Streit was born on May 5, 1897, in Poland as the son of Jacob Streit and Bebe Baron. He immigrated to America in 1901. Streit attended public school in
New York City, New York, and
Stuyvesant High School. He graduated from
New York Law School in 1922, and by 1927 he was working as a lawyer with an office in the
Flatiron Building. He was an assistant
New York County District Attorney under
Joab H. Banton. In 1926, he was elected to the New York State Assembly as a Democrat, representing the New York County 7th District. He served in the Assembly in
1927,
1928,
1929,
1930,
1931,
1932,
1933,
1934,
1935, and
1936. One of the more progressive members of the
Tammany Hall delegation in the Assembly, Streit served as chairman of the joint legislative committee to investigate bondholders, stockholders, and creditors committees. In his first Assembly session, he introduced a bill passed and signed by Governor
Al Smith to amend the Fraudulent Check Law in an attempt to reduce the number of frauds from passing worthless checks and voted with Republicans on a bill that made a seller of poison liquor guilty of first-degree manslaughter. In later sessions, he sponsored bills to oppose ticket speculation, memorialize Congress for repealing the
Volstead Act, curb misleading medical reports in radio advertisements, create "people's counsels" in public utility proceedings, study methods of providing security against unemployment, curb alimony jailing, and defining the new crime of "fixing." He also sponsored a bill to create a charter commission for New York City and introduced a bill for Congressional reapportionment, although he previously attacked a Republican reapportionment bill as a gerrymander. In November 1936, Streit was elected Judge of the Court of General Sessions. He succeeded
Jonah J. Goldstein to the Court, who in turn was appointed earlier in the year to fill a vacancy caused by the death of
Otto A. Rosalsky. He was inducted to the Court in January 1937. In late 1951 and early 1952, Streit served as the primary judge for the majority of the suspects involved in what's commonly known as the
CCNY point-shaving scandal, despite it involving more universities than just the previous "Grand Slam" basketball champion
City College of New York. In 1954, he was elected unopposed Justice of the
New York Supreme Court, First District, with nominations from three parties. In 1962, he was appointed Administrative Judge of the First District. As Administrative Judge, he helped complete the merger of the General Sessions Court in Manhattan and the Bronx County Court into the newly-consolidated Supreme Court. He served as a delegate of the
1967 New York State Constitutional Convention. At one point, he handled a case involving
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis's fight with writer
William Manchester over his book
The Death of a President. He retired as Justice in 1972 and joined the law offices of
Shea, Gould, Climenko and Kramer as counsel to the firm. Streit was a member of the
New York City Bar Association, the
New York County Lawyers' Association, the
New York State Bar Association, the
American Bar Association, Together, they had a son named Saul S. Streit Jr. Streit died at home on September 3, 1983. == References ==