Representative Benjamin J. Rabin

Benjamin Jacob Rabin (June 3, 1896 – February 22, 1969) was an American lawyer, jurist, World War I veteran, and Democratic politician who served as a Representative from New York in the United States Congress from 1945 to 1949. Over the course of a career that spanned private law practice, legislative counsel work, and long judicial service, he contributed to the legislative process during two terms in office and later became a justice of the New York Supreme Court and its Appellate Division.

Rabin was born on June 3, 1896, in Rochester, New York. He later moved to New York City to pursue legal studies and enrolled at New York University School of Law. His education was interrupted by the United States’ entry into World War I, when he chose to leave school and enter military service. After the war, he returned to New York University School of Law and completed his legal education, graduating in 1919.

During World War I, Rabin served in the United States Navy. He entered the Navy on May 30, 1917, and served on active duty until January 1919, attaining the rank of ensign. Following his active service, he remained in the Navy Reserve until 1921. His wartime experience as a naval officer formed an early part of his public service and preceded his long career in law and government.

Upon his graduation from law school in 1919, Rabin was admitted to the bar and began practicing as an attorney in New York. Over the next decade and a half, he developed a reputation in financial and mortgage matters. In 1934–1935, he served as counsel to the New York State Legislature’s joint committee investigating guaranteed mortgages, a period marked by efforts to address the financial dislocations of the Great Depression. He subsequently served as counsel to the New York State Mortgage Commission from 1935 to 1937 and then as chairman of that commission from 1937 to 1939, playing a significant role in the state’s oversight of mortgage practices. During World War II, he continued his public service at the local level as head of the Bronx Board of Appeals for the Selective Service System, overseeing appeals related to military conscription.

Rabin entered national politics in 1944, when he was elected to Congress as a Democrat from New York. In that campaign he accepted support from the Liberal Party of New York State but declined backing from the American Labor Party. He took his seat in the House of Representatives on January 3, 1945, and served during a significant period in American history, encompassing the final months of World War II and the early postwar years. As a member of the House of Representatives, Benjamin J. Rabin participated in the democratic process and represented the interests of his New York constituents, contributing to the legislative process during two terms in office. Although he is often noted as having served one term from 1945 to 1947, his congressional service extended in practice from January 3, 1945, until his resignation at the end of 1947, covering the 79th Congress and into the 80th Congress.

Rabin’s congressional career came to an end when he was nominated for judicial office. On August 7, 1947, a Democratic judicial district convention nominated him to fill a vacancy as a justice of the New York Supreme Court. He was elected to that court on November 4, 1947, for a full fourteen-year term. In order to assume his judicial duties, he resigned his seat in Congress effective December 31, 1947; his former congressional seat was subsequently won by Leo Isacson. Rabin formally began his judicial service on January 5, 1948, and would remain on the bench for the rest of his life.

Rabin’s judicial career advanced further when, in January 1955, he was appointed an associate justice of the Appellate Division of the New York Supreme Court for a term ending December 31, 1961. He was reelected in 1961, reflecting continued confidence in his judicial work, and he continued to serve as a justice of the Supreme Court and its Appellate Division from January 5, 1948, until his death in 1969. Over these years he became a prominent figure in New York’s judiciary, known for his long tenure and experience in complex civil and commercial matters.

In his personal life, Rabin married Syd Sobel Rabin. The couple had no children. He was part of the broader tradition of Jewish participation in American public life and is included among Jewish members of the United States Congress. In his later years, Rabin spent time in Florida, where his life came to a close. He died at age 70 on February 22, 1969, in Palm Beach, Florida. He was buried at Riverside Cemetery in Saddle Brook, New Jersey, concluding a career that encompassed military service, legislative work, and more than two decades on the bench of New York’s highest trial court and its intermediate appellate court.