Abraham Cahan

Abraham Cahan , 1860-1951, Russian-American journalist, Socialist leader, and author, b. Vilnius, Lithuania. He emigrated to New York City in 1882, entered journalism, and helped found the Jewish Daily Forward (1897); as editor in chief after 1902, he made it the most influential Jewish daily in America. He was a founder of the Social Democratic party in 1897 and after 1902 supported the Socialist party. Active in spreading socialist teachings among Jewish workers, he encouraged the unionization of East Side garment workers and supported them in their strikes. Cahan's writings in English, particularly Yekl: a Tale of the New York Ghetto (1896), The Imported Bridegroom and Other Stories (1898), and The Rise of David Levinsky (1917), are recognized for their historical portrayals of the immigrant experience. He also wrote, in Yiddish, Blätter von mein Leben (5 vol., 1926-31), an autobiography.

Cahan, Abraham (1860–1951), who came to the U.S. from Russia (1882), was long the editor of the Jewish Daily Forward. Besides works in Yiddish he wrote realistic fiction in English, including Yekl, a Tale of the New York Ghetto (1896), The Imported Bridegroom and Other Stories (1898), and The Rise of Devid Levinsky (1917), a novel of the good and bad in a Jew's Americanization in New York. He also wrote an autobiography (5 vols., 1916–36). His journalism (1897–1903) was collected and posthumously published in Grandma Never Lived in America (1988).

Mogulesko, [Zelig] Sigmund (1858?–1914), comic actor. The bantam, droll comedian was born in Romania and was established as a popular favorite there and on other European Yiddish stages before he arrived in America in 1886. He immediately became the premier Yiddish comedian of his generation. Typical of Mogulesko's virtuosity was his New York debut in Coquettish Ladies, in which he played a different part in each act: a young pimp, an old drunk, and a gossipy lady matchmaker. His acting was scarcely realistic, but exaggerated in the fashion of the Yiddish stage. Nonetheless, Abraham Cahan, the well‐known Jewish publisher and historian, wrote, “A born genius he was, and his personality was as marvelous as his art. His talent and charm lit that foolish play with rays of divine fire. He bewitched us with his singing and his acting alike.”