Morris Koenig (March 13, 1883 – December 1, 1939) was a Hungarian-born Jewish-American lawyer and judge from New York City.

Life

Koenig was born on March 13, 1883, in

Eger Eger ( , ; ; also known by other #Names and etymology, alternative names) is the county seat of Heves County, and the second largest city in Northern Hungary (after Miskolc). A city with county rights, Eger is best known for Castle of Eger, its ...

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

, the son of Joseph Koenig and Rose Schwartz. He immigrated to America in 1884. His older brother was Samuel S. Koenig. Koenig attended the College of the City of New York and the

New York University School of Law The New York University School of Law (NYU Law) is the law school of New York University, a private research university in New York City. Established in 1835, it was the first law school established in New York City and is the oldest survivin ...

. He was admitted to the bar in 1905, after which he practiced law and became an active member of the Republican Party. In 1910, he became an assistant District Attorney of New York County. In 1915, Mayor

John Purroy Mitchel John Purroy Mitchel (July 19, 1879 – July 6, 1918) was the 95th mayor of New York, in office from 1914 to 1917. At 34, he was the second-youngest mayor of the city, and was sometimes referred to as the "Boy Mayor of New York". Mitchel won t ...

appointed him Police Court Magistrate to succeed Justice John J. Freschi for a ten-year term. The appointment faced some criticism, as his brother Samuel was president of the Republican County Committee and William Blau was originally recommended for the position. However, Koenig was endorsed by representatives of the District Attorney's office, General Sessions judges, prominent members of the Bar Association, and Governor

Charles Seymour Whitman Charles Seymour Whitman (September 29, 1868March 29, 1947) was an American lawyer who served as the 41st governor of New York from January 1, 1915, to December 31, 1918. An attorney and politician, he also served as a delegate from New York to th ...

. He previously served under Whitman when the latter was District Attorney. In 1921, Governor Nathan L. Miller appointed him to the Court of General Sessions to fill a vacancy caused by the resignation of Judge William H. Wadhams. The appointment again received attention due to his brother Samuel, although he was endorsed by practically all of the judges and magistrates in New York City, a number of prominent lawyers, and representatives of civic organizations. Koening was elected to the bench for a full fourteen-year term that November as a candidate of both the Republican and the Democratic Parties. He was re-elected for another fourteen-year term with support from both parties in 1936. In 1926, he sentenced the Kraemer Brothers, members of the Whittemore Gang, to forty years in prison after finding them guilty of various holdups. In 1935, he sentenced Nelson B. Clark, a former Progressive candidate for Governor of Massachusetts, to ten years in prison for being the alleged brains behind the robbery of a

Fifth Avenue Fifth Avenue is a major thoroughfare in the borough (New York City), borough of Manhattan in New York City. The avenue runs south from 143rd Street (Manhattan), West 143rd Street in Harlem to Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village. The se ...

luggage store which led to the murder of a policeman. He was presiding judge in the 1933 case of Patrick Morris, who was convicted of conspiracy in posing as heir of the Wendell estate, and in the 1935 Martin-Mooney case, where he handed down a decision upheld by the Court of Appeals that a newspaper reporter wasn't privileged to withhold facts when testifying before a judiciary body. Koenig was a member of the

American Bar Association The American Bar Association (ABA) is a voluntary association, voluntary bar association of lawyers and law students in the United States; national in scope, it is not specific to any single jurisdiction. Founded in 1878, the ABA's stated acti ...

, the

New York State Bar Association The New York State Bar Association (NYSBA) is a voluntary bar association for the state of New York. The mission of the association is to cultivate the science of jurisprudence; promote reform in the law; facilitate the administration of justice ...

, the

New York County Lawyers' Association The New York County Lawyers Association (NYCLA) is a bar association located in New York City. The New York County Lawyers Association was founded in 1908 because the existing bar association excluded some lawyers from membership due to their ra ...

, the

New York City Bar Association The Association of the Bar of the City of New York, commonly referred to as the New York City Bar Association (City Bar), founded in 1870, is a voluntary association of lawyers and law students. Since 1896, the organization has been headquartere ...

, the

Freemasons Freemasonry (sometimes spelled Free-Masonry) consists of fraternal groups that trace their origins to the medieval guilds of stonemasons. Freemasonry is the oldest secular fraternity in the world and among the oldest still-existing organizati ...

, the

Elks The Embeddable Linux Kernel Subset (ELKS), formerly known as Linux-8086, is a Linux-like operating system kernel. It is a subset of the Linux kernel, intended for 16-bit computers with limited processor and memory resources such as machines pow ...

B'nai B'rith B'nai B'rith International ( ; from ) is an American 501(c)(3) nonprofit Jewish service organization and was formerly a cultural association for German Jewish immigrants to the United States. B'nai B'rith states that it is committed to the se ...

, and the Independent Order B'rith Abraham. In 1914, he married Minna Harlib. Their children were Lester Koenig and Julian Koenig. Koenig died at home from a brief illness on December 1, 1939. Over 2,000 people, including political leaders and prominent municipal, county, state, and federal jurists, attended his funeral at the Park Avenue Synagogue, with hundreds gathered outside on the streets in the rain. The attendees included

Mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a Municipal corporation, municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilitie ...

Fiorello La Guardia Fiorello Henry La Guardia (born Fiorello Raffaele Enrico La Guardia; December 11, 1882September 20, 1947) was an American attorney and politician who represented New York in the U.S. House of Representatives and served as the 99th mayor of New Yo ...

City Council A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. Depending on the location and classification of the municipality it may be known as a city council, town council, town board, community council, borough counc ...

President

Newbold Morris Augustus Newbold Morris (February 2, 1902 – March 30, 1966) was an American politician, lawyer, president of the New York City Council, and two-time candidate for mayor of New York City. Early life Morris, who never used his first name, was b ...

, former Governor

Al Smith Alfred Emanuel Smith (December 30, 1873 – October 4, 1944) was the 42nd governor of New York, serving from 1919 to 1920 and again from 1923 to 1928. He was the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party's presidential nominee in the 1 ...

, former Mayor

Jimmy Walker James John Walker (June 19, 1881November 18, 1946), known colloquially as Jimmy Walker and Beau James, was an American attorney, lyricist, and Democratic Party politician who served as the 97th mayor of New York City from 1926 until his resign ...

, former Judge

Samuel Seabury Samuel Seabury (November 30, 1729February 25, 1796) was the first American Episcopal bishop, the second Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America, and the first Bishop of Connecticut. He was a leading Loyalis ...

District Attorney In the United States, a district attorney (DA), county attorney, county prosecutor, state attorney, state's attorney, prosecuting attorney, commonwealth's attorney, or solicitor is the chief prosecutor or chief law enforcement officer represen ...

Thomas E. Dewey Thomas Edmund Dewey (March 24, 1902 – March 16, 1971) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 47th Governor of New York from 1943 to 1954. He was the Republican Party's nominee for president of the United States in 1944 and ...

with his entire staff, Representative Bruce Barton,

Police Commissioner A police commissioner is the head of a police department, responsible for overseeing its operations and ensuring the effective enforcement of laws and maintenance of public order. They develop and implement policies, manage budgets, and coordinate ...

Lewis J. Valentine, License Commissioner Paul Moss, Tammany Hall leader Representative Christopher D. Sullivan, Republican County Committee chairman Kenneth F. Simpson, former Governor Nathan L. Miller, General Sessions Judges Saul S. Streit, Charles C. Nott Jr., Cornelius F. Collins, William Allen, Owen Bohan, and George L. Donnellan, Surrogate James A. Delehanty,

Supreme Court In most legal jurisdictions, a supreme court, also known as a court of last resort, apex court, high (or final) court of appeal, and court of final appeal, is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...

Justices

Ferdinand Pecora Ferdinand Pecora (January 6, 1882 – December 7, 1971) was an American lawyer and New York State Supreme Court judge who became famous in the 1930s as Chief Counsel to the United States Senate Committee on Banking and Currency during its invest ...

, Bernard L. Shientag, Julius Miller, Isidor Wasservogel, Peter Schmuck, William T. Collins, Phillip J. McCook, Aaron J. Levy, Mitchell May, Charles J. Dodd, Charles C. Lockwood, Meier Steinbrink, and Algernon I. Nova, Federal Judges Samuel Mandelbaum, and Murray Hulbert, Supreme Court Justice-elect Morris Eder, City Court Chief Justice Louis Wendel, Special Sessions Justices Nathan D. Perlman and James E. McDonald, former General Sessions Judge Alfred J. Talley, former United States Attorney George Z. Medalie, Municipal Court Justices Samuel Ecker and Michael Matteo, Domestic Relations Court Justice Jacob Panken, City Court Judge Samuel Coleman, General Sessions Judge-elect John A. Mullen, General Sessions Judge-elect Jonah J. Goldstein, and a large delegation from the

. Rabbi Milton Steinberg conducted the funeral service and delivered the eulogy. He was buried in Union Field Cemetery in

Ridgewood, Queens Ridgewood is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Queens. It borders the Queens neighborhoods of Maspeth to the north, Middle Village to the east, and Glendale to the southeast, as well as the Brooklyn neighborhoods of Bushwick to ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Koenig, Morris 1883 births 1939 deaths People from Eger 19th-century Hungarian Jews American people of Hungarian-Jewish descent Emigrants from Austria-Hungary to the United States 19th-century American Jews 20th-century American Jews American lawyers City College of New York alumni New York University School of Law alumni 20th-century American lawyers Lawyers from New York City New York (state) Republicans 20th-century New York state court judges New York state court judges American Freemasons Koenig family