Oscar Straus (politician)
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Oscar Solomon Straus |
Oscar Solomon Straus (
December 23 1850 –
May 3 1926) was
United States Secretary of Commerce and Labor under President
Theodore Roosevelt from
1906 to
1909. Straus was the first
Jew to serve as a
Presidential Cabinet Secretary.
He was born in
Germany and first served as
United States Minister to
Turkey from
1887 to
1889 and again from
1898 to
1899. He left the Commerce Department in
1909 when
William Howard Taft became president and became
U.S. Ambassador to Turkey until
1910. In
1912, he ran unsuccessfully for
Governor of New York.
The Straus family had several influential members including Straus' grandson
Roger W. Straus, Jr., who started the publishing company of
Farrar, Straus and Giroux; his brother,
Isidor Straus, who and perished aboard the
RMS Titanic in 1912, served as a representative from
New York City's 15th District, and was co-owner of the department store
R. H. Macy & Co. along with another brother
Nathan; and nephew
Jesse Isador Straus, Ambassador to
France from
1933 to
1936.
Washington, D.C. commemorates the achievements of this famous Jewish-German-American statesman in the
Oscar Straus Memorial.
