Abraham J. Isserman (May 11, 1900 – April 22, 1988) was an American lawyer and activist who defended
Gerhart Eisler
Gerhart Eisler (20 February 1897 – 21 March 1968) was a German politician, editor and publicist. Along with his sister Ruth Fischer, he was a very early member of the Austrian German Communist Party (KPDÖ) and then a prominent member of the ...
in 1947 and
CPUSA
The Communist Party USA, officially the Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA), is a communist party in the United States which was established in 1919 after a split in the Socialist Party of America following the Russian Revo ...
leaders in the
Foley Square trial
The Smith Act trials of Communist Party leaders in New York City from 1949 to 1958 were the result of Federal government of the United States, US federal government prosecutions in the postwar period and during the Cold War between the Soviet Uni ...
(1949): he was found in contempt of court by Judge
Harold Medina
Harold Raymond Medina (February 16, 1888 – March 14, 1990) was a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and previously was a United States district judge of the United States District Court for ...
, sentenced to four months in jail (1952), and disbarred.
[
][
]
Background
Isserman was born on May 11, 1900, in Belgium.
Career
Abraham J. Isserman and Morris Isserman were private attorneys at Isserman & Isserman, 24 Commerce Street, Newark, New Jersey.
His clients included
Edith Berkman, the New Jersey chapter of the
Congress of Industrial Organizations
The Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) was a federation of unions that organized workers in industrial unions in the United States and Canada from 1935 to 1955. Originally created in 1935 as a committee within the American Federation of ...
,
and the union called the
American Newspaper Guild
The NewsGuild-CWA is a labor union founded by newspaper journalists in 1933. In addition to improving wages and working conditions, its constitution says its purpose is to fight for honesty in journalism and the news industry's business practices ...
.
In the 1930s through 1941, he served as counsel for the
American Civil Liberties Union
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is a nonprofit organization founded in 1920 "to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States". T ...
.
"Communist lawyer"
![Communist_Party_USA_(Alternate_Logo)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/79/Communist_Party_USA_%28Alternate_Logo%29.png)
Isserman was a member of the
Communist Party
A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of ''The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. A ...
and identified by the Federal government as one of several "communist lawyers."
In 1939, the
House Un-American Activities Committee
The House Committee on Un-American Activities (HCUA), popularly dubbed the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), was an investigative committee of the United States House of Representatives, created in 1938 to investigate alleged disloy ...
(HUAC) reported that Isserman was a member of the national committee of the
International Juridical Association
The International Juridical Association (IJA; 1931–1942) was an association of socially minded American lawyers, established by Carol Weiss King
and considered by the U.S. federal government (in the form of the U.S. House Un-American Activities ...
, a communist-leaning group co-founded by
Carol Weiss King
Carol Weiss King (24 August 1895 – 22 January 1952)
was a well-known immigration lawyer, key founder of the International Juridical Association, and a founding member of the National Lawyers Guild in the United States.
Her left-leanin ...
and
Shad Polier among others.
In 1939,
ACLU
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is a nonprofit organization founded in 1920 "to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States". T ...
chief
Roger Nash Baldwin
Roger Nash Baldwin (January 21, 1884 – August 26, 1981) was one of the founders of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). He served as executive director of the ACLU until 1950.
Many of the ACLU's original landmark cases took place under ...
asked Isserman to prepare a legal brief on whether witnesses could invoke the
Fifth Amendment to help witnesses called before the
Dies Committee
The House Committee on Un-American Activities (HCUA), popularly dubbed the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), was an investigative committee of the United States House of Representatives, created in 1938 to investigate alleged disloy ...
(predecessor to HUAC).
In April 1943,
Walter Gellhorn, then New York Regional Attorney and Assistant General Counsel (later professor of law at Columbia University, also brother of photographer
Martha Gellhorn
Martha Ellis Gellhorn (8 November 1908 – 15 February 1998) was an American novelist, travel writer, and journalist who is considered one of the great war correspondents of the 20th century.
Gellhorn reported on virtually every major worl ...
) testified before HUAC as follows:
Mr. MATTHEWS: Do you know Abraham J. Isserman?
Mr. GELLHORN: Yes.
Mr. MATTHEWS: Do you have any personal views on whether Mr. Isserman is a Communist or a communist sympathizer?
Mr. GELLHORN: I imagine the latter. I have no information on the former. I know him to be a competent attorney. I have consulted with him on one or two labor matters.
Gerhart Eisler trial
In 1947, with
Carol Weiss King
Carol Weiss King (24 August 1895 – 22 January 1952)
was a well-known immigration lawyer, key founder of the International Juridical Association, and a founding member of the National Lawyers Guild in the United States.
Her left-leanin ...
, Isserman defended
Gerhart Eisler
Gerhart Eisler (20 February 1897 – 21 March 1968) was a German politician, editor and publicist. Along with his sister Ruth Fischer, he was a very early member of the Austrian German Communist Party (KPDÖ) and then a prominent member of the ...
in a trial for fraudulent passport. (The Federal government believed that the full "Eisler defense committee included:
Max Bedacht
Max Bedacht Sr. (October 13, 1883 – July 4, 1972) was a German-born American revolutionary socialist political activist, journalist, and functionary who helped establish the Communist Party of America. Bedacht is best remembered as the long-time ...
, Dr. Felix Boenheim, Charles Collins, Eugene P. Connolly, Gustav Faber, Ida Guggenheimer, Isserman, King,
Albert Maltz
Albert Maltz (; October 28, 1908 – April 26, 1985) was an American playwright, fiction writer and screenwriter. He was one of the Hollywood Ten who were jailed in 1950 for their 1947 refusal to testify before the US Congress about their invol ...
, and Walter Mueller.)
In the press, Eisler had been accused of being a mastermind for Soviet spies in the United States. On February 17, 1947, ''
Life (magazine)
''Life'' was an American magazine published weekly from 1883 to 1972, as an intermittent "special" until 1978, and as a monthly from 1978 until 2000. During its golden age from 1936 to 1972, ''Life'' was a wide-ranging weekly general-interest ma ...
'' magazine ran "The Career of Gerhart Eisler as a Comintern Agent" whose subtext read "Prototyp of a professional, Moscow-schooled revolutionary, he is now charged with conspiracy against the government of the U.S."
During proceedings, Isserman stated, "I charge that this whole procedure is in bad faith and savors to me of something more."
Eisler skipped bail and left the country by means of a Polish freighter.
In 1949, the court removed
Eisler v. United States, 338 U.S. 189, from the docket, pending return of the fugitive Eisler.
Foley Square trial
![Benjamin J](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1a/Benjamin_J._Davis_NYWTS.jpg)
In 1949, Isserman served as one of five attorneys led by
Harry Sacher
Harry Sacher (3 September 1881 – 10 May 1971) was a British businessman, journalist, and Zionism, Zionist leader. He was appointed director of Marks & Spencer in 1932.
Early life and education
Sacher was born in Shoreditch, Middlesex, the ...
as lead counsel to represent 11 members of the
CPUSA
The Communist Party USA, officially the Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA), is a communist party in the United States which was established in 1919 after a split in the Socialist Party of America following the Russian Revo ...
's national board, accused of conspiring to teach and advocate the violent overthrow of the Government. The other three attorneys were Richard Gladstein, Louis F. McCabe, and George W. Crockett, Jr.
(Sometimes, Isserman is cited as chief counsel.
[
]) Isserman was representing
Gil Green and
John Williamson.
During appeal of the conviction, Isserman and colleagues accused trial judge
Harold R. Medina of improperly favoring the prosecution. The defendants lost their appeal and went to prison.
Contempt, Disbarment
Further, Isserman and Crockett among other defense attorneys was found in contempt of court. In 1952, Isserman went to jail for four months, despite support from groups like the
National Lawyers Guild
The National Lawyers Guild (NLG) is a progressive public interest association of lawyers, law students, paralegals, jailhouse lawyers, law collective members, and other activist legal workers, in the United States. The group was founded in 193 ...
.
In 1954, he was disbarred from law practice in the State of New Jersey.
Following a 1953 order, he was also disbarred from the U.S. Supreme Court (
In re Isserman,
348 U.S. 1 1954).
[
]
Restoration
In 1961,
New Jersey's Supreme Court voided the
disbarment
Disbarment, also known as striking off, is the removal of a lawyer from a bar association or the practice of law, thus revoking their law license or admission to practice law. Disbarment is usually a punishment for unethical or criminal conduct ...
and had his license restored.
Personal and death
On April 22, 1988, Isserman died in a nursing home in New York City after several strokes.
Maurice Isserman
Maurice Isserman (born 1951), formerly William R. Kenan and the James L. Ferguson chairs, is a long-time Professor of History at Hamilton College and important contributor to the "new history of American communism" that reinterpreted the role of ...
is his nephew.
See also
*
International Juridical Association
The International Juridical Association (IJA; 1931–1942) was an association of socially minded American lawyers, established by Carol Weiss King
and considered by the U.S. federal government (in the form of the U.S. House Un-American Activities ...
*
American Civil Liberties Union
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is a nonprofit organization founded in 1920 "to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States". T ...
*
Gerhart Eisler
Gerhart Eisler (20 February 1897 – 21 March 1968) was a German politician, editor and publicist. Along with his sister Ruth Fischer, he was a very early member of the Austrian German Communist Party (KPDÖ) and then a prominent member of the ...
*
Foley Square trial
The Smith Act trials of Communist Party leaders in New York City from 1949 to 1958 were the result of Federal government of the United States, US federal government prosecutions in the postwar period and during the Cold War between the Soviet Uni ...
References
External links
*
Getty Images Abraham J. Isserman
{{DEFAULTSORT:Isserman, Abraham J.
1900 births
1988 deaths
Disbarred American lawyers
Anti-communism in the United States
Jewish American attorneys
McCarthyism
Prisoners and detainees of the United States federal government
20th-century American lawyers