Moses M. Weinstein (1912 – 2007) Was a respected lawyer, politician, and civic leader who lived in Kew Gardens Hills for nearly half a century. Weinstein was the son of a tailor who was born and raised on the Lower East Side. He worked his way through Brooklyn College and Brooklyn Law School. During the Second World War, he fought in the Battle of the Bulge.

After the war, Weinstein settled in Kew Gardens Hills, taking an active role in the Kew Gardens Hills Civic Association and the Democratic Party. He first ran for the New York State Assembly in 1958, winning the first of his six terms at the seat, and was Majority Leader from 1965 to 1968. Weinstein was also Chair of the Queens County Democratic Party from 1962 to 1969, and Majority Leader of the New York State Constitutional Convention of 1967. Weinstein stood out from among his colleagues through progressive legislation and was an ally of Mayor of New York Robert F. Wagner, and had a working relationship with Governor Rockefeller. Weinstein sponsored measures that created the Urban Development Corporation and the Crime Victims Compensation Board, reformed divorce, and welfare laws, established a consumer bill of rights, increased aid for air-pollution controls and Regents scholarships, and promoted hospital expansion. He supported rent controls, veterans rights, aid to small businesses and antidiscrimination laws.

In 1969, Weinstein was elected as a Queens State Supreme Court justice, rising over the years to the Appellate Court, where he presided until his retirement in 1989. As a judge, Weinstein ruled on cases that determined due process and constitutionality in public school financing.