Lewis C. Levin
| Lewis Charles Levin | |
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| Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania's 1st district |
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In office March 4, 1845 – March 3, 1851 |
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| Preceded by | Edward J. Morris |
| Succeeded by | Thomas B. Florence |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
November 10, 1808 Charleston, South Carolina, US |
| Died | March 14, 1860 (aged 51) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US |
| Political party | Know-Nothing |
| Spouse(s) | Ann Hays Julia Gist |
| Children | Louis |
| Profession | Politician |
| Religion |
Judaism Methodism (converted) |
Lewis Charles Levin (November 10, 1808 – March 14, 1860) was an American politician, Know Nothing, and anti-Catholic social activist of the 1840s and 1850s. He served three terms in the United States Congress (U.S. House of Representatives, 1845–51), representing Pennsylvania's 1st District. Levin is considered to have been the first Jewish Congressman although David Levy Yulee served as a territorial representative from Florida prior to Levin's entering Congress.
Lewis Charles Levin was born in Charleston, South Carolina and graduated from South Carolina College (later the University of South Carolina) in 1828. He then briefly taught school in Woodville, Mississippi, but had to quit town after being wounded in a duel. Levin then practiced law in Maryland and Kentucky.
By 1838 Levin was in Philadelphia and giving public lectures on the evils of alcohol. He founded and edited a journal called the Temperance Advocate. In 1842 he staged an immense public "bonfire of booze" to draw attention to his campaign against taverns and for local control of liquor licensing.
Levin's anti-alcohol crusade proved to be excellent preparation for his next cause, a campaign against Catholic political power, which he carried on in two papers, the Native American and The Daily Sun. Initially the main political issue was an 1843 public school ruling permitting Catholic children to be excused from Bible-reading class (because the Protestant King James Version was being used). Levin became the leader and chief spokesman for a start-up political movement calling itself the American Republican Party (later the Native American Party). On May 3, 1844 Levin attempted to give a speech in the center of the Irish-Catholic neighborhood of Kensington. The locals ended up chasing all of the protesters out of the neighborhood. The following Monday, May 6, Levin returned with 3000 protesters. The ensuing fighting led to dozens of people killed, hundreds injured, and hundreds more left homeless as most of the neighborhood homes were burned by rioters. In addition the Catholic Churches St. Michael and St. Augustine were demolished completely by fire.
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