Fellow Travelers From Popular Front to Cold War

Fellow Travelers: From Popular Front to Cold War

“Fellow Travelers: From Popular Front to Cold War” contains a curated selection of digital materials drawn from the Yiddish Immigrant Left holdings in the International Workers Order (IWO) Records (#5276), housed at the Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation and Archives, Cornell University Libraries. Founded in 1930, the IWO’s unique early engagement with and inclusion of other groups, notably African American activists as well as other immigrant societies, meant that the multi-lingual IWO expanded to become the sole U.S. interracial and interethnic fraternal order. The term “Fellow Travelers” refers to those who once trod this path with early activists known for their support of the Soviet Union, as well as for civil rights.

The IWO documents primarily come from the IWO’s confiscated organizational files. The IWO’s founders in inviting others to join its umbrella, chose to become its Jewish Section (later renamed the Jewish Peoples Fraternal Order [JPFO]). Some selected documents are in Yiddish: their very production proves the JPFO's engagement with and contribution to Yidishe Kultur [Yiddish Culture]. These ~1,800 digitized documents include but are not limited to memos, minutes, correspondence, convention proceedings, brochures and other ephemera, Jubilee (anniversary) journals, educational materials, political pamphlets and the occasional magazine. Archive documents are primarily printed or typed text (English or Yiddish) with a few handwritten materials in Yiddish. There are also flyers, concert programs, coupons, a few radiograms (from the U.S.S.R. or elsewhere) and telegrams, as well as a tiny number of photographs (not artistic in nature). The bound volumes of newsletters as well as other more graphic documents such as pamphlets or songbooks are more visual in nature, often associated with cultural programs or projects that reflect its commitment to immigrant and civil rights and fighting antisemitism. Some publications such as book, magazine and pamphlet covers have interesting graphics or lettering, in addition to historically valuable content. Of note is a rare 1941 poetry anthology published in Moscow by the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee, as well as autographed letters from Marc Chagall.

Those mentioned in the overview include figures of interest from its leadership ranks and/or public supporters in this larger archive which is only partially digitized. Researchers may find documents authored by, or that merely touch upon, historic figures who were important in Jewish, Black, Slavic, Italian, Latino/a life and culture or who are relevant to public history in other ways. Among such figures are William (Pat) Patterson, Earl Browder, Paul Robeson, Langston Hughes, Dr. Chaim Zhitlowsky, Moshe Nadir, Peretz Markish, Paul (Pesach) Novick, Moissaye (Moshe) Olgin, Yankev (Jacob) Schaefer, Itzik Fefer, Shloyme (Solomon) Mikhoels, Marc Chagall, Pete Seeger, Ruth Rubin, Martha Schlamme, Edith Segal, Pearl Primus, Hazel Scott, Leon Bibbs, W.E. B. Du Bois, Nathaniel Buchwald (Naftoli Bukhvald), B.Z. Goldberg, Sholem Asch, Albert Einstein, Julius Dassin, Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, Rabbi Avrom Bik, Ben Gold, Arthur Kinoy, Frank Donnor, Michael Salerno, Philip Foner, Mary Church Terrell, and Herbert Aptheker. Those who directly worked with the IWO/JPFO but whose work was not solely limited to that association include Louise Thompson Patterson, Walter Garland, Rockwell Kent, John Middleton, Clara Lemlich Shavelson, June Gordon, Kalman (Kalmon) Marmor, Nachman Maisel (Nakhmen Mayzil, Mayzel), Itche Goldberg, Sam Pevzner, Morris Schappes, Gedalya (George) Sanders, George Starr, Shimshon (Sam) Milgron, Ernie Rymer, Helen Vrabel, Max Bedacht, Jesús Colón, Peter Shipka, Bolesław Gebert, Luigi Candela, Congressman Vito Marcantonio, Albert E. Kahn, and IWO founder, Rubin Saltzman. Material also exists on extensive IWO/JPFO legal and political campaigns that involved national historic figures such as Frankin Delano Roosevelt.

The IWO’s organizational files were confiscated due to the Cold War when the organization was shutdown despite its sound financial standing in a unique legal case hinging on the question of an interpretation of insurance law. Although the IWO, or the Order [Ordn] as it was referred to, was taken off what was called the “Red List” prior to filling its final legal appeal, it was shutdown, nonetheless. New York State’s Department of Insurance became the “owner” of its organizational files, which it subsequently donated to the Kheel Center. Those files have been augmented by other files, including generous donations from families and from the law firm whose principal pursued the legal case.

When Yiddish-speaking immigrants chose their own English names, they often used popularly accepted transliterations or adopted English names as part of a process of immigrant acculturation. Typically, they arrived in the United States before the YIVO ([Yidisher visnshaftlekher institute] or YIVO Institute for Jewish Research) standards were promulgated and did not employ YIVO’s system to determine the spelling of their names or those of many other words. Hence, in rendering names we have used the names that the immigrants themselves used which are often variable, as can be seen in the Library of Congress’ multiple listings for the same person. Thus, Itche Goldberg is rendered as “Itche,” since that is how he spelled his name in English, while Pesach Novick used Paul as his English first name. Other examples abound. We have tried to be consistent where possible and an English translation is provided for many transliterated terms as are some document summaries.

Twentieth-century Yiddish itself does not necessarily use a fully phonetic orthography. Yiddish, a fusion language spelled with Hebrew letters, includes Germanic, Slavic, Semitic, and Romance components. Words and expressions of Hebrew or Aramaic origin are spelled as they are in the source language. Thus, the history of the Yiddish language is reflected in its variable orthography. Notable here is that aside from differences based on regional dialects, IWO publications, printing houses and writers typically did not use the Soviet “simplified” system, which discouraged the retention of Hebrew or Aramaic spellings. While Yiddish orthography may well reflect ideology, in the case of the International Workers Order’s confiscated archives housed at Cornell University’s Kheel Center, it does not necessarily do so.