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Warren B. Rudman
From alien to senator in three generations
by Joseph PolakofT
A FEW SELECT
SUITES STILL
AVAILABLE
WASHINGTON (JTA)-New
Hampshire's newest Republican
U.S. Senator — Warren B.
Rudman-ris a third-generation
Yankee with Baltic and Russian
forebears who started life in
America a century ago. That first
generation weathered the bitter
hardships of immigrant existence
and the new senator—one of six
Jewish Americans in the upper
chamber of The 97th Congress—has
apparently inherited the
determination of his elders,
although in other ways—to win in
war, legal competition and
national politics.
Senator Rudman, now 50 years
old, has been a battler sinoe his youth—
as a schoolboy at Valley Forge
Military Acadamy and, after
graduation from Syracuse, as an
infantry captain and company
commander in the Korean War
that brought him a bronze star—
the U.S. Army’s third highest
decoration—for heroism under
fire.
Out of the army, as a lawyer in
his hometown of Nashua—40
miles north of Boston —he
continued fighting for his ideas.
Ten years after being graduated
from Boston College Law School,
he was appointed New Hampshire's
attorney general. Within five
years, he was elected president of
the National Awociation of
Attorneys General.
As New Hampshire's chief law
officer, he expanded the criminal
division in his office to deal with
the state's rapid population growth
and put into effect the first
organizations concerned with
consumer and environmental
protection. In 1977, as a private
citizen, he created and led the
citizens’ organization that fought
the legalization of casino gambling
in New Hampshire. With this
background, he entered the
senatorial primary in a field of 10
last year and then, as the
Republican candidate, unseated
the Democratic incumbent. John
Durkin.
What does Rudman stand for?
In the New Hampshire political
campaigns, he spoke out against
the "over-influence of big labor
and its contributions" to political
favorites. He denounced his
Democratic opponent's views
towards the nation’s economic
legislation and national defence. In
keeping with his speeches, he
"wouldn't lake a dime from any
out-of-state political action
committees."
“I’m very strong on national
defense,” he added in an interview
in his office on opening day of the
new Congress. “I’m concerned the
U.S. will be a second rate power by
the end of this decade if something
is not done and done right away.”
That brought up the question of
his vision of Israel in the U.S.
security program. “My position on
U.S. foreign policy is that it must
be in the interests of America,” he
replied. “Israel is a stalwart friend
of the U.S. It’s the only real
democracy in the Middle East. The
U.S. must continue to give strong
support to Israel because it is in
our interest as well as hers. We
must support and strengthen the
Camp David accords and continue
working in that direction. This has
to be a bipartisan effort that
crosses party lines. Some more
moderate Arab countries realize
Israel is a force for stability and
can be a stronger force for stability
in the Middle East.”
Appointed to the Senate
Appropriations and Government
Affairs Committees, both of which
deal with overseas relations,
Rudman was asked about U.S. aid
to Israel and support for Soviet
Jewry. “I will consider foreign aid
point by point,” he said. “Certainly
we should give economic aid to
countries in the Middle East that is
in our own interest as well as theirs.
That also goes for military
equipment.”
Rudman is not associated with
any organization—“Jewish or
otherwise," he said, adding, “I’m
not a joiner." He did not have
much Jewish education—“my
choice"—he said. “Religion is very
personal to me and I don’t talk
about it. I'm well informed about
Jewish religion although I'm not
formally trained." _
The senator’s wife, the former
Shirley Wahl, and his parents,
Edgward G. Rudman and Theresa
Levinson Rudman, attended the
opening of the new Congress along
with his two sisters. Senator and
Mrs. Rudman have a son and two
daughters, all in their twenties.
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In many ways the Rudmans
typify Jewish families that came to
America in the last century.
Grandfather Abraham Rudman
arrived in Bangor from Vilna
about 1881. Only 14, he was placed
on a farm outside of Bangor.
Subsequently he married an
Odessa emigrant and they had four
sons and a daughter, all of whom
became university graduates—
Harvard, Tufts and Wellesley.
Meanwhile, Abraham became a
representative of the Moxie soft
drink company and set up 26
agencies in Maine, New
Hampshire and Vermont. During
World War 1, all four of his sons
served in the U.S. Army.
Meanwhile, the first Rudman
brought his brothers to America
from Lithuania and one of their
sons, Abe Rudman, became a
Maine Supreme Court justice. The
senator’s maternal grandparents, the
Levinsons, both came from Riga in
Latvia and settled in New York
City.
The year Edward Rudman, the
senator’s father, was born in
Bangor, 1897, 12 men in Nashua
founded the Temple Beth
Abraham Congregation. When
Rudman came to Nashua in 1934
the town had 35 Jewish families in
a general population of 30,000.
Since then, with the influx of
electronics industries, the general
population has increased to 75,000
and the Jewish number has grown
to 300 families, many of whose
breadwinners are engineers in the
new industries. Being a builder and
furniture manufacturer, Edward
Rudman was chairman of Temple
Beth Abraham’s committee that
built the new temple for the
community.
As the interview was ending, a
reporter remarked to the senator's
wife that the Rudman saga was
“unbelievable”—from an alien
without English to U.S. senator in
three generations. Hearing this,
the Senator called out, “Only in
America, as Harry Golden would
say.”
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PAGE 13 THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE February 20, 1981