WOLF, SIMON

WOLF, SIMON (1836–1923), U.S. lawyer, communal leader, and lobbyist. Born in Hinzweiler, Germany, Wolf, the son of Levi Wolf and nephew of Elias Wolf, went to the United States in 1848 and settled in Ulrichsville, Ohio. In 1860 he served as an alternate delegate to the Democratic national convention, but shortly thereafter formed a lifelong allegiance to the Republican Party. Disillusioned with a business career, Wolf studied law in 1862 and went to Washington, where he opened a law practice. After the presidential election of 1868, when he publicly defended General Ulyssses S. *Grant against charges of antisemitism stemming from a Civil War incident, Wolf was rewarded with the post of recorder of deeds for the District of Columbia. He held this post until 1877, when political pressures forced his resignation, and then served as a judge of the municipal court in the district. In 1881 he became the United States consul in Egypt, where he tried to foster trade between the two countries. In 1882 Wolf resumed his law practice in Washington, d.c. At that time Washington was sufficiently provincial to allow easy access to all political leaders and Wolf availed himself of this privilege; he soon viewed himself as a spokesman for the U.S. Jewish community to the federal government and claimed a personal acquaintance with every president from Lincoln through Wilson.

A skillful organizer, Wolf was the representative of *B'nai B'rith in Washington, serving as its president in 1904. Early in his career he acquired the permanent chairmanship of the Committee on Civil and Religious Rights of the *Union of American Hebrew Congregations (see *Board of Delegates of American Israelites). He scored several achievements in social justice and liberal legal interpretations, which included a ruling from the immigration authorities that persons dependent on private charities were not liable to deportation as public charges, and the postponement for four years of the enactment of a restrictive immigrant literacy bill. He was said to have saved some 103,000 aliens from deportation through personal intervention. Wolf publicized the plight of Russian and Romanian Jewry by securing in 1870 the appointment of a Jew, Benjamin F. *Peixotto, as consul to Bucharest; by urging the publication of Secretary of State John Hay's Romanian Note, reiterating basic rights for Jews; by helping to effect the quick release of the Kishinev Petition, aimed at world censure of Russian antisemitism; and by working for the abrogation of a discriminatory Russo-American commercial treaty (1911). As a spokesman for Reform Judaism, Wolf opposed governmental attempts to identify Jews as a group and was vociferous in denying Zionist aspirations, a matter in which he claimed assurances from President Wilson. Jealous of his prerogatives, Wolf engaged in internecine quarrels with the *American Jewish Committee. A member of the Washington Board of Charities and of its Board of Education, he served as president of the Washington Hebrew Congregation. Wolf wrote numerous articles and two large works: The American Jew as Soldier, Patriot and Citizen (1895), a study of Jews in the U.S. armed forces (1774–1865), and an autobiography, The Presidents I Have Known (1918). A collection of Selected Addresses and Papers appeared in 1926. His papers are on deposit at the American Jewish Historical Society.

Wolf's son, adolf grant (1869–1947), was born in Washington, d.c., admitted to the bar in 1893, and for 11 years conducted a law practice in Washington. In the early 1900s he was appointed associate justice of the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico, serving on the bench until 1941, when he retired. He was also a member of the Commission of Uniform State Laws (Puerto Rico) from 1918 to 1930.

bibliography:

M.J. Kohler, in: ajhsp, 29 (1925), 198–206; D.H. and E.L. Panitz, ibid., 47 (1957), 76–100; E.L. Panitz, ibid., 53 (1963), 99–130; 55 (1965), 57–97.

[Esther Panitz]