the biblical story of the migration of the ancient Israelites from Egypt into Canaan Historical events * Ex ...

and Leviticus for the new translation of the Bible by the

Jewish Publication Society of America The Jewish Publication Society (JPS), originally known as the Jewish Publication Society of America, is the oldest nonprofit, nondenominational publisher of Jewish works in English. Founded in Philadelphia in 1888, by reform Rabbi Joseph Krausko ...

eventually published in 1917.

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* {{DEFAULTSORT:Dembitz, Lewis Naphtali 1833 births 1907 deaths American Jews People from Sieraków People from the Grand Duchy of Posen 19th-century German Jews Prussian emigrants to the United States Kentucky lawyers Lawyers from Louisville, Kentucky Charles University alumni