"The People's Judge": Jacob Panken, Yiddish Socialism, and American Law. Issue 1 (28th January 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Tevis, Britt P
• Is Part Of: American journal of legal history. Volume 59:Issue 1(2019)
• Page Start: 31
• Page End: 70
• Publication Date: 2019-01-28
• Subjects: Law -- United States -- History -- Periodicals; Law -- History -- Periodicals; Law; United States; Electronic journals; History; Periodicals; 349.7309
• DOI: 10.1093/ajlh/njy026
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0002-9319

Abstract

Abstract: This article explores the career of Jacob Panken, the first judge elected on a Socialist Party ticket in the United States. Situating Panken in an early twentieth-century Jewish immigrant milieu and analyzing some of the cases over which he presided, it shows how he employed legal realism to weave Yiddish socialism, a political philosophy espoused by turn-of-the-century Eastern European Jews in New York City, into his judicial decisions. Illuminating Panken's unique place in the American judiciary, it contributes to scholarship on American socialism, twentieth-century American Jewish lawyers, and local legal histories.