December 9, 1938
Ben Leader Erdreich, born in Birmingham on this day in 1938, represented Alabama’s Sixth Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1983-93. He became the second member of the Jewish faith, and first since 1853, to represent Alabama in Congress. Before his decade in Congress, Erdreich served in the U.S. Army, worked as an attorney in New York City and Birmingham and was elected to the Alabama House of Representatives and the Jefferson County Commission. After his district was redrawn following the 1990 Census, Erdreich lost re-election in 1992 to Spencer Bachus. Erdrich then shifted his interests to developing property with his children in the Birmingham area.
Read more at Encyclopedia of Alabama.
For more on Alabama’s Bicentennial, visit Alabama 200.
