Career
Born in Bârlad to a Jewish family, he worked as a clerk for two years. He later moved to Bucharest in 1916, where he became a Communist sympathizer. Sentenced to 10 years in prison, he escaped and fled to Odessa (part of Imperial Russia at the time), returning with money and new instructions.
He lost a hand, presumably while doing experiments with explosives, and replaced it with a hook, being known to the police as the "man with the hook".
On November 17th, 1920, Max Goldstein attempted to kill the Minister of Internal Affairs, Constantin Argetoianu, who was Romania"s most vocal anti-Communist politician. The attempt, however, failed: the bomb placed under Argetoianu"s train coach destroyed the empty half of the coach.
On 8 December 1920, Goldstein, with the support Leon Lichtblau and Saul Ozias, organized another politically motivated bombing. Their improvised explosive device, made from an unexploded German 76 mm artillery shell from World War I, and placed in front of the Romanian Senate, killed Minister of Justice Dimitrie Greceanu and two senators (Demetriu Radu and Spirea Gheorghiu), and wounded the president of the Senate, Constantin Coandă.
Right after the December 1920 bombing, Goldstein fled to Bulgaria.
In October 1921, Goldstein was arrested while trying to enter Romania from Rousse, and sentenced to life imprisonment. He died in 1924 in Doftana prison following a 32 day hunger strike.
