Nathaniel L. Goldstein - Early Years

Early Years

A native of New York City, Nathaniel Goldstein was born on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, to parents of Jewish descent. When he was six years old his family moved to Brooklyn where, as a high school student, Goldstein joined Alpha Epsilon Pi Fraternity at New York university. he excelled in debating and was inspired by Brooklyn Assemblyman Charles C. Lockwood who attended one of the debates. Lockwood hired the young man as an assistant in his law firm, while encouraging him to study at night and later to attend New York University, where he was a member of the Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity.

While a student at New York University, Goldstein also worked as an accountant and, after graduating in 1915, went on to receive his law degree from New York Law School in 1918. With America's participation in World War I in full progress, a few weeks later, he was an infantry private on a troop ship bound for Europe. After World War I, he began to practice law with Assemblyman Lockwood and others, including Republican statesman Henry Stimson, who later served as Franklin D. Roosevelt's World War II Secretary of War. Through the 1920s and the 1930s Goldstein's stature grew in importance as he rose from being a legal aide in state assembly committees to a political advisor in housing and other New York City affairs.