SORE FEL-YELIN (SARAH FELL-YELIN)

SORE FEL-YELIN (SARAH FELL-YELIN) (April 1, 1895-June 22, 1968)

            She was born in Krinki (Krynki), Grodno region, Poland, into a laboring family.  She studied in Grodno high school and at age fifteen became active in the revolutionary movement.  During WWI she organized relief for homeless children.  In 1918 she established self-defense for women.  At that time she was a teacher in the Y. L. Perets school in Krynki.  In 1920 she emigrated to the United States, and there she became a teacher in a Workmen’s Circle school in Roxbury, Massachusetts.  In her middle years, she worked in a workshop in Los Angeles.  She was a co-editor of Kalifornyer shriftn (California writings) in 1955 and chair of the writers’ association IKUF (Jewish Cultural Association) in Los Angeles.  She was a regular contributor to: Morgn-frayhayt (Morning freedom) from the founding of the newspaper in 1922.  She published poems, stories, and articles in: Morgn-frayhayt, Yidishe kultur (Jewish culture), and Zamlungen (Collections) in New York; Kalifornyer shriftn in Los Angeles; Shriftn (Writings) and Folks-shtime (Voice of the people) in Warsaw; Naye prese (New press) in Paris; and Sovetish heymland (Soviet homeland) in Moscow.  She also placed work in the anthology Amerike in yidishn vort (America in the Yiddish word) (New York, 1955); and her worked appeared as well in In shotn fun tlies, almanakh fun der yidisher proletarisher literatur in di kapitalistishe lender (In the shadow of the gallows, an almanac of Yiddish proletarian literature in the capitalist countries) (Kharkov-Kiev, 1932).  In book form: Trit nokh trit (Step after step), illustrated by Note Kozlovski (Boston, 1937), 222 pp.; Likhtike vayzers (Bright visors) (Boston: Fraynt, 1946), 143 pp.; Af di fligl fun kholem (On the wings of a dream) (Warsaw: Yidish bukh, 1950s; 1961 reprint), 172 pp.; Mentsh un tsayt (Man and time), poetry (New York: IKUF, 1965), 194 pp.  She died in Los Angeles.

Sources: S. D. Levin, in Morgn-frayhayt (New York) (May 3, 1955); A. Bik, in Morgn-frayhayt (October 15, 1961); Sh. Shtern, in Morgn-frayhayt (February 7, 1965; November 28, 1965); Y. Ashpiz, in Morgn-frayhayt (August 22, 1965).

Benyomen Elis

[Additional information from: Berl Kagan, comp., Leksikon fun yidish-shraybers (Biographical dictionary of Yiddish writers) (New York, 1986), col. 448.]