Former Congressman Benjamin Rosenbloom died in Cleveland on March 22, 1965, at age 84. Rosenbloom, the only Jewish congressman in West Virginia history, was born in Pennsylvania and attended West Virginia University, where he played football in 1901 and 1902.
He went on to study law at WVU and was admitted to the state bar in 1904. He was a practicing lawyer in Wheeling until his retirement in 1951.
Rosenbloom’s political career began in the legislature in 1915. The Republican served one four-year term in the state senate before being elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1920 and reelected two years later.
He was an early environmental advocate who tried to halt the pollution of streams. He also was an outspoken opponent of the national Prohibition on alcohol. After his second term in the House of Representatives, he ran for U.S. Senate but lost. In the 1930s, he resumed his political career—as vice mayor of Wheeling—and also served on the city council.
Benjamin Rosenbloom was a member of numerous fraternal organizations in Wheeling and belonged to the Jewish fraternal organization B’nai B’rith.