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Albert Ottinger

OTTINGER, ALBERT (1878–1938), U.S. lawyer, politician, and communal leader. Ottinger, who was born in New York City, was admitted to the bar in 1900. Active in Republican politics, he became Republican leader of Manhattan's 15th Assembly District (1912), was elected to the New York State Senate (1916), and was appointed assistant U.S. attorney general by President Harding (1921). Twice elected New York State attorney general (1924, 1926), Ottinger vigorously prosecuted food profiteers, loan sharks, and stock swindlers, and earned the Republican nomination for governor in 1928. He lost that election to Franklin Delano Roosevelt by 25,000 votes. A staunch opponent of Tammany Hall, he urged the probe into the Tammany activities that became known as the Seabury investigation. Active in Jewish affairs, Ottinger was chairman of New York City's Joint Distribution Committee drive (1931) and was associated with the Hebrew Orphan Asylum and the Young Men's Hebrew Association.


Sources: Encyclopaedia Judaica. © 2007 The Gale Group. All Rights Reserved.