Jacob Panken | |
|---|---|
 Panken in 1920 | |
| Judge of the New York City Domestic Relations Court | |
| In office December 20, 1934 – January 3, 1955 | |
| Appointed by | Fiorello La Guardia |
| Judge of the New York City Municipal Court, 2nd District | |
| In office January 3, 1918 – December 27, 1927 | |
| Preceded by | Gustave Hartman |
| Succeeded by | Abraham Harawitz |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1879-01-13)January 13, 1879 |
| Died | February 4, 1968(1968-02-04) (aged 89) New York City, U.S. |
| Party | Socialist(before 1936) Social Democratic(after 1936) |
| Spouse | |
| Children | Hermione |
| Education | New York University Law School |
| Occupation | Labor leader, attorney, judge |
| Known for | FirstSocialist judge in New York |
Jacob Panken (January 13, 1879 – February 4, 1968) was a Ukrainian-born Jewish Americansocialist politician, best remembered for his tenure as a New York Citymunicipal court judge and frequent candidacies for high elected office on the ticket of theSocialist Party of America.
Jacob Panken was born January 13, 1879,[1] inKyiv,Ukraine, then part of theRussian Empire. He was the son of ethnic Jewish parents, Herman Panken and Feiga Berman Panken.[2] His father was employed as a merchant.[3] The family emigrated to the United States in 1890, arriving in New York City, where the family settled.[3]
Panken went to work at age 12, working first making purses and pocketbooks.[3] He later worked as a farmhand, abookkeeper, and an accountant.[3]
Panken married the former Rachel Pallay on February 20, 1910.[2] His wife would eventually be a Socialist Party politician in her own right, running for theNew York City Board of Aldermen in 1919 and forNew York State Assembly in 1928 and 1934.[2]
In 1901 Panken left accountancy to go to work as an organizer for theInternational Ladies' Garment Workers' Union.[3] Returning to the industry in which he first worked as a child, Panken was an organizer of the Purse and Bag Workers' Union in 1903.[3] He graduated fromNew York University Law School in 1905 and became a practicing attorney in the city.
Panken attended the 1912 National Convention of theSocialist Party of America (SPA), to which he delivered the report of the "Jewish Socialist Agitation Bureau," forerunner of theJewish Socialist Federation.[4] An outspoken opponent of World War I, Panken was a member of thePeople's Council for Democracy and Peace in 1917.[3]
Panken was a public advocate ofcivil rights for black Americans, sitting on the advisory board of an organization established in 1919 byChandler Owen andA. Philip Randolph, the National Association for the Promotion of Labor Unionism Among Negroes, the motto of which was "black and white workers unite."[5]
Panken was a leading figure in the bitter1919 Emergency National Convention of the SPA, chairing the all-important Credentials Committee which acted as a filter to insure the victory of the "Regular" faction headed by Executive SecretaryAdolph Germer,New York state party leaderJulius Gerber, and National Executive Committee memberJames Oneal. He was also a delegate to subsequent SPA conventions held in 1920, 1924, and 1932.[6]
Panken was a frequent candidate for public office on the Socialist Party ticket. He first ran forNew York State Senate in the 11th District in 1908.[2] He ran for State Assembly from New York County's 8th District the following year.[2] In 1910 he ran for Justice of theNew York Supreme Court for the first time, later pursuing the office again in 1929 and 1931.[2] He finally won election to a ten-year term as a municipal judge in New York in 1917, the first Socialist to be elected to New York City's Municipal Court.[7][8][9]
During his time on the bench, Panken remained a candidate for high offices on behalf of the Socialist Party, pursuing a seat asU.S. Senator from New York in1920 and running forMayor of New York in1921.[2] Panken also ran forU.S. Congress in1922 and forGovernor of New York in1926.[2]
Panken's legal career was heavily influenced by two intellectual movements at the heart of his worldview:Yiddishsocialism andlegal realism. The former developed in the early 20th century, asEastern European Jews integrated into American society by retaining Jewish cultural traditions but distancing themselves from religious practices. The Yiddish socialists were "hyper-political," advocating foreconomic equality,universalism, education, andfeminism. Legal realists, meanwhile, believed thatjudicial interpretation could serve as a means ofsocial reform, that the personal politics of a judge were inseparable from his verdicts, and thatjurisprudence should followsocial science instead ofnatural law.[10]
Running for re-election in 1927, Panken declined to accept endorsement from both theRepublican[11] andCommunist[12] parties and was defeated in his re-election bid.[2] The 1927 election was the first in the New York City boroughs ofManhattan andBrooklyn to usevoting machines in all districts.[13] The result of the election was challenged, with allegations of vote rigging, including an allegation that the lever for Panken's name was rendered inoperable in one district.[14]
The Socialist weeklyThe New Leader was livid, running a banner headline that "Tammany Thugs" had stolen the election forDemocratic candidateAbraham Harawitz:
"The polling places of the 4th assembly district...were scenes of the most disgraceful election stealing.
"In all cases the Tammany election officials were flanked by a collection of gangsters who aided in the intimidation of voters who were being deprived of their votes. The Socialist [poll] watchers who made protests over the procedure were brutalized. The voters were threatened, brow-beaten, and flustered. Notorious gangsters, gunmen, and pimps were on hand in full force taking orders from the Tammany leaders....
"In one polling place a watcher had a gun poked into his ribs and a second later a thug struck him from behind, laying him out; in another polling place a gangster threw tear powder into the eyes of the two Socialist watchers just as the voting machine was being opened for recording of the votes; Socialist watchers were refused the right to note the results tabulated on the machines. Many were ejected and threatened."[15]
Following his defeat, Panken ran again as a Socialist candidate for Congress in1930 and forChief Judge in1932.[2]
During the bitter internal party fight that swept the Socialist Party during the second half of the 1930s, Panken was a committed adherent of the so-called "Old Guard faction" headed byLouis Waldman and James Oneal. In 1936, he exited the SPA along with his co-thinkers to help found theSocial Democratic Federation.
Panken was one of the most outspokenanti-Zionists on the Jewish left, a key supporter of theJewish Newsletter, published byWilliam Zukerman, as well as of theAmerican Council for Judaism. WhenHarry Rogoff ofThe Jewish Daily Forward defended theZionism of editor-in-chiefAbraham Cahan, Panken responded as follows:
He forgets that most ofPalestine belongs to theArabs, and the number of the latter compared with theJews is six to one . . . this movement gives precedence to the cause of 200,000 or even a million Jews over the kind of future in store for the 16 million Jews in the world. If there is a Jewish problem, it should be solved for the Jews all over the world, not only for the few who are already in Palestine or are going to be there.[16]
In 1934, he was appointed to theDomestic Relations Court by MayorFiorello La Guardia and served until his retirement in 1955.[1]
Panken died inThe Bronx, New York City on February 4, 1968, at the age of 89.[1]
His papers are housed at theWisconsin Historical Society on the campus of theUniversity of Wisconsin–Madison,[17] as well as at theTamiment Library on the campus ofNew York University.[18]
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