Oscar Straus
ABOUT OSCAR STRAUS
United States Secretary of Commerce and Labor under Theodore Roosevelt who was the first Jewish U.S. Cabinet member. In 1912 he made an unsuccessful bid to be the Governor of New York.
He emigrated from Otterberg, Germany to Talbotton, Georgia when he was young.
He served as U.S. Minister to the Ottoman Empire at the end of the 19th century.
His brother Isidor was a co-owner of Macy's and representative from New York who perished on the RMS Titanic.
He paved the way for other Jewish cabinet members like Henry Kissinger .
