Abraham Alexander Ribicoff (April 9, 1910 – February 22, 1998) was an American politician from the state of
Connecticut
Connecticut ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York (state), New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. ...
. A member of the
Democratic Party, he represented Connecticut in the
United States House of Representatives
The United States House of Representatives is a chamber of the Bicameralism, bicameral United States Congress; it is the lower house, with the U.S. Senate being the upper house. Together, the House and Senate have the authority under Artic ...
and
Senate
A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...
and was the
80th Governor of Connecticut and
Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare in
President John F. Kennedy's cabinet. He was Connecticut's first and to date only Jewish governor.
Early life
Abraham Alexander Ribicoff was born on April 9, 1910, in
New Britain, Connecticut, to
Ashkenazi Jewish immigrants from
Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...
, Samuel Ribicoff, a factory worker, and Rose Sable Ribicoff. He graduated from New Britain Senior High School. Ribicoff's relatively poor parents valued education and insisted that all his earnings from part-time boyhood jobs go toward his future schooling. After high school, he worked for a year at a nearby zipper factory of the G. E. Prentice Company to earn additional funds for college. Ribicoff enrolled at
New York University
New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...
in 1928, then transferred to the
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...
after the Prentice Company made him the Chicago office manager. While in Chicago, Ribicoff coped with school and work schedules and was permitted to enter the university's
law school
A law school (also known as a law centre/center, college of law, or faculty of law) is an institution, professional school, or department of a college or university specializing in legal education, usually involved as part of a process for b ...
before finishing his bachelor's degree. Still a student, he married Ruth Siegel on June 28, 1931; they had two children. Ribicoff served as editor of the ''
University of Chicago Law Review'' in his third year and received an
LLB ''cum laude'' in 1933, being admitted to the Connecticut bar the same year. After practicing law in the office of a
Hartford
Hartford is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. The city, located in Hartford County, Connecticut, Hartford County, had a population of 121,054 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 ce ...
lawyer, Ribicoff set up his practice, first in
Kensington
Kensington is an area of London in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, around west of Central London.
The district's commercial heart is Kensington High Street, running on an east–west axis. The north-east is taken up by Kensingt ...
and later in Hartford.
Early political career
Having become interested in politics, Ribicoff began as a member of the
Connecticut House of Representatives, serving in that body from 1938 to 1942. From 1941 to 1943, and again from 1945 to 1947, he was the judge of Hartford Police Court. During his political career, Ribicoff was a protégé of
John Moran Bailey, the powerful chairman of the
Democratic Party of Connecticut.
U.S. Representative
Ribicoff was elected as a Democrat to the
81st and
82nd Congresses, serving from 1949 to 1953. During that time, he served on the
Foreign Affairs Committee, a position usually reserved for members with more seniority, and was a mostly loyal supporter of the foreign and domestic policies of President
Harry S. Truman's administration. Generally
liberal in his outlook, he surprised many by opposing a $32 million appropriation for the construction of a dam in
Enfield, Connecticut
Enfield is a New England town, town in Hartford County, Connecticut, United States, first settled by John and Robert Pease of Salem, Massachusetts Bay Colony. The town is part of the Capitol Planning Region, Connecticut, Capitol Planning Region. ...
, arguing that the money was better spent on military needs and foreign policy initiatives such as the
Marshall Plan.
In
1952, he made an unsuccessful bid for election to fill a vacancy in the
United States Senate
The United States Senate is a chamber of the Bicameralism, bicameral United States Congress; it is the upper house, with the United States House of Representatives, U.S. House of Representatives being the lower house. Together, the Senate and ...
, losing to
Prescott Bush.
Governor of Connecticut
After returning to his legal practice for two years, he ran for governor against incumbent Republican
John Davis Lodge, winning the election with 49.5% and by just over three thousand votes. As governor (1955–1961), Ribicoff soon faced the challenge of rebuilding his state in the wake of devastating floods that occurred in the
late summer and fall of 1955, and he successfully led bipartisan efforts to aid damaged areas. Ribicoff then successfully argued for increased state spending on schools and welfare programs. He also supported an amendment to the state constitution that enhanced the governing powers of local municipalities. Easily reelected in 1958, Ribicoff had by now become active on the national political scene. A longtime friend of
Massachusetts
Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...
Senator
John F. Kennedy, Ribicoff had nominated his fellow New Englander for
vice president
A vice president or vice-president, also director in British English, is an officer in government or business who is below the president (chief executive officer) in rank. It can also refer to executive vice presidents, signifying that the vi ...
at the
1956 Democratic National Convention and was one of the first public officials to endorse
Kennedy's presidential campaign.
Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare
When Kennedy became president in 1961, he offered Ribicoff his choice of cabinet posts in the new administration. He reportedly declined the position of
attorney general
In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general (: attorneys general) or attorney-general (AG or Atty.-Gen) is the main legal advisor to the government. In some jurisdictions, attorneys general also have executive responsibility for law enf ...
for fear that he might create needless controversy within the emerging Civil Rights Movement because he was Jewish, and he instead chose to be secretary of
health, education, and welfare (HEW). Although he managed to secure a revision of the 1935
Social Security Act that liberalized requirements for
Aid to Dependent Children, Ribicoff was unable to gain approval for the administration's Medicare and school aid bills. Eventually, he tired of attempting to manage the department, whose very size made it, in his opinion, unmanageable.
Ribicoff reflected that he had sought out the position of HEW Secretary mainly out of concern for education and "realized that the problems of health and welfare were so overriding that education was relegated to the back burner" during his tenure.
United States Senate
He was finally elected to the
United States Senate
The United States Senate is a chamber of the Bicameralism, bicameral United States Congress; it is the upper house, with the United States House of Representatives, U.S. House of Representatives being the lower house. Together, the Senate and ...
in
1962
The year saw the Cuban Missile Crisis, which is often considered the closest the world came to a Nuclear warfare, nuclear confrontation during the Cold War.
Events January
* January 1 – Samoa, Western Samoa becomes independent from Ne ...
, replacing retiring incumbent
Prescott Bush by defeating Republican nominee
Horace Seely-Brown with 51% of the vote. He served in the Senate from January 3, 1963, until January 3, 1981.
Lyndon B. Johnson succeeded Kennedy as president when the latter was
assassinated in 1963. Ribicoff supported Johnson at first but eventually turned against the
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War (1 November 1955 – 30 April 1975) was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam) and their allies. North Vietnam w ...
and the president's management of it, believing that it drained badly needed resources away from domestic programs.
Ribicoff allied with consumer advocate
Ralph Nader in creating the Motor Vehicle Highway Safety Act of 1966, which created the
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA ) is an agency of the U.S. federal government, part of the Department of Transportation, focused on automobile safety regulations.
NHTSA is charged with writing and enforcing Feder ...
. The agency was responsible for many new safety standards on cars. These standards were questionable because up until then, the emphasis had always been put on the driver. In response, Ribicoff stated that:
The driver has many faults. He is negligent; he is careless; he is reckless. We understand that... I think it will be the millennium if you will ever get a situation where the millions and millions of drivers will all be perfect. They will always be making errors and making mistakes.
At the
1968 Democratic National Convention, during a speech nominating
George McGovern, his senatorial colleague from
South Dakota
South Dakota (; Sioux language, Sioux: , ) is a U.S. state, state in the West North Central states, North Central region of the United States. It is also part of the Great Plains. South Dakota is named after the Dakota people, Dakota Sioux ...
, he went off-script, saying, "And with George McGovern as President of the United States, we wouldn't have to have
Gestapo
The (, ), Syllabic abbreviation, abbreviated Gestapo (), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe.
The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of F ...
tactics in the streets of Chicago." Many conventioneers, having been appalled by the response of the
Chicago police to the ongoing anti-war demonstrations, broke into applause. Television cameras focused on the indignant reaction of Chicago Mayor
Richard J. Daley. Ribicoff spent the remaining years of his Senate career fighting for such issues as school integration, welfare and tax reform, and consumer protection.
During the
1972 Democratic National Convention, presidential nominee George McGovern offered Ribicoff the Democratic vice-presidential nomination, but he declined and it eventually went to Senator
Thomas Eagleton. After Eagleton withdrew, McGovern asked Ribicoff (among others) to take Eagleton's place. He again refused, publicly stating that he had no ambitions for higher office. McGovern eventually chose
Sargent Shriver as his running mate. Later in 1972, following the death of his wife, Ribicoff married Lois Mell Mathes, who became known as "Casey".
During his time in the Senate, Ribicoff was chairman of the
United States Senate Committee on Government Operations (
94th and
95th Congresses) and its successor committee, the
U.S. Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs (95th and
96th Congresses).
Future U.S. Senator
Joe Lieberman
Joseph Isadore Lieberman (; February 24, 1942 – March 27, 2024) was an American politician and lawyer who served as a United States senator from Connecticut from 1989 to 2013. Originally a member of the Democratic Party (United States), Dem ...
worked in Ribicoff's Senate office as a summer intern and met his first wife, Betty Haas, there.
In 1978, Ribicoff's niece
Gail Rubin was shot and killed in the
Coastal Road massacre in Israel by Palestinian terrorists. Ribicoff denounced her killing as "an indefensible act of terrorism that deserves universal condemnation." In 1980, Ribicoff's niece
Sarai Ribicoff, a reporter for the ''
Herald Examiner'', was shot and killed during a robbery in Venice, California.
On May 3, 1979, Ribicoff announced his intention to retire at the end of his third term. President
Jimmy Carter
James Earl Carter Jr. (October 1, 1924December 29, 2024) was an American politician and humanitarian who served as the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party ...
released a statement crediting Ribicoff with having "compiled a distinguished career of public service that can serve as a model of decency, compassion, and ability."
Later life
In 1981, Ribicoff fulfilled his pledge to retire from the Senate and took a position as special counsel in the New York law firm of
Kaye Scholer LLP and divided his time between homes in
Cornwall Bridge, Connecticut, and Manhattan. He was co-chairman of the
1988 Base Realignment and Closure Commission.
Having suffered in his later years from the effects of
Alzheimer's disease
Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disease and the cause of 60–70% of cases of dementia. The most common early symptom is difficulty in remembering recent events. As the disease advances, symptoms can include problems wit ...
, he died in 1998 at
the Hebrew Home for the Aged in Riverdale in
The Bronx
The Bronx ( ) is the northernmost of the five Boroughs of New York City, boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. It shares a land border with Westchester County, New York, West ...
, New York City, and is interred at Cornwall Cemetery in
Cornwall, Connecticut.
See also
*
List of Jewish members of the United States Congress
*
List of Jewish United States Cabinet members
References
Further reading
* Ribicoff, Abraham in ''American National Biography'', American Council of Learned Societies, 2000.
External links
*
Abraham Alexander Ribicoff entryat the
National Governors Association
The National Governors Association (NGA) is an American Politics of the United States, political organization founded in 1908. The association's members are the governors of the 55 U.S. state, states, Territories of the United States, territories ...
Abraham Alexander Ribicoff entryat the
Political Graveyard
Kaye Scholer LLP website*
ttp://purl.lib.ua.edu/82840 Speech by Abraham Ribicoff given on November 3, 1969.Audio recording, fro
The University of Alabama's Emphasis Symposium on Contemporary Issues*
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Ribicoff, Abraham
1910 births
1998 deaths
20th-century American lawyers
American people of Polish-Jewish descent
Connecticut lawyers
Democratic Party governors of Connecticut
Democratic Party members of the Connecticut House of Representatives
Democratic Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Connecticut
Democratic Party United States senators from Connecticut
Jewish members of the Cabinet of the United States
Jewish state governors of the United States
Jewish state legislators in Connecticut
Jewish members of the United States House of Representatives
Jewish United States senators
Kaye Scholer
Kennedy administration cabinet members
Politicians from New Britain, Connecticut
United States secretaries of health, education, and welfare
University of Chicago Law School alumni
20th-century United States senators
20th-century members of the United States House of Representatives
20th-century members of the Connecticut General Assembly