Sarah Fell-Yellin papers (Ms. 2008.030)

The Sarah Fell Yellin papers is a small but rich collection of correspondence, family documents, photographs, memorabilia, notebooks, scrapbooks and literary manuscripts amassed by Sarah Fell and Mendel Yellin. The earliest documents they brought with them from Poland, but the bulk of the collection starting with Mendel Yellin's green card and Sarah Fell Yellin's poems and speeches reflects their experiences in Boston, New York, Los Angeles and Dallas.

The correspondence series includes letters in Yiddish, in English and a few in Russian. Some are business related; most are personal. The earliest dated letters are from 1932 and the latest from 1983. There is a collection of letters dated 1938-1939 from correspondents in Bialystok. The Yellins kept this batch of letters together in a marked envelope which lacked address, stamp and postmark.

The family documents consist of Mendel Yellin's diplomas, Mendel and Sarah Fell Yellin's delousing cards, their American citizenship certificates, their marriage certificate, their immigration cards, Mendel Yellin's green card, and a copy of Sarah Fell Yellin's death certificate. There is also a sheaf of membership cards for organizations like The Biro-Bidjan Institute and Mendel Yellin's delegate pass to the first Convention of International Workers' Order. Some of the documents had been previously photocopied and these copies have been retained and filed with the originals.

The photographs series contains some snap shots of Hyman Yellin and Mendel Yellin, a few of Mendel Yellin with Sarah Fell Yellin, some of groups like the Los Angeles Jewish Writers Circle taken in 1955, and one of the National Unity Convention of the Jewish Peoples' Committee taken in 1931. There is a large section of formal portraits of Sarah Fell Yellin as well as several plates which were used as jacket illustrations for Sarah Fell Yellin's books. There are also some photographs of unknown individuals and some unknown groups. The groups appear to be members of a school or club probably date from the early 20th century. Some of the photographs are only photocopies. No indication is given of the whereabouts of the originals. Some of the most informal photographs are in the scrapbooks : a photograph of a young Sarah Fell Yellin in a sailor dress and a candid of Mendel and Sarah Fell Yellin with their two sons taken no later than 1928 are particularly noteworthy.

The memorabilia series includes letterheads from committees or firms that various members of the family belonged to, a political cartoon, a memorial album for Michael Gold and one for Moissaye Joseph Olgin. There are also birthday party invitations for several parties for Sarah Fell Yellin which doubled as fund raisers to publish her books. A large folder of flyers, tickets and posters for many of Sarah Fell Yellin's speeches is useful for tracing her activist career. There are get well wishes for Sarah Fell Yellin as well as condolences to Mendel Yellin and memorial notices on her death. There is a blurb for one of Sarah Fell Yellin's books written by her older son, Hyman Yellin. A program for a banquet honoring Chaim Suler in 1972 which was organized by Mendel Yellin , pamphlets from the Warsaw Ghetto Memorial, a poster from the Yivo Institute, as well as a program for a French/Yiddish marionette show. A cassette tape made of the funeral service for Sarah Fell Yellin which is mentioned in one of Victor Yellin's letters to his father is also included. Poems and articles on Sarah Fell Yellin are in this series. One is hand drawn and, judging by the street names, represents a small portion of an American city. The other is a commercial, full color folded map of the Near East.

The literary manuscripts series contains both published and draft items and represents the work of both Sarah Fell and Mendel Yellin. There are short stories, newspaper columns, poems, speeches and at least one play. Some of the drafts are typed but most are handwritten and difficult to read. No attempt has been made to credit either of the Yellins as the author of particular manuscripts. Though one published poem is clearly attributed to Mendel Yellin, the bulk of his work is newspaper columns. His topics range from Yad Vashem to Boston, from anti-war protests in Washington, D.C. to the Tall Ships Festival in Newport, R.I. The bulk of Sarah Fell Yellin's work is her poetry which usually has a political connection. She wrote, for example, several poems on the Rosenberg children, one on the first flight of Yuri Gagarin.

Sarah Fell Yellin's poetry inspired several pieces of music. There is a score for "My words" which contains a translation into English from the original Yiddish and music by Waldemar Hille and one entitled "Chaversche Freid" with music by Nathan H. Alterman. There is also a piece called Deine Oign with words by Dora Teitelbaum and music by V. Martin Fin. In the memorabilia series, there is a choral program which features a piece with words by Sarah Fell Yellin.

The notebooks are an interesting conglomeration of small spiral commercial notebooks, and odd sheets of paper sewn together into note pad form. Most of the entries are in Yiddish but the more recent notebooks contain entries in English as well. There are quotations, bibliographical references and drafts of poems. The books all open on the right and are meant to be read from right to left even when the entries are in English. There are undated notebooks. The dated books come from 1944, through the 1950's and into the 1960's.

There are a number of scrapbooks in the collection. These are full of clippings, mostly in Yiddish, and some photographs. Mendel Yellin's scrapbook contains copies of many of his columns and was also haphazardly stuffed with letters, birthday cards, membership cards and photographs all of which have been removed to separate folders. While there is one elegant leather bound album which Mendel Yellin started after Sarah Fell Yellin's death which contains memorial notices, condolences and long obituaries, most of the scrapbooks are as eclectic in format as the notebooks. In one case, a child's drawing pad has been used. In another case, a proof copy of Man and His Time is used to hold clippings and drafts of poems. Mendel used the proof of the cover for Songs of Days and Years, the posthumously published translation of some of Sarah Fell Yellin's poetry as a scrapbook holding reviews and thank you notes for the gifts of copies of the book he had shared with family, friends and institutions. The series starts in 1923 and ranges through the 1920's. It then skips to the 1960's. Also housed here is a 25th anniversary memorial album on the Morning Freiheit which appears to have been assembled by the Yellins rather than issued by the paper.

The Yellins cut out and saved all manner of articles from newspapers and magazines. There are articles about Dalton Trumbo, Lillian Hellman, Martin Buber, Langston Hughes, oil pipelines, and Seattle, Washington. There are reviews of the first Broadway run of Equus and a book on the medical consequences of a broken heart as well as the Holocaust television series and thoughts about Fiddler on the Roof. There is a short run of issues of The Morning Freiheit and many clippings from Yiddish newspapers. These last are grouped by decade where dated or, if not, in an undated folder.