MACK, JULIAN WILLIAM

MACK, JULIAN WILLIAM (1866–1943), U.S. judge and Zionist leader. Mack, who was born in San Francisco, graduated from Harvard Law School in 1887, studied at the universities of Berlin and Leipzig, entered law practice in Chicago, and served as professor of law at Northwestern University (1895–1902) and the University of Chicago (1902–40). He was elected judge of the circuit court of Cook County, Illinois, in 1903, and was judge of the Chicago juvenile court (1904–07), and the U.S. commerce court (1911–13). In 1904 he became president of the National Conference of Social Workers. His interest in the welfare of children was recognized in his appointment as one of the chairmen of the White House conference on children in 1908. Mack was appointed to the U.S. circuit court of appeals in 1913 and presided over hundreds of civil and criminal cases until his retirement in 1941. As a judge in Chicago and subsequently, Mack fought for a progressive approach to the problem of juvenile delinquency. During World War i, he performed ably on several national assignments, including the establishment of standards for reasonable treatment of conscientious objectors. A member of the Harvard University Board of Overseers for 18 years, he was influential in blocking a proposal in 1922 for a numerus clausus for Jewish students.

Mack's interest in Jewish affairs was deep and abiding. In addition to active participation in social work and charitable endeavors, he was among the founders of the American Jewish Committee in 1906 and on its executive committee for 12 years. Influenced by *Brandeis, Mack became an ardent Zionist, served as president of the first American Jewish Congress in 1918, and first chairman of the *Comité des Délégations Juives at the Versailles Peace Conference in 1919. Mack was elected president of the *Zionist Organization of America in 1918, but resigned with Brandeis in a dispute over methods of developing Palestine. He continued his efforts, however, holding high posts in the Palestine Endowment Fund, World Jewish Congress, Jewish Agency for Palestine, United Palestine Appeal, and the Hebrew University. The Israel settlement Ramat ha-Shofet ("Judge's Hill") was so called in his memory. Mack's credo, "We ask no more for the Jew than we do for anyone else," expressed both his sense of justice and loyalty to his people. He wrote Americanism and Zionism (1918).

bibliography:

Kallen, in: ajyb, 46 (1944–45), 35–46; New York Times (Sept. 6, 1943), 17:1; S.S. Wise, As I See It (1944), 178–83.

[Morton Rosenstock]