Elkus, Abram Isaac
ELKUS, ABRAM ISAAC
ELKUS, ABRAM ISAAC (1867–1947), U.S. lawyer and public official. Elkus, who was born in New York City, practiced law there. He was appointed special United States attorney to prosecute bankruptcy in 1908, and in 1911 counsel for the New York State Factory Investigating Commission. Under the administration of President Woodrow Wilson, he was ambassador to Turkey (1916–19). Upon his return to the United States, he served briefly on the New York State Court of Appeals and as a League of Nations commissioner before resuming his private law practice. He was active in a number of Jewish organizations, especially the New York Free Synagogue, whose president he was from 1919 to 1927, and the Jewish Publication Society of America, of which he was honorary vice president until his death.
[Hillel Halkin]