Louis Brandeis’ nomination to the United States Supreme Court by President Woodrow Wilson was met with strong opposition.

Louis Brandeis spoke again in Chelsea in 1915 in support of the Zionist movement.  This photo was taken in front of the Williams School; Brandeis, holding his hat in his lap, is seated in the front row, the sixth person in from the right.  As the president of the American Federation of Zionists, Brandeis delivered his national conference keynote address in Chelsea, and noted the city’s proud Jewish community: 

 “We have come because in Chelsea Jews constitute a larger percentage of the population than in any other city of the United States; because Jews of Chelsea have, by their conduct, given to the Jewish name a good reputation here and throughout the Commonwealth…our purpose is to make every adult Jew in this city a member of a Zionist society.  We say every Jew, women as well as men, for in the Zionist organization there prevails equal suffrage, equal rights.” Louis Brandeis, 1915, Chelsea, MA. 

The following year, 1916, Brandeis’ nomination to the United States Supreme Court by President Woodrow Wilson was met with strong opposition.  The New York Times  reported that US Senators were “disturbed” by Brandeis' “radical” support for labor unions and equal rights for all, and opposed seating a Jew on the Supreme Court (January 29, 1916).