Isaac Bacharach, U.S. Congress

Born: In Philadelphia, Jan. 5, 1870.
Start his life: Retail clothier. Career: When he was 11, his family moved to the New Jersey coast, becoming the first Jews to colonize Atlantic City. There, after graduating from the high school, he joined his father in the family clothing business. Expanding as "the playground of America" expanded. Brothers Isaac, Harry & Benjamin spread into real estate, lumber and banking. Later Isaac and Harry went in for politics. Isaac was elected to the City Council in 1907. Harry was elected Mayor in 1911. In 1914, after two years in the State Legislature, Isaac was elected Republican Representative from the Second (Atlantic City) New Jersey District. A trainload of friends took him down to Washington, where his legislative headquarters have been ever since.
In Congress: He soon got himself appointed to the potent Ways & Means Committee. There, with Texas' Democratic Garner and Ohio's Republican Longworth, the famed Congressional triumvirate of "Ike, Jack & Nick" was formed. They played poker and politics together. In 1925, it was "Ike" Bacharach who swung the Pennsylvania Republicans to Longworth, made his friend Speaker of the House. A master at compromise and conciliation, he mediated the bill to lend veterans up to 50% of the face value of their adjusted service certificates, spared President Hoover the defeat of an overridden veto on the proposal for payment in full. He voted for: Hawley-Smoot tariff (1930). Hoover moratorium (1931), sales tax (1932). beer (1932-33), Repeal (1932-33), tax increases (1932), Economy Act (1933), NIRA (1933), abrogating gold contracts (1933), overriding veto on veterans' compensation (1934). He voted against: full payment of the Bonus (1932-34), Philippine independence (1932). AAA (1934), cotton control (1934), Dies silver bill (1934), tax bill (1934), stock exchange regulation (1934). With a reputation for clever off-the-floor work, he rarely makes long appearances in the House, fidgets nervously when he does. No Congressional voice is heard less often than his in the House well. In the 72nd Congress, second session, he introduced only three bills: one for private relief for a constituent, one to expand certain RFC loan powers, one to survey a New Jersey creek. Legislative hobbies: high tariffs, low taxes for business. During the Hoover Administration he practically ran the Ways & Means Committee (taxes & tariffs), although Oregon's Hawley was chairman. Today as the No. 2 G. O. P. committeeman, his influence is greater among his colleagues than that of the senior Republican member, Massachusetts' Treadway. As a Ways & Means Committeeman, "Ike" Bacharach has no time for other important House committee posts.
In appearance he is formidable—bristling grey mustache: lowering, thick salt-&-pepper eyebrows; wiry white hair. His clothes are well-tailored, neatly fit his medium build. He has a gruff sense of humor. In the Longworth days, capital society used to see him frequently. Now his social life is confined mostly to his Congressional colleagues, particularly his friend Vice President Garner. A bachelor, he lives when in Washington at the Mayflower Hotel. Outside Congress: Belonging not only to the first Jewish family but to the First Family of Atlantic City, "Ike" Bacharach owns a comfortable seaside house there, divides his time at home between his Bacharach Real Estate Co. ("Brigantine Beach development) and his Atlantic City Lumber Co. Brother Benjamin is now retired. Brother Harry was drafted back into the mayor's office in 1930 after the scandals of the Ruffu regime. Until a few years ago, each of the Brothers Bacharach was president of an Atlantic City bank. All are still financially well-off. Chief among their civic interests is the children's hospital built in memory of their mother. Unambitious at 64, Isaac Bacharach is rated by impartial observers thus: an Old Guardsman of the best school, a born behind-the-scenes fixer, "one of the dozen men who really count in the House." His term expires Jan. 3, 1935.
From June 25, 1934, TIME magazine: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,754239-2,00.html#i...

BACHARACH, family of business, political, and communal leaders in Atlantic City, New Jersey. BENJAMIN (1865–1936) was a local merchant and banker. Born in Philadelphia, he and his brothers Isaac and Harry were brought to Atlantic City in 1881 by their parents. Benjamin served as president of the Beth Israel Synagogue of Atlantic City, in which the entire family was active. ISAAC (1870–1956) was a businessman and banker who pursued a political career. After serving on the Atlantic City Council (1907–13), Isaac, a Republican, was elected to the State Assembly in 1911 and in 1915 to Congress, where he represented the Second District of New Jersey until 1936. A member of the House Ways and Means Committee, Bacharach wrote the 1931 act providing for emergency loans based on the value of insurance policies. HARRY (1873–1947), a Republican, was appointed postmaster by President McKinley (1901) and was reappointed by President Roosevelt in 1905 and 1909. He won elections as mayor of Atlantic City in 1911, 1916, and 1932. He served for many years as member and chairman of the New Jersey Public Utilities Commission and as a member of the Water Policy Commission. He was also active in local banking, real estate, and civic affairs, and was a founder of the Jewish Community Center of Atlantic City (1924–25). The Betty Bacharach Home for Afflicted Children (Longport, New Jersey) was founded by the Bacharach brothers and two sisters in 1924 in memory of their mother.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Biographical Directory of the American Congress (1961); Philip R. Goldstein, Centers in My Life (1964), 76, 159.
[Joseph Brandes]
Source: Encyclopaedia Judaica. © 2008 The Gale Group. All Rights Reserved. From http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/bacharach-2

U.S. Congressman. Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, he moved to New Jersey in 1881 and was in the lumber business and in banking. He was a member of the Atlantic City Council, (1905-10) and a member of the New Jersey State House of Assembly in 1911. In 1915, he was a Republican to the Sixty-fourth Congress and to the next ten succeeding Congresses, serving until 1937. After leaving Congress, he was successful in the real-estate and insurance business, until his death at age 86 in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
Bio by: John "J-Cat" Griffith