Matthew Feldman (March 22, 1919 – April 11, 1994) was an American Democratic Party politician who served as a New Jersey State Senator and Mayor of Teaneck, New Jersey.
As Mayor of Teaneck in the early 1960s, he achieved racial and political harmony during integration of its schools and neighborhoods. He served as the president of the New Jersey Senate.
Early life
Feldman was born on March 22, 1919, in Jersey City, New Jersey, the son of Samuel and Mary Feldman, both Jewish immigrants from Poland. He had an older brother, Norman, and a younger brother, Melvin. He attended Henry Snyder High School. He excelled in basketball and boxing, and joined the boxing team at the University of North Carolina. He used his physical prowess to "bust up" pro-Nazi German American Bund rallies held in North Bergen in the late 1930s, acting as a "heckler, protester, and street fighter."
He served as a U.S. Air Force Captain during World War II, and later served as New Jersey State Commander of the Jewish War Veterans. He later attended Panzer College.
According to Feldman's longtime friend Leon Sokol, in 1946, Feldman was driving on Route 17 when he spotted a sign for new housing in Ridgewood reading "Restricted Development," code for no Jews or blacks. Feldman stopped the car, called some veteran friends and staged the forerunner of a "flash" protest.
Feldman moved to Teaneck in 1947 after marrying Muriel Gunsberg. He joined the Federal Wine and Liquor Company, a liquor distribution business started by his father and uncle.
Mayor of Teaneck (1959-66) In 1958, Feldman was elected to the non-partisan Teaneck Township Council and was re-elected in 1962 with over 75% of the vote.
In February 1959, he became the mayor of Teaneck following the death of Mayor August Hanniball Jr. He served as mayor until 1966.
According to Feldman, the Bergen County Republican organization attempted to recruit him to run as a "New Jersey Jacob Javits." Feldman told a New York Times reporter in 1972 that his political identity was solidified by John F. Kennedy:"Then Kennedy came into town in 1960. He electrified me. It was that that made me go into partisan politics. I felt you had to be a Democrat. Nothing else made sense."Columnist Charles Stile of The Record later wrote that Feldman's "awakening occurred just as Teaneck threatened to become a racial tinderbox over a plan to integrate the Teaneck Public Schools – a plan advanced by the pioneering Superintendent of Schools Harvey B. Scribner, which created a new, central-sixth Bryant School in the predominantly black northeast section of Teaneck. It involved busing some students, which sparked the uproar."
Officially, Mayor Feldman and the rest of the Teaneck Council remained neutral, citing a separation of powers between the municipal government and the elected Board of Education. In September 1964, Feldman was interviewed on WJRZ radio following threats of boycotting the opening day of school and of violence. Feldman told listeners: "But I appeal to you, I urge you not to use 11- and 12-year-old children as weapons in a conflict between adults. Do not confuse your children by telling them that the obedience of law and authority is essential and then telling them that they don't have to attend school even though the law requires them to do so." School opened with no violence or large protests.
New Jersey Senate (1966-68, 1974-94)
Elections
1965 election
In its landmark decision Reynolds v. Sims, the United States Supreme Court required state legislatures to apportion districts as proportionally as possible. Prior to this decision, New Jersey apportioned its Senate at a rate of one member per county; in 1965, the state used a new allocation which maintained county boundaries but apportioned multiple Senators to some counties or combined counties with low populations. Because of its large population, Bergen County had four Senators under the new system.
Feldman became one of the four Democratic candidates, running on the party organization ticket with Ned Parsekian, Jeremiah F. O'Connor, and Alfred Kiefer. In the Democratic primary, the four easily defeated two insurgent candidates, Jeanette L. Winslow and Allan L. Fletcher.
The Democratic general election campaign was aided by the presence of popular Democratic governor Richard J. Hughes at the top of the ticket, and by a major division among Bergen County Republicans that led to incumbent GOP Senator Pierce H. Deamer Jr. being dumped from the organization line. The organization slate won decisively.