Jacob Weinberger was born in Austria-Hungary. On his father's side, his great-grandfather, Reb (Rabbi) Moshe Wolf, was a scholar of some means, but the family's fortunes were destroyed in the revolution of 1848. After Russian soldiers pillaged everything the family owned, his grandfather moved to a safer area near Hedrei, where he became a leader in the community. Weinberger's father, Herman Weinberger, a tutor and teacher, later became a distiller and brewer, gaining some prosperity. His mother, Nettie Flaster, also came from a family of scholars and businesspeople but of no great wealth. Following a downturn in business in the mid-1880's, his father left for America in 1888, joining other family members in Denver, Colo. A year later, when Weinberger was seven, his mother brought the rest of the family to Denver. Eventually, there were twelve children. His father managed a grocery store in a poor area of Denver. Jacob helped out there and held various other jobs.
Education
After graduating from Denver High School in 1901, Weinberger entered the University of Colorado Law School; he supported himself by working as a waiter, steelworker, janitor, and store clerk. He received his LL. B. in 1904 and became a member of the Colorado bar.
Career
He joined a good Denver firm but was given its less remunerative cases. Learning that Gila County, Arizona Territory, was experiencing considerable prosperity from copper mining, Weinberger moved to Globe, Ariz. , in 1905. Globe had the reputation of being a rough place; its main street boasted several dozen saloons. In 1907, Weinberger was appointed deputy district attorney of Gila County, and on one occasion was said to have been pursued by a newly released convict he had prosecuted. In 1863, President Abraham Lincoln had issued a proclamation naming Arizona a territory. For some years in the early twentieth century, there was a move to combine New Mexico and Arizona in one state, but Arizona residents tended to look on this scheme with considerable disfavor. On June 20, 1910, President William Howard Taft signed an enabling act directing the residents of Arizona to select delegates to a constitutional convention. On September 12, 1910, Weinberger was elected as one of five delegates from Gila County. A total of fifty-two delegates were chosen to meet at the convention, which convened in Phoenix on October 10. At twenty-eight years, Weinberger was the second-youngest member. Weinberger sat on four standing committees: Legislative Department; Distribution of Powers and Apportionment; Judiciary; and Executive, Impeachment, and Removal from Office. He was named chairman of the last committee; as it turned out, the issue of recall received the most attention. President Taft declared that he would reject any constitution that included judges in the recall provision. On October 21, Weinberger introduced Proposition 18, regarding the recall of public officers. Although some of the delegates attempted to exclude the judiciary, this motion lost by a vote of thirty to eighteen, and the proposition passed on November 10. The members voted to retain the recall of judges in the constitution adopted at the convention in December 1910, and this provision was ratified in a general election on Feburary 11, 1911. As he had promised, Taft rejected the constitution on August 15, 1911. A compromise that included this exemption was passed by popular vote on December 12, 1911, and Taft signed a proclamation on Feburary 9, 1912, making Arizona the forty-eighth state. The Arizona constitution was considered a progressive one. In addition to provisions regarding initiative, referendum, and recall, there were clauses covering workers' rights and the working conditions of women and children. In the state election of 1912, Arizona residents voted that the recall of judges be reinstated in the state constitution. He was frequently interviewed and asked to appear at commemorative ceremonies. The delegates concluded their work in December 1910. In 1911, Weinberger moved his family to San Diego, Calif. , because of his wife's health and his weak financial situation. He sold his financial interests in Globe just before the community suffered an economic decline. Weinberger passed the California bar in 1911 and practiced law there for many years. He rarely appeared in the courtroom, preferring out-of-court mediation, and gained a reputation as an able conciliator. In 1918, he was appointed to the San Diego Board of Education; he was a member for twenty-one years and served several terms as president, the first beginning in 1922. Weinberger's practice suffered in the Great Depression, and his law partner committed suicide. It took him almost a decade to recover financially. Until the late 1930's, San Diego was predominantly Republican. Weinberger, a Democrat, began to be politically active. He was appointed vice-chairman of the California Democratic Central Committee in 1939. The same year, he ran for mayor of San Diego but lost. In 1941, he was named San Diego city attorney. Later that year, he was appointed to fill a vacancy on the Superior Court of San Diego County; his colleagues elected him presiding judge in 1944, but he lost the judgeship in the 1944 election. In 1946, President Harry Truman appointed him to the U. S. District Court of the Southern District of California, which included San Diego. In 1949, he became San Diego's first resident federal judge. Weinberger retired in 1958 and was appointed senior judge. Weinberger served on numerous boards and charities. He joined B'nai B'rith while living in Denver and had been a member of Congregation Temple Beth Israel in San Diego since 1911. Weinberger died in San Diego.
Achievements
Personality
His decisions were rarely overturned, and he was considered an exemplary and fair trial judge by his peers. He also possessed an innate ability to resolve disputes. His biographer, Leland G. Stanford, believed his most enduring qualities were loyalty, industry, friendliness, and patriotic ambition.
Connections
On June 11, 1907, Weinberger married Blanche Ruth Solomon, a member of a wealthy pioneer Arizona family from Solomonville (later Solomon, Ariz. ). Since there were so few Jews living in the territory, a rabbi from El Paso, Tex. , officiated at the marriage. The Weinbergers had two children.