Sidney Steinberg

SIDNEY STEINBERG came to the United States from Utena, Lithuania in 1930, with his brother Murray. He was a devout Jewish young man who studied the Talmud. His papers stated that he was 16 and a Lithuanian named Ovsejus Sarfsteinas. The Steinberg family eventually settled in Massachusetts near Worcester.

Shortly after his arrival in the USA he got a job working for a man named Ostrow who was a communist. Ostrow made a great impression on the 16 year-old youth, who knew nothing about Democracy and believed that what Ostrow taught him about Communism was the way of his “New Country.”

Sidney Steinberg became involved with the Young Communists League of New England. He was arrested in 1931 in Lowell MA in connection with a textile strike, and moved to New York in 1932. He became prominent in the Communist Party in 1942, and was the New Jersey chairman of that party from 1942 through November of 1948, when he took a post with the national Communist Party.

Sidney Steinberg moved to Camden in the mid 1940s. He registered to vote on October 10, 1944 and was living in Fairview in 1945. He does not appear in the Camden city directory in 1947.

After World War II, as relations between the Soviet Union and the United States and her allies broke down, tolerance for political dissent and labor activism plummeted, perhaps in equal measure due to “yellow” journalism (see the example below) and to the activities of Soviet espionage agents, especially in the case of the theft of nuclear weapons related technology. Life became increasingly difficult not only for the politically active but for people in the labor movement such as Camden native John Tisa and for those indirectly connected, the best known example being the blacklisting of people in the movie industry during this time.

In 1951 Sidney Steinberg was indicted for conspiracy to overthrow the government of the United States. Although he did not immediately submit to arrest by the FBI, as best that I can determine these charges did not hold water. His interest in the Communist Party was apparently more from his pro-labor leanings than any interest in changing our form of government to that of Stalin’s Russia.

Reds in Hiding:

Sidney Steinberg, former executive secretary of the Communist party in Camden, is featured in this article describing the eight missing Communist leaders of the “so-called second team” of Red revolutionists. These articles were prepared by the International News Service in full cooperation with the FBI, which urges every American to help track down these accused conspirators. If you see Steinberg, or any of the others, notify the FBI at once.

By JAMES L. KILGALLEN

New York, July 17 (INS) — Fugitive Sidney Steinberg, 36, hunted by the FBI, has one known peculiarity: he writes his signature with a lower case, or small, “s.”

Otherwise, the former Camden organizer, who later became chairman of the New Jersey Communist party, is an ordinary looking individual with no standout characteristics. He could pass for a mechanic, a subway guard, a truck driver or a butcher, which he actually was at one time in both New Jersey and New York.

But today he is officially listed as assistant labor secretary of the Communist party, USA, and also as a member of the party’s alternate national committee.

The FBI “wanted” circular describes him thus: “height 5 feet 6 inches; weight, 137 pounds; build, medium; hair, brown; eyes, blue; complexion, light; race, white; nationality, American; occupations, writer, butcher.”

His pictures show that he smiles readily.

He is one of four members of the Communist party’s “second team” who got away last June 20 when the FBI, in a series of meticulously-timed raids in New York and Pittsburgh, arrested 17 persons on the charge of conspiracy to advocate the violent overthrow of the government.

Four of the 11 members of the “Politburo” — the party’s “first team” — jumped bail and disappeared about the same time, as they were about to be sent off to prison to serve their terms. They had been convicted in October, 1949. All eight fugitives may have “gone underground.”

Steinberg frequently uses the name “Sid Stein.”

Actually he was born neither Steinberg nor Stein. He was born Sept. 16, 1914, in Lithuania and entered the United States in 1930 at New York under the name of Ovsejus Sarfsteinas.

Until 1932 he resided in Worcester, Mass., and in March, 1938, he became a naturalized American in New York. His education includes grammar and high school, all in Lithuania.

Arrested in 1931

His record shows that on Nov. 9, 1931, he was arrested by the Lawrence, Mass. police for loitering in connection with a textile strike. He was only 20 when he was married in New York April 1, 1935. His bride was 16.

Prior to joining the Communist party, Steinberg belonged to the Young Communists League in New England. He rose rapidly as a party functionary. He became prominent in the Communist party in 1942, when he operated as an organizer in New Jersey. He became New Jersey state chairman of the party and held that post until November, 1948, when he took up his present duties.

The Camden county board of elections records show Steinberg lived in Fairview in 1945. He first registered October 10, 1944, and voted as a Communist in the general elections that year.

Studied Abroad

The FBI received information that Steinberg took a trip to Great Britain and France during 1938 to study labor conditions.

The Daily Worker, Communist party organ, announced on Nov. 18, 1948, that Steinberg had been made assistant to National Labor Secretary John Williamson — one of the American “Politburo” Communists.

Steinberg’s parents, two sisters and three brothers, live in Worcester, Mass.

(Tomorrow: Wanted: Red leader James Edward Jackson Jr.)