Abraham Cahan

American writer

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Abraham Cahan (born July 7, 1860, Vilna, Russian Empire [now Vilnius, Lithuania]—died Aug. 31, 1951, New York, N.Y., U.S.) was a journalist, reformer, and novelist who for more than 40 years served as editor of the New York Yiddish-language daily newspaper the Jewish Daily Forward (Yiddish title Forverts), which helped newly arrived Jewish immigrants adapt to American culture.

Himself an immigrant, Cahan arrived in the United States in 1882. While working in a cigar factory, he learned enough English in six years to lecture and write. In 1897 he helped found the Jewish Daily Forward, and in 1902 he became the paper’s editor. He prompted the paper to become more outspoken politically, and the publication came to be regarded as one of the most important institutions upholding the interests of immigrants at the turn of the century. Intensely political and bitterly anticommunist, Cahan was also active in organizing trade unions, particularly in the garment industries.

Cahan’s fiction is largely unremarkable except for The Rise of David Levinsky (1917), one of the first books about the Jewish immigrant’s experience. Set on the Lower East Side of New York City, the novel traces the fortunes of a penniless immigrant who eventually becomes a wealthy manufacturer. Critics agree that the value of the book is historical rather than literary; its strength lies chiefly in its vivid re-creation of life in a section of New York City. Cahan was more influential as a mentor than as an author, encouraging young writers such as Sholem Asch. As editor of Jewish Daily Forward, he also provided for them a Yiddish-language forum.