A valuable essay on the history and vibrant present of Yiddish-language Socialist newspapers and journalists in the U.S. during the early 1900s from John Spargo’s ‘Comrade’ magazine. Includes profiles of Jacob Gordin, Abraham Cahan, Morris Winchevsky, Louis Miller, and Benjamin Feigenbaum.

‘Socialist Journalism and Journalists of the Ghetto’ by William Edlin from The Comrade. Vol. 3 No. 8. May, 1904.

THE Radical plays a very important role in the literature dealing with life in the Ghetto. The reason is simple enough. The types most interesting to the keen observer are not those simple, every-day characters one meets everywhere, but those who are complex in their moral and mental make-up, who, in the language of the Ghetto are “People of Principle” — either dreamers allied with different Anarchist groups, or doers taking a more or less active part in the Socialist movement.

One needs but peruse Hutchins Hapgood’s “The Spirit of the Ghetto” to be convinced of the truth of this. Let us just mention a few names. There is Jacob Gordin, the most renowned Yiddish playwright. He is a radical. Morris Rosenfield, the greatest Yiddish poet in America, is undoubtedly a radical, in spite of his occasional renegade lapses. Abraham Cahan, the best Ghetto novelist, is an oldtime Socialist. Leon Kobrin and Z. Libin, both literary men of repute, and playwrights of distinction, are Socialists. Morris Winchevsky and Abraham Wald (Liesen), two Yiddish bards of renown, are also Socialists. S. Janowsky and M. Katz, both journalists of force, are Anarchists. Joseph Barondess, the most popular orator of the masses in the Ghetto, is a pronounced Social Democrat.

These men, their friends and colleagues, associates and followers, constitute the so-called “Intellectuals” of the New York Ghetto. These are the people who feel intensely and think deeply. And it is amongst these that one finds the types of interest to literature. Were it not for the radicals, and, chiefly, the Socialists, the Ghetto would not be half as interesting a place as it is at the present day.

Much has been said and written within recent years about the varied life of the Ghetto. But the field is by no means exhausted. The success with which the newest book dealing with Ghetto life in general —”The Fugitive,” by Ezra S. Blundno — was received, by both the reading public and the literary critics, is fresh evidence that Ghetto life, provided it is pictured by real artists, will for many years yet continue to be a fruitful field for writers who are always on the hunt for interesting subject matter and picturesque backgrounds.

In his book already mentioned, Mr. Hapgood says that the “Yiddish Press, particularly the Socialistic branch of it, is an educative element of great value in the Ghetto.” The fact of the matter is that the Yiddish press, excluding the radical branch of it, is no educative element at all, whereas only the radical branch of the Yiddish Press “is an educative element of great value in the Ghetto.”

The non-radical press on the east-side of this metropolis is entirely worthless as a factor in uplifting the masses. It falls much below the yellowest kind of yellow journalism. It is not inspired by any ideals. It has no principles. It even lacks good taste, from the journalist viewpoint. It exists for “what there is in it”— profit, which it is bound to make “by hook or by crook.” But it is altogether different with the radical press, which, today, consists of a daily newspaper, the “Forward,’ two weeklies, the “Freie Arbeiter Stimme” and the “Arbeiter Welt,” and three monthlies, — the latter being the “Zukunft,” the “Freie Stunde” and the “Cap-makers’ Journal.” It must, however, be borne in mind that not all the radical journalists are now connected with these publications. For several years, up to a few months ago, the most important men in the editorial rooms of the orthodox and conservative press were pronounced radicals. This was due to an abnormal condition, the result of the famous split in the ranks of the Socialist Labor Party in the year 1899. This abnormal condition has not yet entirely disappeared. However, nearly all the radical journalists, including those who are compelled to seek a livelihood in the editorial rooms of the enemy were and are to this very day in more or less close alliance with the organized labor movement in general, and they are the acknowledged champions of the masses in the Ghetto.

It will be no exaggeration to say that the leading radical journalists are on the whole a more brilliant group of men than any of the other litterateurs of the Ghetto, barring Jacob Gordin, I. Hourwich, and a few others. These journalists are more than journalists. They are educators. They form a cultured group by themselves. They are men having certain missions to perform. Nearly every one of them can do much more than “write up” a news item in an interesting manner, or contribute a strong editorial. Some of them are prominent lecturers, such as Feigenbaum and Katz; others are well-known literary men, as Cahan and Winchevsky; and not a few are agitators of note, such as Zametkin and Miller.

That Abraham Cahan is the leading journalist of the Ghetto is admitted by all. This is logical enough in view of the fact that he has been connected with Yiddish journalism since 1889, when the once famous “Arbeiter Zeitung” first saw light. His connection for some time with English dailies, and his contributing articles to a number of the best English magazines published in this country, has given him the advantage of an excellent journalistic training. No wonder, therefore, that his superiority as a professional journalist is readily acknowledged.

As editor-in-chief of the “Forward,” Abraham Cahan is at present giving the radical East-siders a newspaper which is up-to-date in appearance, methods and enterprise. It can not be said that this new kind of journalism meets with full favor among the old Socialists, whose minds have been fed for many years on “clear cut, uncompromising Socialism,” but the great majority acknowledge Cahan to be a managing editor par excellence, and the best proof of it is in the tremendous circulation the “Forward” is enjoying under the guidance of Cahan’s skillful hand.

But it is not the Cahan of to-day who is important to the East-siders as an intellectual leader and great educator. It is the Cahan of ten years ago, when Socialism was a religion with him, when the cause of labor taxed his oratorical power to its utmost, and his pen was at the command of the “movement” only. Then he was hailed a great leader of the Socialists and his influence on the East side was immense. But to-day his influence has waned considerably, and outside of his success as a journalist most of his old admirers heave a sigh of regret that Cahan is no longer the great impassioned leader he was in years gone by.

Another very able journalist of the Ghetto, whose skill as a newspaper man is unquestioned even in the editorial rooms of the most conservative dailies, is Philip Krantz (Jacob Rombro). He is a type altogether different from Cahan. Cool-headed, methodical, without bias, and possess ed by a strong sense of public responsibility, Krantz is in every respect an editor of distinction. His education is of a varied sort; it is not limited to the social sciences. Besides being an author of historical works of great value for the Yiddish reading public, he is well known for his articles on natural science. As a writer on current politics he is second to none. His style, while lacking in poetical coloring, is pointed and highly interesting; it may even be said to be piquant.

Philip Krantz was never a leader of men. He lacks all the characteristics essential to leadership. But with his gifted pen he always exercised a strong influence upon the more sober and thoughtful minds of the radical camp. Under his leadership the now defunct “Abend Blatt” acquired fame as the great exponent of the aspirations of the then growing Socialist Labor Party. After the division of the Socialist movement, nearly five years ago, Krantz was obliged to work for the conservative press, leaving his position as news editor of the “Yiddishe Welt” only some months ago, on account of a strike occurring in that office. He is at present editor of the scientific Socialist monthly, the “Zukunft,” and of the “Arbeiter Welt,” a new weekly published by the United Hebrew Trades.

In marked contrast to both Cahan and Krantz, as journalists, stands the personality of Benjamin Feigenbaum. His influence as a writer upon thoughtful East-siders has not been less than that of Krantz, but he is far from having the recognition he deserves. Misunderstood by many of his own people, and misjudged by strangers, Feigenbaum has the occasional misfortune of being a target for all kinds of attacks and criticisms from both friend and foe, and he has, in consequence, developed a taste for polemical discussion which has still more helped to deprive him of his well earned glory. A journalist by profession, Feigenbaum is not one by nature. He lacks a sense of proportion, which is an all-important essential for a journalist of responsibility. But he is a voluminous writer and his pen is capable of adapting itself to different kinds of requirements; and when under proper restraint he is indubitably a great power for good in an editorial office. Feigenbaum’s is a philosophical mind —philosophical not so much in the reflective as in the controversial sense. He is first and foremost a Socialist, and, forsooth, a Social Democrat. Always true to his convictions and loyal to his party — in a stronger degree than either Cahan or Krantz — he has always been on the alert, full of energy, and ever dominated by a desire to storm— with pen, of course — all the strongholds of the enemy. Feigenbaum has the distinction of being the first and only Socialist who made an attempt to interpret Judaistic biblical history and jurisprudence in the light of Marxian (materialistic) philosophy. As a steady contributor to the “Zukunft,” in the days of Cahan’s editorship, he published a series of articles dealing with certain phases of the Jewish religion, from the viewpoint of Marxian philosophy, of course, and this caused him to become known as the great atheist of the Ghetto.

Feigenbaum’s Yiddish journalistic experience dates as far back as 1888, when he was connected with the London “Arbeiter Freund.” In 1891 he came to New York, and till the breaking up of the Socialist Labor Party in 1899, he was associate editor of the “Arbeiter Zeitung” and the “Abend Blatt.” After that time, he, too, was compelled to seek employment in the capitalistic press, and only several months ago the publisher of the Yiddish “Morgen Journal” gave him the choice between writing a “circulation challenge” to the “Forward” or surrendering his position. He naturally chose the latter, regardless of his pecuniary loss and the difficulties it meant for him. This is worth noting, in view of the fact that Feigenbaum’s relation to the “Forward” was never of a friendly kind. He says that no power in the world can make him join hands with the enemy in at tacking anything which is more or less connected with his party. This is admirable discipline and deserves praise.

Altogether different from any of the already mentioned is Louis Miller. He is chiefly an agitator, with his pen as well as with his tongue. He is by profession a lawyer, but is well known both as a forceful speaker and writer. He has a poignant style, whether he speaks or writes. Occasionally he is inclined to be epigrammatic, and is nearly always figurative in expression. But there is a great deal of force in whatever he says; and it is this characteristic which has for a time made him a somewhat feared person in the Ghetto.

He is a Socialist by conviction. But it can not be said of him that he has ever been religiously devoted to the cause. He is an energetic man, but his activity in the “movement” was and is of a spasmodic sort. Whenever there was fighting to be done, Miller’s bitterness of style was a valuable invective to be employed against the enemy, and he usually made his mark on such occasions. Far from being a popular man, he is nevertheless one who can arouse an audience to the highest pitch of enthusiasm when he is in his element, i.e., aroused. He was one of the leading seceders from the Socialist Labor Party in 1897, and it was due to his efforts, together with those of Winchevsky, Cahan, and Zametkin, that the “Forward” was launched. More than once, in times of great financial reverses, he re vived interest in this daily by the sheer force of his oratory and thus saved the existence of the “Forward.”

And there are many others, of course, who are distinguished for what they did or for what they are, or both. Many of these are no longer in the journalistic profession, such as Winchevsky, who, as editor of the “Emeth,” a literary weekly published in Boston in 1896-1897, became the inspirer of the famous East-side “opposition movement” in the Socialist Labor Party ; or Baranoff, the greatest satirist of the “movement” in the Ghetto, who edited Socialist publications at London, and was, after coming to this city, connected for many years with the “Abend Blatt ;” or Zametkin, the eccentric but fiery orator, who edited the “Forward” in its early days, but who is now completely retired. And these names do not by any means complete the list. These are only the most widely known.

The history of the Socialist movement in the Ghetto is resplendent with strong and interesting types of both men and women. Many of these have by this time taken back seats, due to one thing or another, but chiefly to the disintegration of the Socialist Labor Party and consequent breaking-up of deeply rooted ideals and traditions. Just now the Socialist movement in the Ghetto is reviving slowly, thanks to the efforts of the “Arbeiter Ring” and the “Bund”organizations, which, although they have no direct connection with the Social Democratic Party, are nevertheless working in the proper direction, and, indeed, for the good of our sacred cause.

The Comrade began in 1901 with the launch of the Socialist Party, and was published monthly until 1905 in New York City and edited by John Spargo, Otto Wegener, and Algernon Lee amongst others. Along with Socialist politics, it featured radical art and literature. The Comrade was known for publishing Utopian Socialist literature and included a serialization of ‘News from Nowhere’ by William Morris along work from with Heinrich Heine, Thomas Nast, Ella Wheeler Wilcox, Edward Markham, Jack London, Maxim Gorky, Clarence Darrow, Upton Sinclair, Eugene Debs, and Mother Jones. It would be absorbed into the International Socialist Review in 1905.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/comrade/pht/v3n08-%5b16-pgs%5d-may-1904-The-Comrade-P-H.pdf