Review of Amazing Abe

How Abraham Cahan's Newspaper

Gave a Voice to Jewish Immigrants

A TRUE TALE WITH

A CHERRY ON TOP

Holiday House

(pub. 2.20.2024)

40 pages

Ages 4 - 8

Author: Norman H. Finkelstein

   Illustrator: Vesper Stamper

Character: Abraham Cahan

Overview:

" Abraham Cahan was the founder and longtime editor of the Yiddish language newspaper, the Forverts (the Forward), which, in its heyday, was one of the largest newspapers in the United States. As the saying went: 'What's a home without the Forverts?'

From explaining voting rights to the importance of public health measures to everyday questions like how to play baseball, Cahan improved the lives of countless newly arrived Jewish immigrants who wanted to feel at home in a new, strange land. He also published celebrated writers such as Isaac Bashevis Singer and created the iconic advice column the Bintel Brief (Bundle of Letters) for homesick readers."

Tantalizing taste:

"With the newspaper's success Abe built a ten-story building with a blazing electric Forverts sign in Yiddish on top. That sign and the newspaper he created were beacons of hope to those early Yiddish-speaking immigrants. Decades later, although their children and grandchildren may not speak Yiddish, we remember that it was Abe and his Forverts that helped families keep their old traditions while making new lives for themselves in the United States."

And something more: Norman H. Finkelstein explains in the Author's Note: "My relationship with the Forverts began at a very young age. My grandparents and parents arrived from Europe with Yiddish as their first language. In America, the Forverts was their link to the world. My job was to often pick up the newspaper for them at a local deli. My own Yiddish abilities were minimal, but I was specifically attracted to the Sunday issues, which contained a separate section with sepia news photographs from around the world with English subtitles... Like many others, I forgot about the Forverts until they began publishing an English edition... made relevant to a new generation of readers who did not know Yiddish."