{{Short description|American political activist (1896–2000)}} {{use mdy|date=July 2024}} {{Infobox person | name = Ella Wolfe | image = | alt = | caption = | birth_name = Ella Goldberg | birth_date = {{birth date|1896|05|10}} | birth_place= Kherson, Russia (present-day Ukraine) | death_date = {{death date and age|2000|01|08|1896|05|10|df=yes}} | death_place= Palo Alto, California, USA | education = Columbia University | spouse = {{marriage|Bertram Wolfe|1917|1977|end=d.}} | children = | known_for = Co-founder of Communist Party USA }} '''Ella Goldberg Wolfe''' (May 10, 1896 &ndash; January 8, 2000) was a Ukrainian-born American political activist and educator, who, with husband Bertram Wolfe, co-founded the Communist Party USA in 1919.<ref name=guardian/> She later became disenchanted with communism and aligned herself with American political conservatism and anti-communism.

==Background==

Ella Goldberg was born on May 10, 1896, in Kherson, Ukraine and came to Williamsburg, Brooklyn with her parents in 1906.{{cn|date=July 2024}}

==Career==

Ella Goldberg Wolfe and Bertram Wolfe worked at the Rand School. After the passage of the Sedition Act of 1918, they were forced to go underground, living under assumed names. They lived for a time in Mexico City, where their circle of friends included Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera. In 1929, they moved to Moscow but fell out with Stalin; they left two years later and returned to Brooklyn. Wolfe earned a degree in Spanish from Columbia University and went on to teach Spanish literature at Hunter College and in public schools in New York City.<ref name=guardian/><ref name=huff>{{cite news |url=https://www.huffingtonpost.com/virginia-sanchezkorrol/ella-wolfe-womens-history_b_830969.html |title=Of Teachers and History: A Brooklyn Memoir |newspaper=Huffington Post |date=March 3, 2011 |first=Virginia Sanchez |last=Korro}}</ref>

After Stalin aligned himself with Hitler in 1939, Wolfe and her husband abandoned communism and became anti-communists. At the time, the couple found themselves hated by the left and distrusted by the political right.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/07/magazine/lives-they-lived-01-07-01-ella-goldberg-wolfe-b-1896-tale-three-centuries.html |title=The Lives They Lived: 01-07-01: Ella Goldberg Wolfe, b. 1896; A Tale of Three Centuries |newspaper=New York Times |date=January 7, 2001 |first=Sam |last=Tanenhaus}}</ref>

In 1966, Wolfe moved to the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, where she spent her time editing her husband's papers and providing eyewitness accounts to researchers of the historic times in which she lived.<ref name=huff/> Wolfe was consulted by researchers for the film "Reds".<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/2000/01/15/ella-goldberg-wolfe-a-figure-in-us-communism-movement-dies/5c2a6f47-7c3d-45ea-bf6f-e0411b7feeaa/ |title=Ella Goldberg Wolfe, a Figure in U.S. Communism Movement, Dies |newspaper=Washington Post |date=January 15, 2000}}</ref>

==Personal life and death==

In 1910, Goldberg met Bertram Wolfe. They married in 1917.<ref name=guardian/>

She became politically conservative and was a supporter of Ronald Reagan.<ref name=guardian>{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/2000/jan/17/guardianobituaries2 |title=Ella Goldberg Wolfe |newspaper=The Guardian |date=January 17, 2009 |first=Godfrey |last=Hodgson}}</ref> She also became friends with Edward Teller, who was strongly anti-communist.<ref name=nytimes/>

Ella Goldberg Wolfe died age 103 on January 8, 2000, at home in Palo Alto.<ref name=nytimes>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2000/01/13/world/ella-goldberg-wolfe-103-communist-turned-reaganite-dies.html |title=Ella Goldberg Wolfe, 103, Communist Turned Reaganite, Dies |newspaper=New York Times |date=January 13, 2000 |first=Douglas |last=Martin}}</ref>

== References ==

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== External links ==

* [https://nmwa.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/4.3.4.2-frida_kahlo_papers_1907-1954.pdf Letters between Ella Wolfe and Frida Kahlo] at the National Museum of Women in the Arts

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wolfe, Ella}} Category:1896 births Category:2000 deaths Category:Emigrants from the Russian Empire to the United States Category:American communists Category:Columbia University alumni Category:Hunter College faculty Category:People from Williamsburg, Brooklyn