David Nehemiah Mosessohn was an American lawyer, editor, business executive, and dress industry arbitrator.
Background
David N. Mosessohn was born on January 1, 1883, at Ekaterinoslav, Russian Empire (now Dnipro, Ukraine), the son of Dr. Nehemiah Mosessohn and Theresa Nissenson. The home of his father, at one time chief rabbbi of Odessa, was characterized by religion, scholarship, and ideals of public service.
In 1888, when David was five years old, the family emigrated to the United States, and after brief sojourns in Philadelphia and Dallas, finally settled in Portland, Oregon.
Education
After graduating from the Portland high school in 1900, he studied law at the University of Oregon and received the degree of Bachelor of Laws in 1902.
Career
In 1902, Mosessohn was admitted to the bar and began practising law in Portland in partnership with his brother Moses Dayyan.
From 1908 to 1910 he was deputy district attorney for Multnomah County. He served as president of the district grand lodge of the Independent Order B'nai B'rith in 1917, and took an active part in civic and Jewish communal affairs in the Northwest.
In 1918 he moved to New York and devoted himself to war activities, in the course of which he met J. J. Goldman, a leader in the garment trade. At that time, although New York was the center of America's dress industry, and the annual business done, the capital invested, and the human, social, and economic factors involved were all on a colossal scale, the industry was in a chaotic condition. Uncontrolled individualism and cutthroat competition were weakening its whole structure. Goldman invited Mosessohn to examine the situation and report how it could be improved. Within thirty days, he presented a plan which resulted in the organization, in 1918, of the Associated Dress Industries of America. He was appointed its executive director, and from 1923 was its executive chairman and supreme arbiter, with wellnigh dictatorial powers. Through his high gifts of organization, he made the Associated Dress Industries a clearing house for ideas and methods pertaining to manufacture and distribution, the expansion of markets, the prevention of overproduction, and the handling of credit problems. Perhaps his greatest personal achievement was that of educating the industry in the advantage of arbitration over litigation. His eminent fairness gained for him implicit confidence, and he achieved widespread distinction as an impartial arbitrator.
Mosessohn was also an able publicist. While still in his teens he gained newspaper experience with the Oregon State Journal. In 1903 he and his brother began publishing in Portland a weekly magazine, the Jewish Tribune, with his father as editor, a publication which they transferred to New York on coming East. After his father's death in 1926, David Mosessohn assumed the editorship. Manifesting in this capacity the impartiality which characterized his business activities, he conducted the periodical as a non-partisan organ of Jewish enlightenment, defense, and good will, dedicated to the promotion of unity and harmony in Israel.
In his communal activities in New York, Mosessohn showed special interest in educational work among the Jewish youth. He was a leader in the Jewish Education Association, and in the Avukah Organization of the Zionist student youth, and was a founder of the council on American Jewish student affairs. To the United Synagogue of America, of which he was a director, to Zionism, and to charitable and philanthropic campaigns, he gave both active personal service and generous space in the Jewish Tribune. In addition he found time for participation in numerous business, social, and civic organizations. David N. Mosessohn died on December 16, 1930.
Achievements
The dress industry arbitrator and editor, David Mossesohn was very active in the community, including being the B’nai B’rith president in 1903, a member of Oddfellows, the Knights of Pythias, and the Elks, and he was involved in the Anti-Defamation League. He also contributed articles to various periodicals throughout the country and became the publisher of The Jewish Tribune, which was published in Oregon until 1918.
In recognition of his position in the dress trade, President Hoover, in December 1929, named him a member of the National Business Survey Conference.
David Mosessohn was a member of the Jewish Education Association, and of the Avukah Organization of the Zionist student youth, and was a founder of the council on American Jewish student affairs.
In addition, Mosessohn was a thirty-second degree Mason, a past grand master of the Odd Fellows, and past chancellor of the Knights of Pythias.
Personality
His outstanding characteristics were executive ability, a keen mind, an energetic personality, a tender heart, and a touching loyalty to the inspiration of his father's life.
Connections
On July 9, 1905, at Alameda, California, David N. Mosessohn married Manya Lerner, by whom he had one son.
