Samuel Dickstein (congressman)
| Samuel Dickstein | |
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| Justice, New York State Supreme Court | |
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In office 1946–1954 |
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| Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New York's 19th district |
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In office January 3, 1945 – December 30, 1945 |
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| Preceded by | Sol Bloom |
| Succeeded by | Arthur G. Klein |
| Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New York's 12th district |
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In office March 4, 1923 – January 3, 1945 |
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| Preceded by | Meyer London |
| Succeeded by | John J. Rooney |
| New York State Assemblyman | |
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In office 1919–1922 |
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| Personal details | |
| Born |
February 5, 1885 Vilna Governorate, Lithuania, Russian Empire (present-day Vilnius, Republic of Lithuania) |
| Died | April 22, 1954 (aged 69) New York City, New York, U.S. |
| Political party | Democratic |
Samuel Dickstein (February 5, 1885 – April 22, 1954) was a Democratic Congressional Representative from New York and a New York State Supreme Court Justice. He 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. Authors Allen Weinstein and Alexander Vassiliev learned in 1999 that Soviet files indicate he was a paid agent of the NKVD.
The Boston Globe stated: "Dickstein ran a lucrative trade in illegal visas for Soviet operatives before brashly offering to spy for the NKVD, the KGB's precursor, in return for cash." Sam Roberts, in The Brother: The Untold Story of the Rosenberg Case, wrote that "Not even Julius Rosenberg knew that Samuel Dickstein had been on the KGB's payroll." Kurt Stone wrote that Dickstein "was, for many years, a 'devoted and reliable' Soviet agent whom his handlers nicknamed 'Crook'".
Dickstein was born into a Jewish family in present-day Lithuania. At the age of six, he emigrated to the United States with his parents, who settled in New York City. He graduated from New York Law School in 1906. He then served as Deputy State Attorney General, and became a New York City Alderman in 1917. In 1919, he was elected as an Assemblyman of the New York State Legislature.
Dickstein was elected as a Democrat to the Sixty-eighth Congress, defeating Socialist incumbent Meyer London. He was reelected eleven times. He resigned from Congress on December 30, 1945. He served as Chairman on the Committee on Immigration and Naturalization (Seventy-second through Seventy-ninth Congresses).
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