Israel Amter

Israel Amter (March 26, 1881-1954) was an official and founding member of the Communist Party USA (CPUSA).

He was born on March 26, 1881 in Denver, Colorado to Jewish immigrants. In 1901, he became a member of the Socialist Party of America (SPA) until he moved to Germany in 1903. While in Germany he edited the German Export Review and became a member of the Social Democratic Party. He also studied music at the Leipzig Conservatory where in 1912 he created a never performed opera called "Winona" about a romance between a United States Army Officer and a Native American woman known as Winona. (The [http://catnyp.nypl.org/record=b7540386 manuscript score] resides in the [http://www.nypl.org/musicdiv Music Division] of [http://www.nypl.org/research/lpa/lpa.html The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts] .)

Sometime later he moved back to the United States, and in 1921, he and three others were seized by bomb squad detectives and Department of Justice agents and charged for attempting to overthrow the government. Later, he staged a few campaigns for various political offices. The first came in 1928 when he ran for Senator of Ohio under an unknown political affiliation. He managed to receive 2,062 votes, about .09% of the popular vote. He next ran under affiliation of the CPUSA in the 1932 New York gubernatorial election. He ran with running mate Henry Shepard and received 26,407 (0.56%) popular votes. He ran again for the office in 1934 with William J. Burroughs as his running mate. This time he managed to gain 45,878 (1.21%) popular votes. He ran one last time for Governor of New York in 1942, gaining 45,220 (1.10%) popular votes.

His name is mentioned in the poem "America" by Allen Ginsberg who writes, "I once saw Israel Amter plain."