Max Finkelstein (died 1940) was a captain in the New York City Police Department. As president of Shomrim, a fraternal order of Jewish New York City police officers, he became famous in 1938 when Fiorello H. La Guardia picked him to lead a special squad, whose job was to safeguard visiting officials from Nazi Germany and guard the German consulate. La Guardia's decision to appoint Finkelstein and the other Jewish officers was likely inspired by a decision made by Theodore Roosevelt, when he was New York City Police Commissioner. When an anti-semitic preacher, Hermann Ahlwardt, decided to speak in New York, Roosevelt assigned 40 Jewish police officers to protect him, in an effort to make the preacher look "ridiculous".
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1940 (aged )
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