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Fannie Jacobs (November 1, 1885 - July 6, 1977, also known as Cele Berney ), was a Socialist and Communist Labor Party women's rights activist who ran in both 1918 and 1919 for the New York State House of Representatives or Assembly, and was an immigrant girl from Russia, immigrating from Russia to Brooklyn, New York, when she was four or five years old sometime in 1891.

Early life
Fannie Jacobs was born on November 1, 1885 somewhere in Russia to unknown Russian parents. She spoke Yiddish. Fannie was a nickname and Jacobs was her married name, as far as we know.

Immigration to America
Sometime in 1891, when she was four or five years old, she immigrated along with her parents and possible siblings to Brooklyn, New York, from their home somewhere in Russia.

1918 and 1919 Run for New York State House of Representatives or Assembly
In 1918, Fannie ran as the Socialist candidate for the New York State House of Representatives or Assembly. She gave the speech "Women-Past, Present, and Future" to a large crowd, "forced to stand in the aisles" because the seats were filled. An excerpt follows:

"'You have freedom of speech, we have freedom of assemblage, freedom of press, providing it is not against the interest of the capital class; but if ever you try to change the conditions under which you live, so that it is the interest of the working class, you will find that dictatorship more brutal than that of Czarist Russia; and any time, or as soon as the workers succeed in changing the government from a government representing a few in the interest of the few, to a government representing the men and women in the shops, in the mines, in the mills, in the factories, when they establish such a government, they will be compelled by the logic of events to lay down a dictatorship of the working class.'"

It was so good that the New York Call published an article entitled "Albany Women Hear Socialist". An excerpt follows:

"ALBANY, Feb. 26 - The women of Albany are today better fitted to vote next fall after a large number of them turned out to hear Mrs. Fannie Jacobs of Brooklyn speak in Cameron Hall, Central avenue."

In 1919, she ran again, but in the Communist Labor Party. When they first counted the results, she was the winner. But during the recount, she lost.

A year later, women got the right to vote.

Later life and death
In later life, Fannie called herself Cele Berney. Not yet 92, she died on July 6, 1977 in Miami, Florida.

Personal life
In 1902, probably not yet seventeen, she married Ralph M. Jacobs. They had three children: Arthur S. Jacobs (b. 1903)

Lillian Jacobs (b. 1906) who married a Mr. Levitch

Theodore Jacobs (b. 1911)