 Judah Philip Benjamin , QC ( August 11 , 1811 – May 6 , 1884 ) was a lawyer and politician who was a United States Senator from Louisiana , a Cabinet officer of the Confederate States and , after his escape to the United Kingdom at the end of the American Civil War , an English barrister . Benjamin was the first Jew to be elected to the United States Senate who had not renounced the religion , and the first of that faith to hold a Cabinet position in North America . 
