Background
Gordon was born on December 7, 1830 in Vilnius, to well-to-do Jewish parents who owned a hotel.
Gordon was born on December 7, 1830 in Vilnius, to well-to-do Jewish parents who owned a hotel.
Gordon studied the Talmud, the Bible, and Hebrew grammar. His self-acquired secular knowledge included Polish, French, German, and Russian. In 1852 Gordon graduated from the Vilnius Teachers' Seminary
Gordon was appointed to teach in a Jewish government school.
During the 20 years of his teaching career, he published lyrics, epics, and historical poems.
In 1872 he was called to St. Petersburg to serve as the secretary of the Jewish community and of the recently organized Society for the Promotion of Culture among the Jews of Russia. Assured of economic independence and encouraged by the Russian govenment's then-lenient policy toward the Jews, he became more outspoken in his demands for religious reforms. In a series of poems, fables, satires, and prose writings he severely criticized traditional Judaism and its leaders for their unwillingness to yield to changing social conditions. The pogroms of 1882, however, completely shattered his hopes for Jewish emancipation in Russia.