Ruth Messinger

{{Infobox officeholder

| name = Ruth Messinger

| image = Ruth Messinger 2012 (cropped).jpg

| caption = Messinger in 2012

| office = 24th Borough President of Manhattan

| term_start = January 1, 1990

| term_end = December 31, 1997

| office2 = Member of the New York City Council for the 4th district

| term_start2 = January 1, 1978

| term_end2 = December 31, 1988

| predecessor2 = Henry T. Berger

| successor2 = Ronnie Eldridge

| predecessor = David Dinkins

| successor = C. Virginia Fields

| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1940|11|6}}

| birth_place = New York City, New York, U.S.

| death_date =

| death_place =

| party = Democratic

| spouse = Andrew Lachman

| children = 3

| education = Harvard University (BA)
University of Oklahoma (MSW)

| otherparty = Democratic Socialists of America{{cite web |last1=Mort |first1=Jo-Ann |title=Ruth Messinger-Local Issues, Socialist Vision |url=https://www.dissentmagazine.org/article/ruth-messinger-local-issues-socialist-vision |publisher=Dissent |access-date=June 1, 2023 |date=Fall 1987}}{{cite web |last1=Bruni |first1=Frank |title=RACE FOR CITY HALL: The Democratic candidate.; Messinger's Long Road in Pursuit of the Mayoralty |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1997/10/12/nyregion/race-for-city-hall-democratic-candidate-messinger-s-long-road-pursuit-mayoralty.html |work=The New York Times |access-date=June 1, 2023 |date=October 12, 1997}}

}}

Ruth Wyler Messinger (born November 6, 1940){{Cite web|url=https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/messinger-ruth|title=Ruth Messinger|website=Jewish Women's Archive|date=December 7, 2021 }} is a former American political leader in New York City and a member of the Democratic Party. She was the Democratic nominee for Mayor of New York City in 1997, losing to incumbent mayor Rudy Giuliani.

Biography

= Life =

Born and raised in New York, Messinger attended the Brearley School. She graduated from Radcliffe College of Harvard University in 1962,{{cite news|last1=Traub|first1=James|date=August 10, 1997|title=New York's Loneliest Liberal|work=Slate|url=https://slate.com/news-and-politics/1997/08/new-york-s-loneliest-liberal.html|access-date= December 16, 2020|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050228045405/http://slate.msn.com/id/1828/|archive-date=February 28, 2005}} and received a Master of Social Work from the University of Oklahoma in 1964. She is married to Andrew Lachman, her second husband, and has three children. She was formerly the President and CEO of American Jewish World Service, an international development agency.{{cn|date=August 2022}}

=Politics=

Messinger was a delegate to the 1980 Democratic National Convention and served on the New York City Council from 1978 to 1989, representing the Upper West Side of Manhattan. In the City Council, she proposed extending rent control from individuals to businesses. From 1990 to 1998, she served as Manhattan borough president, an office she gave up to unsuccessfully run for mayor in the 1997 election. Her candidacy made her the city's first female Democratic mayoral candidate.{{cite news |last1=Murphy |first1=Jarrett |title=Women Have Already Made History in the 2021 Mayoral Race |url=https://citylimits.org/2020/11/23/women-have-already-made-history-in-the-2021-mayoral-race/ |access-date=December 16, 2020 |work=CityLimits |date=November 23, 2020}}

A political liberal, Messinger was known for her advocacy on behalf of public schools, efforts to achieve compromise between developers and neighborhood activists, and her aggressive media work. She is pro-choice and opposes the death penalty. During her 1997 campaign, she was nearly forced into a Democratic primary runoff with Reverend Al Sharpton, but avoided it by receiving 40% of the vote during a recount. She ultimately lost to Giuliani but received more than 500,000 votes.

In 2005, Messinger endorsed Fernando Ferrer for mayor in the 2005 mayoral election. Ferrer had briefly run against her for mayor in 1997, before dropping out to endorse her and then run for reelection as Bronx borough president.{{citation needed|date=December 2020}}

=Post-political career=

From 1998 until 2016 she was President and CEO of American Jewish World Service before transitioning to an Ambassador role with the organization.{{cite web |title=Ruth Messinger |date=March 15, 2015 |url=https://ajws.org/who-we-are/our-team/staff/ruth-messinger/ |publisher=American Jewish World Service |access-date=December 16, 2020}}

In late 2005, following a high-profile year that included the Asian tsunami and Hurricane Katrina, The Forward, a Jewish newspaper based in New York City, named her to the top of its annual "Forward Fifty" list of the most influential American Jews. Messinger is also a board member of Hazon and a trustee emerita of the Jewish Foundation for Education of Women. In 2015 she was named as one of The Forward 50.{{Cite web|url=https://forward.com/series/forward-50/2015/ruth-messinger/|title=Ruth Messinger|website=The Forward|date=November 9, 2015 }}

Messinger serves as the inaugural Social Justice Fellow at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America and the Social Justice Activist-in-Residence at the JCC of Manhattan.

In 2020, she served on incoming Queens Borough President Donovan Richards' transition team.{{cite news |title=Donovan Richards sworn in as Queens borough president |url=http://amsterdamnews.com/news/2020/dec/10/donovan-richards-sworn-queens-borough-president/ |access-date=December 16, 2020 |work=Amsterdam News |date=December 10, 2020}}

References

External links

[https://ajws.org/search/ruth+messinger/ Ruth Messinger's articles at American Jewish World Service website]
{{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/19970121104613/http://ruth97.org/ |date=January 21, 1997 |title=Ruth97.org Ruth Messinger for Mayor}}

{{s-ttl|title=Member of the New York City Council
from the 4th district|years=1978–1989}}