Leon Josephson was an American Communist labor lawyer for International Labor Defense and a Soviet spy.
30 Facts About Leon Josephson
1.
2.
Leon Josephson received a 1947 Contempt of Congress citation from House Un-American Activities Committee.
3.
Leon Josephson was born into a Jewish family in 1898, in either Goldingen or Libau in Latvia, Russian Empire.
4.
Leon Josephson had four elder siblings: Ethel, David, Louis, and Lillie.
5.
Leon Josephson's family emigrated from Libau in 1900 and settled in Trenton, New Jersey, where another brother, Barney, was born in 1902.
6.
In 1921, Leon Josephson was admitted to the New Jersey state bar.
7.
Leon Josephson practiced law in Trenton from 1926 to 1934.
8.
In 1926, Leon Josephson joined the Communist Party.
9.
In 1929, Leon Josephson was a lawyer for International Labor Defense.
10.
Leon Josephson traveled to Europe for ILD in 1929,1930, and 1931.
11.
At the time, in 1932, Leon Josephson was formally registered as an employee of the Soviet trading agency Amtorg.
12.
At some point, Leon Josephson had begun working for the Soviet secret services.
13.
Around 1938, Leon Josephson helped steal the papers of communist defector Jay Lovestone, according to Lovestone himself during testimony to the Dies Committee.
14.
In December 1938, Leon Josephson borrowed $6,000 so his brother Barney could open Cafe Society in a basement room on Sheridan Square, West Village, New York City.
15.
Leon Josephson set down certain rules around the performance of "Strange Fruit" at the club: it would close Holiday's set; the waiters would stop serving just before it; the room would be in darkness except for a spotlight on Holiday's face; and there would be no encore.
16.
On February 2,1947, Leon Josephson failed to appear under subpoena.
17.
Leon Josephson would have appeared with Gerhart Eisler, Ruth Fischer, Wiliam Nowell, Louis F Budenz, and others.
18.
On that date, the House Un-American Activities Committee produced evidence that Josephson had forged his name as "Bernard A Hirshfield" for a "Samuel Liptzen" on a passport application dated August 31,1934, which bore a photo of Gerhart Eisler.
19.
Leon Josephson had been a tailor and a member of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America.
20.
Leon Josephson refused to be sworn in due to the "unconstitutionality of this committee" and refused to answer questions.
21.
Russell noted that penniless brother Barney Leon Josephson had made trips to Europe in the mid-1930s before opening Cafe Society in 1938.
22.
Leon Josephson observed that in 1946 Barney was a sponsor of "Spanish Refugee Appeal," a branch of the Joint Anti-Fascist Refugee Committee.
23.
Leon Josephson had failed to report the robbery of his naturalization papers for two years.
24.
Finally, Russell found an article in the Jewish Daily Forward dated March 8,1947, that stated that Liptzen and Leon Josephson are friends and that Liptzen had a long history in the Soviet underground, for which he was expelled from unions and wound up at the Freiheit.
25.
Leon Josephson had helped arrange false passports for many of those indicted, including himself, and helped them flee to the Soviet Union.
26.
Leon Josephson told the Committee that he was working with his brother "Warren Josephson" in his brother's restaurant, rather than state Barney Josephson and Cafe Society.
27.
Leon Josephson confirmed that he had worked in fact at both uptown and downtown branches of Cafe Society.
28.
Leon Josephson refused to confirm whether he had associated in the mid-1930s with George Mink or whether he had traveled with Mink to Copenhagen, or whether Danish police had arrested them there as Soviet spies.
29.
From 1952 to 1956, Leon Josephson taught Soviet Law at the Jefferson School of Social Science.
30.
Leon Josephson married Lucy Wishart in 1945; they had two children.