16 Facts About Samuel Dickstein

Samuel Dickstein was a Democratic Congressional Representative from New York, a New York State Supreme Court Justice, and a Soviet spy.

Samuel Dickstein played a key role in establishing the committee that would become the House Committee on Un-American Activities, which he used to attack fascists, including Nazi sympathizers, and suspected communists.

In 1999, authors Allen Weinstein and Alexander Vassiliev learned that Soviet files indicate that Dickstein was a paid agent of the NKVD.

Samuel Dickstein was born on February 5,1885, into a Jewish family of five children near Vilna in the Russian Empire.

Samuel Dickstein's parents were Rabbi Israel Dickstein and Slata B Gordon.

Samuel Dickstein attended public and private schools, the City College of New York, and in 1906 graduated from New York Law School.

In 1908, Samuel Dickstein passed the bar and began private practice in New York with the firm of Hyman and Gross.

In 1922, Samuel Dickstein was elected as a Democrat to the Sixty-eighth Congress, defeating Socialist incumbent Meyer London.

In 1930, Samuel Dickstein co-sponsored a bill condemning religious persecution in the Soviet Union.

Samuel Dickstein, who proclaimed as his aim the eradication of all traces of Nazism in the US, personally questioned each witness.

In 1937, Samuel Dickstein sought for continued House investigation but lost control to Martin Dies Jr.

Samuel Dickstein told the man that the quota for Austrian immigrants was filled but for $3,000 he would see what he could do.

Samuel Dickstein said he had "settled dozens" in a similarly illegal fashion, according to the NKVD memo on the meeting.

Samuel Dickstein unsuccessfully attempted to expedite the deportation of Soviet defector Walter Krivitsky, while the Dies Committee kept him in the country.

Samuel Dickstein denounced the Dies Committee at NKVD request and gave speeches in Congress on Moscow-dictated themes.

Samuel Dickstein died age 69 on April 22,1954, in New York City.