The following is a list of Jewish political milestones in the United States.
First Jewish member of a colonial legislature (South Carolina): Francis Salvador (1775) First Jewish soldier killed in the American Revolutionary War: Francis Salvador (1776) First Jewish elected official in the United States: Judah Hays; as the Fire Commissioner of the Boston Fire Department (1805) Francis Salvador was elected prior to the formation of the United States. First Jewish member of the U.S. Congress (U.S. House of Representatives): Lewis Charles Levin (1845) First Jewish member of the U.S. Senate: David Levy Yulee (1845) First Jewish mayor of a major American city (Portland, Oregon): Bernard Goldsmith (1869) Two years later, Philip Wasserman succeeded him as mayor. First Jewish governor of a U.S. state (California): Washington Bartlett (1887) First Jewish U.S. Cabinet member (Secretary of Commerce and Labor): Oscar Straus (1906) Not including Judah P. Benjamin, who served in the Confederate Cabinet as Secretary of State and Secretary of War. First Jewish Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court: Louis Brandeis (1916) President Millard Fillmore offered to appoint Judah P. Benjamin to the Supreme Court in 1853, but Benjamin declined. First Jewish female member of the U.S. Congress (U.S. House of Representatives): Florence Prag Kahn (1925) First Jewish Secretary of the Treasury: Henry Morgenthau Jr. (1934) First person of Jewish ancestry to run for President of the United States on a major party ticket: Barry Goldwater (1964) (Goldwater's father was Jewish; Goldwater was raised Episcopalian) First person of Sephardic Jewish ancestry to run for President of the United States: Louis Abolafia (1968) First Jewish candidate to receive an electoral vote for Vice President: Tonie Nathan of the Libertarian Party, from a faithless elector (1972) First Jewish Secretary of State: Henry Kissinger (1973) First Jewish Mayor of New York City: Abraham Beame (1974), (Fiorello LaGuardia, who was mayor from 1934 to 1946, was born to an Italian Jewish mother from Trieste and a lapsed Catholic turned atheist father from Apulia; however, he was a Protestant) First Jewish Attorney General: Edward H. Levi (1975) First Jewish female mayor of a major American city (Dallas): Adlene Harrison (1976) First Jewish Secretary of Defense: Harold Brown (1977) First Jewish female governor of a U.S. state (Vermont): Madeleine M. Kunin (1985) First Jewish openly gay member of the U.S. Congress (U.S. House of Representatives): Barney Frank (took office 1981, disclosed homosexuality 1989) Jared Polis became the first Jewish Congressman to be openly gay upon first election: (2009) First U.S. Senate election in which both major party candidates were Jewish: 1990 Minnesota U.S. Senate Election; with Paul Wellstone defeated Rudy Boschwitz (1990) First independent Jewish member of the U.S. Congress (U.S. House of Representatives): Bernie Sanders (1991) First Jewish female members of the U.S. Senate: Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein (1993) First Jewish female Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court: Ruth Bader Ginsburg (1993) First female Cabinet-level official: Charlene Barshefsky, U.S. Trade Representative (1997)Jewish Woman's Archive: "Charlene Barshefsky" by Robert D. Johnson retrieved November 19, 2012 First Jewish nominee for Vice President of the United States on a major party ticket, and first Jewish candidate to receive an electoral vote, excluding faithless electors: Joe Lieberman (2000) First Jewish U.S. House whip: Eric Cantor (2009) (also first Jewish whip in either chamber of Congress) First Jewish U.S. House floor leader: Eric Cantor (2011)(also first Jewish floor leader and majority leader in either chamber of Congress) First Jewish female U.S. Cabinet member in the Presidential Line of Succession (Secretary of Commerce): Penny Pritzker (2013) First Jewish American to win a presidential primary (New Hampshire) and delegates: Bernie Sanders (2016)Krieg, Gregory. "Bernie Sanders could be the first Jewish president. Does he care?", CNN (February 5, 2016): "Sanders, a self-identified democratic socialist, has repeatedly described himself as a secular Jew...." (Barry Goldwater, the 1964 Republican presidential nominee, was the first winner of Jewish heritage, but was a Christian). First Jewish American to receive an electoral vote for President: Bernie Sanders, from a faithless elector (2016)Seven Presidential Electors Are Allowed to Cast Votes for Candidates Other than Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton Ballot Access News (Barry Goldwater was the first of Jewish heritage, in 1964, but was not Jewish) First Jewish U.S. Senate floor leader: Chuck Schumer (2017) (also first Jewish minority leader in either chamber of Congress) First Jewish Second Gentleman (and first Jewish American spouse of Vice President): Douglas Emhoff (2021) First Jewish U.S. Senate majority leader: Chuck Schumer (2021) First Jewish female (and the first woman) Secretary of the Treasury: Janet Yellen (2021)
See also List of Jewish American politicians
References
he:יהדות ארצות הברית#ציוני דרך