Judah Philip Benjamin (August 11, 1811 – May 6, 1884) was a prominent Confederate politician, and lawyer, who served as a representative in the Louisiana state legislature, as United States Senator for Louisiana, in several Cabinet posts in the government of the Confederate States of America, and as a distinguished barrister and Queen's Counsel in Britain. He was the second Jew to serve as a U.S. Senator, and the first in the Cabinet of a North American government (although an unrecognized one).