David Goldstein was born in London, England, to Dutch Jewish parents. In 1871 his family immigrated to New York. He left school at age 11 to follow his father, a cigar maker, into the trade. It was at meetings of the Cigar Makers’ International Union that he was exposed to political debates and the struggle for economic justice. Goldstein retained a lifelong membership in the union and steadfastly supported organized labor, even as his other beliefs changed radically.

Goldstein and his family moved to Boston in 1888. There he became interested in Nationalism and joined the Socialist Labor Party, where met fellow party member Martha Moore Avery. She became his mentor, his political ally, and his lifelong friend. In 1897 they both ran on the Socialist Labor Party ticket – Goldstein for mayor of Boston and Avery for the School Committee. Although neither won, they received a lot of press; they even managed to get Avery arrested for giving a speech without a permit. Goldstein admitted that this was a tactic to gain publicity, although it later backfired when the Socialist Labor Party accused them of economic improprieties for keeping all of the funds raised in their defense. In 1900, Goldstein and Avery left the Socialist Labor Party to join the newly formed Socialist Party.

Goldstein and Avery co-founded the Catholic Truth Guild in 1917. The Guild had the blessing of Cardinal William O’Connell and a snazzy custom yellow and white model-T, with a portable podium and sounding platform. In the 1930s the Catholic Truth Guild became Catholic Campaigners for Christ, giving its name to Goldstein’s 1936 Autobiography of a Campaigner for Christ. Goldstein traveled all over North America for the Catholic Campaigners, from Canada to Mexico and across the continental United States. He would preach to anyone who would have him, pretty much anywhere, but had a particular interest in the conversion of Jews. He believed that “Hebrew Catholics know that membership in the Catholic Church is not a denial but that it is rather a fuller understanding of the faith of their fathers,” and he authored several pamphlets on the topic of Jewish conversion to Catholicism.

Goldstein’s early warnings against Socialism and Bolshevism found a new focus in the 1940s and 1950s, when he became very interested in the House of Un-American Activities Committee and the wave of Anti-Communism sweeping the nation. A friend, Arthur J. Kelly, sent a joke telegram signed “Stalin” praising Goldstein’s grasp of Marx; at that point, Goldstein was well-known and respected in Boston’s Catholic community and could take a little good-natured ribbing. He retired from lecture tours in the early 1940s to focus on writing articles and books, including Letters, Hebrew-Catholic, to Mr. Isaacs (1943) and Suicide Bent: Sangerizing Mankind (1945). He died in 1958 and left his papers to Boston College.