William Weinstone

Will was the son of Jewish parents who emigrated from Russia to escape that nation's pervasive antisemitism during the late Tsarist period.

Weinstone was elected as a delegate to the founding convention of the Communist Party of America, called to order in Chicago on September 1, 1919.

During the first years of the 1920s, the Communist Party of America was forced underground by the mass operation of the US Department of Justice remembered as the Palmer Raids.

[2] On January 15, 1931, William Albertson was to serve as secretary of a "Provisional Anti-War Youth Committee" of New York State to hold a rally for a Liebknecht Memorial and Anti-War Demonstration at the Star Casono at Park Avenue and 117 Street in Manhattan; CPUSA executive Weinstone and YCL leader Gil Green were to attend.

[citation needed] In 1953, Weinstone and 12 other communist leaders were convicted in Federal District Court in Manhattan under the Smith Act of conspiracy to advocate the violent overthrow of the government.

[citation needed] In 1959, Weinstone was among the first American communists to visit the Soviet Union again, following a protracted break in direct contacts with the outside world.

Weinstone traveled at that time without portfolio and was reported by high-ranking party member and FBI informant Morris Childs to have been considering seeking employment and staying in the USSR on a long-term basis.