R. Sarlin

Merchant
c.1917

929 Friend Street
Newberry, SC

FAMILIES: Sarlin

In 1892, Reuben Sarlin (1890-1965) left Russia with his mother, Zippe Sarlin (1866-1905), for New York City. After they arrived in the United States, Zippe and Reuben reunited with Reuben’s father, Morris Sarlin (1866-1930), who immigrated about a year prior. In New York City, Morris worked as a tailor and Zippe worked as a homemaker. After Zippe’s death in 1905, Morris remarried to Eastern European immigrant Anna Sarlin (c.1873-unknown).

 

After he graduated from New York Public School #84—located on the corner of Glenmore and Stone Avenues in Brooklyn—in 1907, Reuben went to work as a garment cutter. By 1917, however, he had moved to Newberry, South Carolina, where he worked as a junk and scrap metal merchant on Friend Street. By spring 1918, Reuben had moved on to Edgefield, SC, where continued in the mercantile business. With the help of his wife, Ella Fedder Sarlin (1889-1976), Sarlin would later open department stores in Liberty, SC; Easley, SC; and Central, SC.

Main Image: An advertisement for Reuben Sarlin’s junk and scrap metal business in Newberry. Reprinted from The Newberry Weekly Herald, May 22, 1917.

 

Above Image: Reuben Sarlin in front of his department store in Liberty, SC, 1925. Reprinted from Jewish Historical Society of South Carolina, Volume XX1, Number 2 (Fall 2016).

The Jewish Merchant Project is supported by the generosity of the Henry & Sylvia Yaschik Foundation and the Stanley B. Farbstein Endowment at the Coastal Community Foundation.

JHSSC Office
Sylvia Vlosky Yaschik Jewish Studies Center
96 Wentworth Street
Charleston, SC 29424
Phone: 843 953 3918