Andrew Lawrence Somers (March 21, 1895 – April 6, 1949) was an American politician who was a Democratic member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New York, serving from 1925 until his death in 1949. Representing a Brooklyn district (an area with a substantial immigrant and Jewish population), Somers' long tenure spanned the economic upheavals of the interwar period, the transformative New Deal era, World War II, and the early stages of the Cold War. He was known for his expertise in monetary legislation, his efforts to aid European Jews fleeing persecution during World War II and his later advocacy related to the founding of the State of Israel.
Biography He attended St. Teresa's Academy in Brooklyn, Brooklyn College Preparatory School, Manhattan College, and the Pratt Institute. Subsequently, he was an entrepreneur in the dry color and chemical fields.
Military service Somers enlisted in the United States military on July 18, 1917, and served in World War I. Initially, he was a naval aviator in the United States Naval Flying Corps, but was later transferred to the Marine Corps and was a captain in the Marine Corps Reserve. He was honorably discharged on March 4, 1919.
Congressional career Somers became active in Democratic Party politics under the tutelage of the Brooklyn Democrat leader John H. McCooey. Somers defeated his Republican challenger, Warren I. Lee. He was just 29 at the time he took office, earning him the nickname "the boy Congressman."
During his years in Congress, Somers chaired the Committee on Coinage, Weights, and Measures. A strong supporter of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal policies, Somers successfully guided FDR's gold devaluation bills through the House of Representatives.
Somers also chaired the Committee on Mines and Mining (Seventy-ninth Congress), and the Committee on Public Lands (Eighty-first Congress). He also was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 1928.
Somers was actively involved in efforts to rescue Jews during the Holocaust, advocated for a Jewish national homeland in Palestine, and helped lead the campaign to create a Jewish army to fight alongside the Allies in World War II.
Committee leadership and policy focus Somers chaired the House Committee on Coinage, Weights, and Measures from the Seventy-second through the Seventy-fifth Congresses (1931-1939). Under his leadership, the committee oversaw legislation regulating U.S. currency and coinage as well as standardization of weights and measures to ensurer fair trade and consumer protection.
Coinage and currency reform During the New Deal period, Congress enacted measures to stabilize the economy and reform the nation's financial system. Somers presided over hearings and considered bills addressing silver purchases, gold revaluation, and modifications to the U.S. coinage standards.U.S. Congress, House Committee on Coinage, Weights, and Measures. Hearings before the Committee on Coinage, Weights, and Measures, 72nd–75th Congresses. Congressional Record, 1931–1939. His committee work intersected with the Roosevelt Administration's initiatives, such as the Gold Reserve Act of 1934 which aimed to restore confidence in the banking system and recalibrate the dollar's value.
Standardization of weights and measures Somers' committee work included ensuring standardized measurements for interstate commerce, a critical aspect of maintaining fair and competitive markets.National Institute of Standards and Technology. A Brief History of U.S. Weights and Measures. Washington: GPO, various years.
After the Legislative Reorganization Act of 1946 merged the Coinage Committee into the House Committee on Banking Reforms to shape broader financial and banking measures, including measures relevant to the United States' emerging role in the postwar global economy.Legislative Reorganization Act of 1946, Pub. L. 79-601, 60 Stat. 812.
Social Security Act (1935) Somers joined the majority of the House Democrats in voting for the Social Security Act establishing a safety net of old-age pensions, unemployment insurance, and aid for the disabled.Social Security Act of 1935, Pub. L. 74–271, 49 Stat. 620. Congressional Record, August 8, 1935.
Financial reforms Somers supported key banking legislation such as the Glass-Steagall Act (1933), which established the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and separated commercial from investment banking.Glass-Steagall Act (Banking Act of 1933), Pub. L. 73–66, 48 Stat. 162. Congressional Record, June 13, 1933.
Support for Jewish refugee rescue efforts Somers backed congressional resolutions and signed on to appeals urging the Roosevelt Administration and Allied governments to facilitate the rescue and admission of Jewish refugees. He supported proposals related to the Wagner-Rogers Bill (1939), which sought to admit refugee children to the United States and later measures that called for the establishment of government agencies to assist victims of Nazi oppression. Although the Wagner-Roger Bill failed, the pressure from Somers and aligned legislators contributed to the eventual creation of the War Refugee Board in 1944.Feingold, Henry L. The Politics of Rescue: The Roosevelt Administration and the Holocaust, 1938–1945. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1970. The Congressional Record includes multiple entries from 1943-1944 where Somers' colleagues publicity acknowledge widespread support in Congress, including Somers, for more robust U.S. action to save Jews trapped under Nazi rule.Congressional Record, 78th Congress, 1st and 2nd Sessions (1943–1944), debates and statements referencing legislative appeals for rescue efforts.
Advocacy and public appeals Somers's name was associated with House caucuses sympathetic to Jewish rescue. He also joined appeals to the State Department and President Roosevelt, urging more proactive steps to mitigate the ongoing humanitarian crisis.Wyman, David S. The Abandonment of the Jews: America and the Holocaust, 1941–1945. New York: Pantheon, 1984, pp. 60–65, 135–140.
Support for the formation of Israel as the war ended and attention turned toward the fate of Holocaust survivors and the status of Palestine, Somers became involved in congressional dialogues supporting Jewish aspirations in the British Mandate of Palestine.
Legislative and public stance on Israel Following President Harry S. Truman's recognition of the State of Israel on May 14, 1948, Somers publicly welcomed the decision. In House proceedings as well as in correspondence preserved in archival holdings, Somers praised the new nation's creation as a vital step toward providing a secure refuge for survivors of the Holocaust and cementing democratic values in the Middle East.Congressional Record, 80th Congress, 2nd Session (1948), statements following U.S. recognition of Israel. Also see local Brooklyn newspapers from May–June 1948 discussing representatives’ reactions.
The Jewish Army Campaign Somers was one of the earliest supporters of the Jewish political action committees collectively known as the Bergson Group. The congressman was approached in 1941 by the Bergson Group's new Washington lobbyist, Rabbi Baruch Rabinowitz. In his unpublished autobiography, Rabinowitz wrote that Somers's sympathy for the plight of the Jews in Nazi-dominated Europe was rooted in family lore. According to Rabinowitz, Somers's grandmother and her infant son (his father), found themselves in dire straits upon arriving in the United States from Ireland and were befriended by a Jewish family.Rafael Medoff, Militant Zionism in America: The Rise and Impact of the Jabotinsky Movement in the United States, 1926–1948 (Tuscaloosa, AL: University of Alabama Press, 2002), p.74Samuel Merlin, Millions of Jews to Rescue (Rafael Medoff, ed.) (Washington, DC: The David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies, 2011), pp.47–48
During the Bergson Group's first months lobbying in Washington, when it did not yet have its own office, Congressman Somers permitted Rabinowitz to work out of his Capitol Hill office.
Initially known as the Committee for a Jewish Army of Stateless and Palestinian Jews, the Bergson Group in 1941–1942 focused on seeking U.S. support for the creation of an armed Jewish force that would fight alongside the Allies against the Nazis. Somers introduced a "sense of Congress" resolution to that effect in February 1942, sparking the first serious public discussions concerning the Jewish army proposal.David S. Wyman and Rafael Medoff, A Race Against Death: Peter Bergson, America, and the Holocaust (New York: The New Press, 2002), pp.26–27
The Roosevelt and Churchill administrations opposed the proposal, on the grounds that it might provoke a backlash in the Arab world, where the idea of a Jewish army was seen as a precursor to the creation of a Jewish state in British Mandatory Palestine. Rattled by Somers's outspoken support for the Jewish army idea, one British Embassy official in Washington privately described the congressman as "the less happy type of Irish American Catholic demagogue." The British government rejected a request by Rep. Somers and three other Jewish army advocates to visit London in 1942 to promote the proposal.Henderson (Foreign Office) to Baker (Colonial Office), November 28, 1945, CO733/461/75872/14C, PRO, cited in Medoff, Militant Zionism, p.26 Merlin, p.50.
In late 1944, the British government decided that establishing a Jewish fighting force, which it called the Jewish Brigade, was necessary to impress American public opinion and avoid strains in the U.S.-British relationship. Prime Minister Winston Churchill explained the establishment of the Jewish Brigade in these terms: "I like the idea of the Jews trying to get at the murderers of their fellow-countrymen in Europe, and I think it would give a great deal of satisfaction in the United States." The Bergson Group celebrated the creation of the Jewish Brigade by holding a dinner in Washington to honor Rep. Somers as the leader of the congressional effort."A Dinner in Honor of A. L. Somers," The Answer, November 1943, p.26.
Rescue from the Holocaust In December 1942, the Allies publicly confirmed that the Germans were carrying out the systematic slaughter of millions of Jews. The Bergson Group responded by launching a campaign for U.S. action to rescue Jews from the Nazis. Somers played a leading role in that effort.Wyman and Medoff, pp.8–9.
Somers's name appeared on dozens of full-page advertisements advocating rescue, which the Bergson Group placed in newspapers around the country. The public endorsement by a prominent member of Congress added luster to the Bergson efforts. Somers gave numerous speeches in Congress supporting Bergson's rescue demands and addressed the group's conferences.Rafael Medoff, Militant Zionism in America, pp.26
It was politically risky for Somers to play such a high-profile role in the Bergson Group. He was a loyal Democrat and Roosevelt supporter. He also needed the backing of the party and the White House in his re-election bids. Nonetheless, Somers opted to publicly identify with a campaign that directly challenged FDR on the Jewish refugee crisis.