The party was born out of a split in the United Jewish Socialist Workers Party ("Fareynikhte"), as after the February 25, 1919 Third Party Conference the Kiev organization had embraced communism and voiced support for the Bolshevik government. The Kiev communist "fareynikhte" did however retain the demand for Jewish national personal autonomy, to be expressed through the formation of Jewish soviets to govern Jewish community affairs. On April 8, 1919 the United Jewish Communist Workers Party was established as a separate party. Key leaders of the new party were Yehuda Novakovsky and Mikhail Levitan. The new party sought unity with the Communist Bund. The leadership of the two parties sought to merge with the Communist Party (Bolshevik) of Ukraine, on condition that their members could join "en bloc".