Irwin Steingut
| Irwin Steingut | |
|---|---|
 |
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| 107th Speaker of the New York State Assembly | |
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In office January 2, 1935 – December 31, 1935 |
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| Governor | Herbert H. Lehman |
| Preceded by | Joseph A. McGinnies |
| Succeeded by | Irving McNeil Ives |
| Member of the New York State Assembly from the 18th district |
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In office January 1, 1922 – September 26, 1952 |
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| Preceded by | Theodore Stitt |
| Succeeded by | Stanley Steingut |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
October 19, 1893 Lower East Side, Manhattan, New York |
| Died | September 26, 1952 (aged 58) Brooklyn, New York |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouse(s) | Rea Kaufmann |
| Children | Jeanne Eleanor Weiss Stanley |
| Alma mater |
Dwight School St. John's College, School of Law |
| Profession | Insurance |
| Religion | Judaism |
Irwin Steingut (October 19, 1893 in Manhattan, New York - September 26, 1952 in Brooklyn, New York) was an American lawyer, businessman and politician. At the time of his death he had served as a member of the New York Assembly longer than anyone in history. Early in his career he teamed with Brooklyn boss John H. McCooey, who turned Brooklyn into a solidly Democratic power base and dominated its politics for a quarter of a century until his death in 1934. Steingut thereafter became the de facto leader of the Brooklyn Democratic Party. Throughout almost all of his legislative career Republicans held a majority in the New York Assembly, and much of that time Steingut was the Minority Leader. In 1935 for the one year the Democrats had the majority, Steingut was Speaker of the Assembly.
Steingut stoutly defended the Democratic party machine in Brooklyn and when consistent with the Brooklyn machine's interests also Tammany. He faced spirited primary opposition several times by independent Democrats but never lost a race. He was a key legislative ally of both Governors Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Herbert H. Lehman and considered his roles in the passage of unemployment relief under the former and the creation of Brooklyn College his greatest legislative achievements.
His son, Stanley Steingut, filled his Assembly seat at his death and became Speaker forty years after Irwin Steingut held the gavel. Brooklyn sent either Irwin or Stanley Steingut to the New York Assembly for 56 consecutive years.
Irwin Steingut was born on October 19, 1893 (not 1891, as in Schlegel), on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, the first of two sons to Simon and Lena Steingut. His mother, formerly Lena Wolbach, was born in Kiev, then in the Russian Empire. Simon Steingut was born on December 24, 1856, in Hamburg, one of three sons of Joseph Steingut, a banker who founded the banking house of Steingut & Son. He emigrated to the United States, sometime before 1881, where he took up residence in the portion of New York’s Lower East Side known as Klein Deutschland (little Germany). Simon Steingut obtained a position as a Tammany Hall captain and as a result an auctioneer. Eventually he developed a real estate and insurance business as a broker and investor, building a successful firm, S. Steingut Company, first on Second Avenue, later at 47 West 42 Street, Manhattan. He was more famous, however, for his activities as a minor political operative and neighborhood fixer, begun when he opened an office at 31 Second Avenue in 1888, activities in which he engaged as an informally elected community "little mayor" for over a quarter of a century, for which he was referred to as the "Mayor of Second Avenue."
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