Lazarus Joseph

[14] Joseph married Henrietta (née Haft), and lived at 1100 Grand Concourse in the Bronx, and later at 240 Central Park West in Manhattan.

[10][15] He campaigned saying he would work to get the city its fair share of New York State taxes, to clear out slums, to construct new schools, to ease traffic congestion, to make the transportation system more modern, and to increase city-operated health and hospital services.

[30] The New York Times praised Joseph after his election on the Democratic-American Labor Party ticket,[7] stating that "In the eleven years that he served as a member of the State Senate, Lazarus Joseph earned a reputation as an expert in budgetary and financial matters and as an authority on real estate law and finance."

The November 7, 1945, article goes on to note that he also earned "a wide reputation on budget matters in State Senate sponsored mortgage legislation."

This opinion was echoed by former New York State Governor Herbert H. Lehman, to whom he was a close financial advisor, who called Joseph "an industrious, conscientious and far-sighted public servant.

Upon the close of his eight years in office as Comptroller, Joseph left the city with cautionary advice; "that it is easy to borrow, but the reckoning always must be met in the expense budget, and by the taxpayer.

"[38] His warning was not heeded, as debt load led the city into bankruptcy some 20 years later, when President Gerald Ford refused to assist New York with its deficit.

[24] He was Chairman of the Bronx Division of the Federation for the Support of Jewish Philanthropic Societies, and in 1951 was co-Chairman of the Greater New York Israel Independence Bond Drive.

[26] Joseph lent his name to assist charities with which he identified, as he was a guest of honor in December 1934 at a fundraiser for the Hebrew Home.

[41][42] After World War II Joseph championed the rehabilitation of 1,500,000 Jewish survivors of Nazism and the Holocaust, calling it in 1946 "the duty of every American citizen, Christian or Jew, black or white.

"[43] He also noted at the same time that: "The seed of racial bias that that monster [Hitler] planted in Europe is growing in every part of the world, even in countries Americans died to liberate".

[43] His attendance was recorded in news reports covering fundraisers in support of the new State of Israel during the years following its 1948 Declaration of Independence.