Morton Sobell
| Morton Sobell | |
|---|---|
Morton Sobell (left) at a visit to East Germany in 1976
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| Born |
April 11, 1917 New York City, New York, United States |
| Occupation | Electrical engineer |
| Criminal charge | Conspiracy to commit espionage |
| Criminal penalty | 30 years imprisonment |
| Criminal status | Released after 18 years |
| Spouse(s) | Helen Levitov (1945–1980) |
| Children | Mark Sobell Sydney Gurewitz Clemens, stepdaughter |
| Parent(s) | Louis Sobell (April 22, 1889) Rose Sobell (1894–1986) |
Morton Sobell (born April 11, 1917) was an American engineer with General Electric and Reeves Electronics who worked on military and government contracts and who was subsequently found guilty of spying for the Soviets as a part of a ring that included Julius Rosenberg and others. Sobell was tried and convicted of espionage in 1951 and sentenced to 30 years in prison. He was released in 1969 after spending 17 years and 9 months in prison.
Morton Sobell was born into a Jewish family in New York City, to parents Louis and Rose, who in 1906 emigrated from the small village of Belozerka, Russian Empire (today in Ukraine). He attended Stuyvesant High School and the City College of New York where he received a degree in engineering and later married Helen Levitov (1918–2002). He worked in Washington, D.C., for the Navy Bureau of Ordnance and in Schenectady, New York, for the General Electric Company.
According to NKGB agent Alexander Feklisov, Sobell was recruited as a spy in the summer of 1944. "Sobell... was deferred from active military service because he was a top specialist in his field... When I asked him if he could microfilm his own documents, he replied it was not a problem since he knew photography quite well. At our next meeting I brought him a camera with the necessary accessories and a small stock of film."
In June 1944, Max Elitcher claimed he was phoned by Julius Rosenberg, whom he had known slightly at college and had not seen in six years. Elitcher later recalled: "I remembered the name, I recalled who it was, and he said he would like to see me. He came over after supper, and my wife was there and we had a casual conversation. After that he asked if my wife would leave the room, that he wanted to speak to me in private." Rosenberg allegedly said that many people were aiding the Soviet Union "by providing classified information about military equipment". Rosenberg said that Morton Sobell was "also helping in this".
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