Abraham Cahan was a Belarusian-born Jewish-American editor, journalist, politician, and author. Cahan is most famous for his journalism and his role in the foundation of "The Jewish Daily Forward" (Forverts).
Background
Abraham Cahan was born on July 7, 1860 in Podberezhie, Belarus into an orthodox Litvak family. Son of Shachno and Sarah Goldarbeiter Cahan. His grandfather was a rabbi in Vidz, Vitebsk, his father a teacher of Hebrew language and the Talmud. The devoutly religious family moved to Vilnius in 1866.
Education
After Abraham's family moving to Vilnius in 1866, Cahan received there the usual Jewish preparatory education for the rabbinate. However, he was attracted by secular knowledge and clandestinely studied the Russian language, ultimately prevailing on his parents to allow him to enter the Teachers Institute of Vilnius in 1877, from which he was graduated in 1881.
Career
Abraham was a teacher in a Jewish government school in Velizh, Vitebsk in 1881. Arriving penniless in New York in 1882, he found a job in a cigar factory. Within a few months he had learned English and began his journalistic career. He worked as a laborer, teacher, freelance journalist, and labor organizer in New York City from 1882 till 1997. He met the socialist leader Morris Hillquist, and the two founded the New York "Arbeiter Zeitung" in 1886. He also edited "Die Zukunft" from 1893 till 1894. He worked as a reporter of "New York Commercial Advertiser", New York in 1897-1901.
In 1896 Abraham published his first novel, "Yekl, A Tate of the New York Ghetto". In 1897 he helped found "The Jewish Daily Forward", and served as its editor- in-chief from 1903 till 1946 and as its editor from 1946 till 1951.
Cahan vigorously attacked Soviet totalitarianism and although he did not consider himself a Zionist, took a sympathetic view of Zionism following his visit to Palestine in 1925. In 1933 he became the first Socialist Party member to support Franklin D. Roosevelt and, as a result, was threatened with expulsion from the party.
Personality
Quotes from others about the person
Gerald Sorin: "As early as the summer of 1882, however, Abraham Cahan, in the United States only a very short time, challenged the Russian-speakers by pointing out that the Jewish workers did not understand the propaganda that the intellectuals were disseminating. It was proposed, almost as a lark, that Cahan lecture in Yiddish; and relatively quickly this so-called folk vernacular became the primary medium of communication. For some time, however, the consensus continued to be that Yiddish was strictly an expedient in the conduct of socialist activitiy and not a value in itself."
Interests
Bird-watching
Connections
Abraham married Anna Bronstein, on December 11, 1886.