Philip Jaffe
| Philip Jacob Jaffe | |
|---|---|
|
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| Born |
20 March 1895 Poltava, Ukraine, Russian Empire |
| Died | 10 December 1980 (aged 85) New York City, US |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | Businessman, editor, author |
| Known for | Amerasia affair |
Philip Jacob Jaffe (March 20, 1895 – December 10, 1980) was a left-wing American businessman, editor and author. He was born in Ukraine and moved to New York City as a child. He became the owner of a profitable greeting card company. In the 1930s Jaffe became interested in Communism and edited two journals associated with the Communist Party USA. He is known for the 1945 Amerasia affair, in which the FBI found classified documents in the offices of his Amerasia magazine that had been given to him by State Department employee John S. Service. He received a minimal sentence due to OSS/FBI bungling of the investigation, but there were continued reviews of the affair by Congress into the 1950s. He later wrote about the rise and decline of the Communist Party in the USA.
Philip Jaffe was born in Mogileb near Poltava, Ukraine on March 20, 1895. His father, Morris Jaffe, was a Russian-speaking Jewish lumberjack. Morris moved to the United States in 1904, temporarily leaving his family in Ekaterinoslav, where Philip attended a Jewish school and experienced a pogrom in 1905. His father, who had found work as a plasterer, sent for Philip and his mother to join him in the Lower East Side of New York City. Philip Jaffe reached New York City in 1906 with his mother and three younger siblings. Jaffe attended Townsend Harris Hall, a very selective three-year secondary school, graduating in 1913.
Jaffe studied electrical engineering at Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute for a year, then in 1914 transferred to City College of New York. He met Jay Lovestone, who would become General Secretary of the Communist Party USA (CPUSA). He was suspended for low grades, and for a short period studied at Columbia University. After dropping out of university he worked for the garment industry Board of Control, then found work as a messenger for Alexander Newmark, who ran a classified advertisement agency and was active in the Socialist Party. In 1915 Jaffe joined the Socialist Party of America.
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