The Jews | Column 3 – Barry Goldwater: The First Jewish Candidate for U.S. President

27 years ago today, on May 29, 1998, Barry Goldwater, one of the most influential and surprising political figures of the 20th century, passed away. He was a Republican presidential candidate, a legendary senator from Arizona, a man who stood at the gates of history as someone who could have changed America and to a large extent, did. But beyond all the titles, the long career, and the impact on what would one day be called “the New Right,” lies one detail not many know, Barry Goldwater was… Jewish. Or at least, half.

His grandfather was a Polish Jew

Barry was born in Phoenix, Arizona, in 1909, to a Jewish father of Prussian descent and a Christian mother. His grandfather, Michael Goldwasser, was a Jew who immigrated from Poland. Barry himself was raised as a Christian, but he never tried to hide his roots; he simply claimed it wasn’t the only thing that defined him. Perhaps this is exactly why the American Jewish community was always divided about him: on the one hand, pride in a Jewish face on the main stage of American politics; on the other hand, Goldwater was far from the liberal positions of most of the Jewish community, and became a symbol of the new conservatism.

The spiritual father of Ronald Reagan

In his book The Conscience of a Conservative (1960), Goldwater laid out the principles that would accompany the American right for generations. He called for small government, a free market, a strong military, and above all, individual liberty. His sweeping loss to Lyndon Johnson in 1964 (Johnson won 44 out of 50 states) initially seemed like a painful failure. But in practice, Goldwater’s campaign was the birth moment of the modern American right. Ronald Reagan, who gave his first political speech in support of Goldwater, would become president 16 years later and the realization of Barry’s vision.

An opponent of religious conservatism

Ironically, Goldwater, who became a symbol of the Republicans, actually distanced himself from the religious conservatism that rose in his own party. In the 1980s and 1990s, he opposed the interference of religion in politics, defended LGBTQ rights, and supported the right to abortion. He spoke out against the growing influence of evangelical preachers in the party and claimed that, in his view, religious leaders should remain in synagogues and churches, and not try to run America.

And what about Israel?

Goldwater wasn’t known as a clear Zionist, but neither was he anti-Israel. He respected the State of Israel but distanced himself from international diplomacy. He supported “America First,” long before Trump adopted the slogan. He saw himself first and foremost as a patriotic American. The Jewish identity, to him, was part of his biography, not an ideology.

The man who didn’t fit into any box

He was a conservative who supported civil rights, a right-winger who supported abortion rights, a Republican candidate who was descended from Jewish immigrants and a hero to a whole generation that sought to return to the foundational values of American liberty. Goldwater never became president, but he changed the Republican Party forever. Goldwater was another link in the great story of the Jews who shaped the 20th century.

Barry Goldwater, 1909–1998 Half Jewish, fully American, a conservative who refused to be predictable.

Missed the previous stories in our “The Jews” series?

📌 Column #1: Jack Steinberger – the Jewish physicist who cracked the invisible and changed how we understand the universe.

📌 Column #2: Wilhelm Steinitz – the Eastern European chess master who turned instinct into science and became the first official World Champion.

Stay tuned – more remarkable Jewish figures coming soon.