US Congressman. Elected as a Democrat to represent New York's 14th District in the Seventy-sixth and Seventy-seventh Congresses, he served from February 6, 1940 until his death. He is remembered today for one of the most dramatic exits in Congressional history. Edelstein was born into a Jewish family in Meseritz, Lublin, Poland, and immigrated with them to New York City in 1891. He graduated from Cooper Union College and the Brooklyn Law School of St. Lawrence University, was admitted to the bar in 1910, and was a practicing attorney in Manhattan for nearly 30 years. Although he had never held a political office, he won a special 1939 election to the US House of Representatives to fill the vacancy left by William I. Sirovich, who had died in office. He was reelected to a full term in 1940. On June 4, 1941, Edelstein addressed Congress for the last time in response to Mississippi Representative John Elliott Rankin, who had accused "international Jewish brethren" of conspiring to draw the US into World War II. Edelstein retorted, "Hitler started out by speaking about 'Jewish brethren'. It is becoming the play and the work of those people who want to demagogue to speak about their 'Jewish brethren' and 'international bankers.'...I deplore the idea that...men in this House...attempt to use the Jews as their scapegoat. I say it is unfair and I say it is un-American...All men are created equal, regardless of race, creed or color, and whether a man be Jew or Gentile, he may think what he deems fit". Edelstein then stormed out of the House chamber and into the cloakroom, where he collapsed and died from a heart attack.
US Congressman. Elected as a Democrat to represent New York's 14th District in the Seventy-sixth and Seventy-seventh Congresses, he served from February 6, 1940 until his death. He is remembered today for one of the most dramatic exits in Congressional history. Edelstein was born into a Jewish family in Meseritz, Lublin, Poland, and immigrated with them to New York City in 1891. He graduated from Cooper Union College and the Brooklyn Law School of St. Lawrence University, was admitted to the bar in 1910, and was a practicing attorney in Manhattan for nearly 30 years. Although he had never held a political office, he won a special 1939 election to the US House of Representatives to fill the vacancy left by William I. Sirovich, who had died in office. He was reelected to a full term in 1940. On June 4, 1941, Edelstein addressed Congress for the last time in response to Mississippi Representative John Elliott Rankin, who had accused "international Jewish brethren" of conspiring to draw the US into World War II. Edelstein retorted, "Hitler started out by speaking about 'Jewish brethren'. It is becoming the play and the work of those people who want to demagogue to speak about their 'Jewish brethren' and 'international bankers.'...I deplore the idea that...men in this House...attempt to use the Jews as their scapegoat. I say it is unfair and I say it is un-American...All men are created equal, regardless of race, creed or color, and whether a man be Jew or Gentile, he may think what he deems fit". Edelstein then stormed out of the House chamber and into the cloakroom, where he collapsed and died from a heart attack.
Bio by: Bobb Edwards
Inscription
EDELSTEIN
BELOVED SON
AND BROTHER
M. MICHAEL
DIED JUNE 4, 1941
AGE 53 YEARS
MEMBER OF CONGRESS, U.S.A.
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