Early Life
Goldberg was born and raised on the West Side of Chicago, the youngest of eight children of Jewish immigrants from the Russian Empire. The paternal side of the family (Goldberg-Flaumen) originally came from the town of Oświęcim, in modern day Poland. The maternal side of the family originally came from a shtetl called Zenkhov in Ukraine. Goldberg's father, a produce peddler, died in 1916, forcing Goldberg's siblings to quit school and go to work to support the family. As the youngest child, Goldberg was allowed to continue school, graduating from high school at the age of 16.
Goldberg's interest in the law was sparked by the noted murder trial in 1923 of Leopold and Loeb, two wealthy young Chicagoans who were spared the death penalty with the help of their high-powered defense attorney, Clarence Darrow. Goldberg later pointed to this case as inspiration for his opposition to the death penalty on the bench, since he had seen how inequality of social status could lead to unfair application of the death penalty.
Goldberg earned a distinguished reputation as a student at both DePaul University and then at the Northwestern University School of Law, where he edited the law review, graduating with summa cum laude honors in 1930. He taught at John Marshall Law School in the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s before becoming a U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice and then the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations.
In 1931, Goldberg married Dorothy Kargans. They had one daughter, Barbara Goldberg Cramer, and one son, Robert M. Goldberg (an attorney in Anchorage, Alaska). He was the uncle of Barry Goldberg.
During World War II, Goldberg served in an espionage group operated by the Office of Strategic Services, the precursor to the CIA. Goldberg's involvement was not disclosed publicly until 2008. The Jewish Telegraphic Agency stated that: "Goldberg's file notes that as both a civilian and a member of the Army, he supervised a section in the Secret Intelligence Branch of OSS to maintain contact with labor groups and organizations regarded as potential resistance elements in enemy-occupied and enemy countries. He organized anti-Nazi European transportation workers into an extensive intelligence network."
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