{{Short description|American judge}} {{Infobox officeholder | image = Jacob Tanzer 1974 (cropped).jpg | name = Jacob Tanzer | image_size = | caption = | office = 81st Justice of the Oregon Supreme Court | term_start = 1980 | term_end = 1982 | nominator = | appointer = Victor G. Atiyeh | predecessor = Ralph M. Holman | successor = Robert E. Jones | office2 = Judge of the Oregon Court of Appeals | term_start2 = 1976 | term_end2 = 1980 | appointer2 = Robert W. Straub | predecessor2 = Robert H. Foley | successor2 = John C. Warden | term_start3 = 1973 | term_end3 = 1975 | appointer3 = Tom McCall | predecessor3 = new position | successor3 = Jason Lee | birth_date = {{Birth date|1935|2|13|mf=y}} | birth_place = Longview, Washington, U.S. | death_date = {{Death date and age|2018|07|23|1935|2|13|mf=y}} | death_place = Portland, Oregon, U.S.<ref name=Gerike/> | party = | spouse = Elaine }} '''Jacob B. Tanzer''' (February 13, 1935 – July 23, 2018) was an American attorney in the state of Oregon. Prior to private practice Tanzer served as the 81st justice of the Oregon Supreme Court. He also served on the Oregon Court of Appeals, was a deputy district attorney for Multnomah County, Oregon, and worked for the United States Department of Justice.
==Early life== Jacob Tanzer was born in Longview, Washington on February 13, 1935<ref name=resume>[http://www.jtanzer.com/ Résumé.] Jacob Tanzer: Arbitration, Mediation, & Neutral Services. Retrieved on January 25, 2008.</ref> to a Jewish family.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.ojmche.org/oral-history-people/jacob-tanzer/|work=Oregon Jewish Museum|title=Jacob Tanzer|url-status=live|archive-url=https://archive.today/20251224085824/https://www.ojmche.org/oral-history-people/jacob-tanzer/|archive-date=December 24, 2025}}</ref> Tanzer was raised in Portland, Oregon, where he attended Grant High School.<ref>Frei, Terry. Shaw tops a list of greats. ''The Oregonian'', April 22, 1993.</ref> After high school he attended the University of Oregon in Eugene where he earned a Bachelor of Arts in 1956.<ref name=legalspan>[http://www.legalspan.com/catalog2/faculty.asp?UserID=20060607729133124242%20%20%20%20%20%20&OwnerColor=%23660033 Jacob Tanzer: Arbitration, Mediation & Neutral Services.]{{Dead link|date=July 2025 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} Legalspan. Retrieved on January 25, 2008.</ref> Tanzer then went on to the university's law school, graduating in 1959 with his Juris Doctor.<ref name=legalspan/> That year he passed the Oregon bar.<ref name=legalspan/> He also attended Stanford University in California and Reed College in Portland, Oregon.<ref name=resume/>
==Legal career== From 1959 until 1962 Tanzer worked in private legal practice in Portland.<ref name=resume/> Tanzer then joined the U.S. Department of Justice in 1962, where he would remain until 1964.<ref name=resume/> In 1964, while working for the Department of Justice he was sent to Mississippi as part of the Civil Rights Division to investigate the murders of Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner, three civil rights activists.<ref name=civil>Mahar, Ted. Burning’ memories new civil rights movie strikes familiar chord with a Portland lawyer. ''The Oregonian'', January 15, 1989.</ref> The incident would later become the basis for the movie ''Mississippi Burning'' (1988).<ref name=civil/>
From 1965 until 1969 Jacob Tanzer worked as a deputy district attorney for Multnomah County, Oregon, the county where Portland is located.<ref name=resume/> In 1969 he became Oregon's first Solicitor General in the Oregon Department of Justice, serving until 1971 when he became the first director of the Oregon Department of Human Services.<ref name=resume/> While Solicitor General he defended the state's position in the U.S. Supreme Court case of ''Apodaca v. Oregon''.<ref>''Apodaca v. Oregon'', 406 U.S. 404 (1972).</ref> Tanzer remained at that agency until 1973.<ref name=resume/>
===Judicial career=== On October 5, 1973, Jacob Tanzer was appointed by Oregon Governor Tom McCall to a new position on the Oregon Court of Appeals.<ref name=gov>[https://sos.oregon.gov/archives/Pages/records/governors_guides.aspx Oregon State Archives: Governor's Records Guides.] Oregon Secretary of State. Retrieved on January 25, 2008.</ref><ref name=appeals>[https://sos.oregon.gov/blue-book/Documents/elections/history-officials.pdf Oregon Blue Book: Earliest Authorities in Oregon - Oregon Court of Appeals Judges.] Oregon Secretary of State. Retrieved on January 25, 2008.</ref> That term ended on January 6, 1975.<ref name=appeals/> The following year he ran for a position on the court, but was appointed to the court before the election was held by Governor Robert W. Straub on August 16, 1976.<ref name=gov/><ref name=appeals/> He was replacing Robert H. Foley who had resigned, and Tanzer won election to a full six-year term on the court that year before resigning on January 21, 1980.<ref name=appeals/>
On that same day, Tanzer was appointed by Governor Victor G. Atiyeh to the Oregon Supreme Court to replace Ralph M. Holman who had resigned.<ref name=gov/><ref name=OSC>[https://sos.oregon.gov/blue-book/Documents/elections/history-officials.pdf Oregon Blue Book: Earliest Authorities in Oregon - Supreme Court Justices of Oregon.] Oregon Secretary of State. Retrieved on January 25, 2008.</ref> Tanzer won election to a full six-year term later in 1980, and then resigned from the court on December 31, 1982.<ref name=OSC/>
==Later years== After retiring from the bench, Tanzer returned to private practice in Portland.<ref name=resume/> He died in Portland on July 23, 2018, due to a fall.<ref name=Gerike>{{cite news |last1=Gerike |first1=Lydia |title=Jacob Tanzer, 'a lion of the legal profession,' dies at 83 |url=https://www.oregonlive.com/politics/index.ssf/2018/07/jacob_tanzer_a_lion_of_the_leg.html |accessdate=25 July 2018 |work=The Oregonian |date=July 24, 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|work=The Oregon Encyclopedia|url=https://www.oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/tanzer-jacob/|title=Jacob Tanzer (1935–2018)|url-status=live|archive-url=https://archive.today/20251224090129/https://www.oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/tanzer-jacob/|archive-date=December 24, 2025}}</ref>
== See also == * List of Jewish American jurists
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== *[http://www.jtanzer.com Official site] *[http://www.osbar.org/publications/bulletin/04jan/mlk.html The Dream. Oregon State Bar: Bulletin Magazine, January 2004] *[http://petespringer.smugmug.com/gallery/279819/1/59621295#21161375-L-LB Photograph of Jacob Tanzer]{{Dead link|date=July 2025 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Tanzer, Jacob}} Category:Justices of the Oregon Supreme Court Category:Reed College alumni Category:University of Oregon alumni Category:1935 births Category:2018 deaths Category:American lawyers Category:Jews from Oregon Category:Jews from Washington (state) Category:Jewish American people in Oregon politics Category:University of Oregon School of Law alumni Category:Oregon Court of Appeals judges Category:People from Longview, Washington Category:Politicians from Portland, Oregon Category:Stanford University alumni Category:Grant High School (Portland, Oregon) alumni Category:20th-century Oregon state court judges Category:21st-century American Jews