The Rise of Abraham Cahan

by Seth Lipsky

The first general-interest biography of the legendary editor of The Jewish Daily Forward, the iconic Yiddish-language newspaper of the laboring masses that inspired, educated, and entertained millions of readers, helped redefine journalism during its golden age, and transformed American culture.

Abraham Cahan took the helm of a failing Yiddish Socialist daily in New York City in 1902 and over the next fifty years turned it into a national newspaper that changed American politics and earned him the adulation of millions of Jewish immigrants and the friendship of the greatest newspapermen of his day, from Lincoln Steffens to H. L. Mencken. Cahan--whose tenure at the Forward spanned the Russian Revolution, the First World War, the rise of political Zionism, the Second World War, the Holocaust, and the creation of the State of Israel--did more than cover the news. He led revolutionary reforms--spreading social democracy, organizing labor unions, battling communism, and assimilating immigrant Jews into American society, most notably via his groundbreaking advice column, "A Bintel Brief."  Cahan was also a celebrated novelist whose works are read and studied to this day as brilliant examples of fiction that turned the immigrant narrative into an art form. Acclaimed journalist Seth Lipsky, creator of the English-language successor to Cahan's Forward, gives us the fascinating story of a man of profound contradictions: an avowed socialist who wrote fiction with transcendent sympathy for a wealthy manufacturer; an internationalist who turned against the anti-Zionism of the left; an assimilationist whose final battle was against religious apostasy. Lipsky's Cahan is a prism through which to understand the paradoxes and transformations of American Judaism itself. A towering newspaperman in the manner of Horace Greeley and Joseph Pulitzer, Abraham Cahan revolutionized our idea of what newspapers could accomplish.

This biography is part of the critically-acclaimed JEWISH ENCOUNTERS series, a collaboration between Schocken Books and Nextbook Press.

Genres: Biography, History, Nonfiction

240 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2013

Reviews

[Joanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Growing up the Forward was the newspaper of record in my grandparent's house. It was where my grandfather, in reading the personals, discovered family thought to be lost in the Holocaust alive and well and living in Tel Aviv. After my mother died we found files of my grandmother's 'American' recipes, written in Yiddish cut out from the Forward.
How could I not like a book about its founder? And it was actually readable!

[Barbara · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was interested in learning about Abraham Cahan as I thought his book, The Rise of David Levinsky, was great. Indeed, his life story and the times he lived in were interesting. This book, however, could have been better edited and written in a more compelling manner.

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was interesting. This is about the man who founded the Jewish Forward and it follows him and his paper through the end of World War II, the fifties,Stalinism, Communism, Socialism, McCarthyism, the confusion of the US Communists about Stalin, etc. He was able to take an anti-Stalin, pro-Socialist position which was not easy but which reflected his sincere thinking. I don't feel I got as good a grasp of him as a person as I would have liked. But it really gives an interesting picture of the history of the labor movement in the US through that time which is not a history most of us get taught. It's interesting and important.