Leon Josephson

Leon Josephson (June 17, 1898 – February 1966) was an American Communist labor lawyer for International Labor Defense and a Soviet spy. He received a 1947 Contempt of Congress citation from House Un-American Activities Committee.

Background

Leon Josephson was born into a Jewish family in 1898, in either Goldingen

International Labor Defense

In 1929, Josephson was a lawyer for International Labor Defense (ILD). In 1929, he served on the defense team (along with Arthur Garfield Hays of the Sacco and Vanzetti case and Dr. John Randolph Neal of the Scopes Trial) for union organizers in Loray Mill strike in Gastonia, North Carolina charged with conspiracy in the strike-related killing of a police chief. Co-defendant Fred Beal was later to charge that Josephson's defense strategy of sticking to the facts (a sequence of events in which strikers were attacked and a labor protester was shot and killed) and of not playing into the prosecution's attempt to place the defendants' communist beliefs on trial was deliberately sabotaged by the party intent on creating further martyrs.

Josephson traveled to Europe for ILD in 1929, 1930, and 1931. In 1932, he traveled to the Soviet Union. Beal, then in Soviet exile, in later testimony to House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC, 1947) claimed that he had met Josephson several times in Moscow and that he knew him to be a "GPU agent". At the time, in 1932, Josephson was formally registered as an employee of the Soviet trading agency Amtorg. In 1932, he was "involved in providing support for the Russian illegal (either Comintern or Military Intelligence) LYND, then visiting India." The motive for the search was a charge of rape against Mink by a chambermaid. Ulanovsky claimed they were Jewish anti-fascists acting on their own, but the police produced information, possibly obtained from the Gestapo, that proved they were working for Soviet intelligence. The Danes held a secret trial and convicted Ulanovsky of spying and sentenced him to eighteen months in prison. He was later deported to the Soviet Union. Josephson returned to America. Mink had four fake passports on him. Danish investigators got help from American counterparts, who learned that Mink's passport for "Harry Kaplan" had been stolen by Leon Josephson's brother, Barney Josephson. Josephson spent four months in jail, awaiting trial. A Danish court found the evidence insufficient, and Josephson returned to the States. Later, State Department handwriting experts determined that the signature for another of the four passports ("Al Gottlieb") was Josephson's. ).

Around 1938, Josephson helped steal the papers of communist defector Jay Lovestone, according to Lovestone himself during testimony to the Dies Committee.

That day, Josephson also appeared under subpoena before HUAC. He refused to be sworn in due to the "unconstitutionality of this committee" and refused to answer questions. Samuel A. Newburger of New York City served as his legal counsel.

The hearing's transcript records: The Chairman: Mr. Josephson, will you stand and be sworn? Mr. Josephson: I will not be sworn. Mr. Stripling: Will you stand? Mr. Josephson: I will stand. (Mr. Josephson stands.) Mr. Stripling: Do you refuse to be sworn? Mr. Josephson: I refuse to be sworn. Mr. Stripling: You refuse to give testimony before this sub-committee? Mr. Josephson: Until I have had an opportunity to determine through the courts the legality of this committee. The Chairman: You refuse to be sworn, and you refuse to give testimony before this committee at this hearing today? Mr. Josephson: Yes. The appellant was then excused subject to call either by the sub-committee or the full committee.

Alwyn Cole, Treasury examiner, reported that his examination of handwriting on the 1934 passport application revealed that the handwriting of the signature "Bernard A. Hirschfield" belonged to Leon Josephson. Cole did not find the signature "Samuel Liptzen" as confidently belonging to Gerhart Eisler, though he was confident that the real Samuel Liptzen had not signed.

Espionage: Rosenberg Case

Josephson helped steal papers of David Greenglass (here in mugshot), whose testimony against his sister Ethel Greenglass Rosenberg led to the Rosenberg Case. According to the 2007 book Spies, Josephson and John L. Spivak "burglarized" the offices of labor lawyer O. John Rogge, attorney for David Greenglass, and stole papers later published by the Communist Party to discredit Greenglass in his testimony in the Rosenberg Case.

Later life

From 1952 to 1956, Josephson taught Soviet Law at the Jefferson School of Social Science.

Personal life and death

Josephson married Lucy Wishart in 1945; they had two children. The Individual in Soviet Law (1957)