BLOOM, SOL

BLOOM, SOL (1870–1949), U.S. businessman and politician. Bloom, born in Pekin, Ill., was brought to San Francisco by his parents as a child. He was largely self-educated. At the age of 17 he became a theatrical producer, and began successful financial investments. Moving to Chicago, Bloom managed part of the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893 and prospered as a music publisher. In 1903 he moved to New York where he entered the real estate and construction field. Extremely successful in business, Bloom retired in 1920 and went into politics. He was elected to Congress as a Democrat in 1923, and served continuously until his death. As chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee he strongly supported and advanced President Roosevelt's internationalist policies. He was a member of the American delegation to the 1943 Bermuda conference on refugees during World War II, and was criticized by those who, unlike Bloom himself, found its results unsatisfactory. He was a delegate to the 1945 San Francisco Conference that wrote the UN Charter; to the UN Relief and Rehabilitation Administration Conference of 1946; and to the 1947 Inter-American Conference at Rio de Janeiro. Bloom, who was favorable to Zionism, opposed President Truman's early Palestine policy and took part in gaining American and UN support for the establishment of the State of Israel. His Autobiography was published in 1948. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: Current Biography Yearbook 1943 (1944), 55–59. (Stanley L. Falk)