The Rise of David Levinsky

by Abraham Cahan, Jules Chametzky

A young Hasidic Jew struggling to master the Talmud seeks his fortune amid the teeming streets of New York's Lower East Side. The energy formerly focused on his religious studies now turns in the direction of rising to the top of the business world, where he discovers the high price of assimilation.

Genres: Fiction, Jewish, Historical Fiction, Classics, New York, Literature, Judaism

538 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1917

About the author

Abraham "Abe" Cahan was a Lithuanian-born Jewish-American socialist newspaper editor, novelist, and politician.

Source: Wikipedia.

Reviews

[Dov Zeller · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this one a long time ago and was really drawn in by the pathos and the humor, and, of course, the journey. Cahan refuses to make this a simple story about good and evil. Levinsky falls as he rises, and rises as he falls, and perhaps there is something almost universally true about the human predicament of success.

This book could just as easily have been called "The Fall of David Levinsky", with its descriptions of a boy who goes from being the king of the cheder in his shtetl, to becoming a wealthy American at the very high price of spiritual and emotional poverty. Some of Cahan's political idealism is showing through, but it never overwhelms the book. The narrator is not only a complex character, but one who is willing to bear his soul to us in the hopes that he will find some relief from his existential pain and confusion, or maybe it is understanding he seeks.

What is certain is that the move from Eastern Europe to New York, and the rise from poverty to wealth, leaves Levinsky culturally and spiritually adrift, and I think if this were a tighter novel (some reviewers comment that it is too wordy) it wouldn't hold all of the puzzles it manages to hold without forcing resolutions, which is one of the things that sets it apart from other novels, and somehow, though it could not be farther apart in style, gives it a little bit of the gloom and atmosphere of a Dickens novel.

I can't say I didn't enjoy the playful banter, the high yiddish drama, the fantastic yiddish cursing.

The 1975 film "Hester Street" (thanks Cathy!) is based on one of Cahan's short stories and it's quite good. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0073107/ (Carol Kane's entrance into film!)

Some excerpts from the novel:

Antomir, which then boasted eighty thousand inhabitants, was a town in which a few thousand rubles was considered wealth, and we were among the humblest and poorest in it. The bulk of the population lived on less than fifty copecks (twenty-five cents) a day, and that was difficult to earn. A hunk of rye bread and a bit of herring or cheese constituted a meal. A quarter of a copeck (an eighth of a cent) was a coin with which one purchased a few crumbs of pot-cheese or some boiled water for tea. Rubbers were worn by people "of means" only. I never saw any in the district in which my mother and I had our home. A white starched collar was an attribute of "aristocracy." Children had to nag their mothers for a piece of bread "Mamma, I want a piece of bread," with a mild whimper "Again bread! You'll eat my head off. May the worms eat you." Dialogues such as this were heard at every turn...



One of my recollections is of my mother administering a tongue-lashing to a married young woman whom she had discovered flirting in the dark vestibule with a man not her husband. A few minutes later the young woman came in and begged my mother not to tell her husband. "If I was your husband I would skin you alive."

"Oh, don't tell him! Take pity! Don't."

"I won't. Get out of here, you lump of stench."

"Oh, swear that you won't tell him! Do swear, dearie. Long life to you. Health to every little bone of yours."

"First you swear that you'll never do it again, you heap of dung."

"Strike me blind and dumb and deaf if I ever do it again. There."

"Your oaths are worth no more than the barking of a dog. Can't you be decent? You ought to be knouted in the market-place. You are a plague. Black luck upon you. Get away from me."

"But I will be decent. May I break both my legs and both my arms if I am not. Do swear that you won't tell him."

My mother yielded...



I had only one teacher who never beat me, or any of the other boys. Whatever anger we provoked in him would spend itself in threats, and even these he often turned to a joke, in a peculiar vein of his own. "If you don't behave I'll cut you to pieces," he would say. "I'll just cut you to tiny bits and put you into my pipe and you'll go up in smoke." Or, "I'll give you such a thrashing that you won't be able to sit down, stand up, or lie down. The only thing you'll be able to do is to fly—to the devil."

This teacher used me as a living advertisement for his school. He would take me from house to house, flaunting my recitations and interpretations. Very often the passage which he thus made me read was a lesson I had studied under one of his predecessors, but I never gave him away...

[Daniel Chaikin · Rating 5 out of 5]

41. The Rise of David Levinsky by Abraham Cahan
published: 1917
format: ~535 page ebook
acquired: 2014 from Project Gutenberg
read: Sep 8 - Oct 9
rating: 4½

I step into the WWI era of literature with a great deal of ignorance and find myself in the world of my ancestry. Cahan, a Russian Jewish immigrant who arrived in New York in 1882, captures a whole world of Jewish New York over a 30 year period of immigration and rebirth. He takes Dickens and Thackeray (or so he more or less claims) and creates history from first hand experience, and it’s moving to someone like me because this world is what four different parts of my family experienced (although not all in NY).

David Levinsky is an orphan and teenage Talmudic scholar who stumbles across a benefactor, a young female divorcee, who provides him with a ticket to America. He will arrive, and stumble and fall in so many different ways, each remarkably real. Discarding the Talmud and faith and even theism, he becomes through will and guts and luck someone who finds himself in the newpapers associated with “the Vanderbilts, the Goulds, the Rothschilds...by calling me ‘a fleecer of labor’ it placed me in their class. I felt in good company.”

Cahan was something of a leader in the Jewish socialist movement of the late 1800’s/early 1900’s. That he can write sympathetically of his capitalist hero, one who both fights and has a tolerance for socialists, is interesting and an expression perhaps of a wide experience and open mind.

There is a mixture of history and tragedy of sorts mixed. As Levinsky finds success, and reader gets a lesson on the evolution of Jewish clothing manufacture in American, he becomes a representation of the success of Jews in American with pride and also ambivalence. Listening to the Star-spangled Banner

There was the jingle of newly-acquired dollars in our applause. But there was something else in it as well. Many of those who were now paying tribute to the Stars and Stripes were listening to the tune with grave, solemn mien. It was as if they were saying: "We are not persecuted under this flag. At last we have found a home.”

But what was the price. David will lose his culture, religion and in a way his soul. He has no family, few close friends despite extensive acquaintances, and is unable to find affection for women remotely appropriate for him. He will end up alone and unable, really, to understand why. A split of intellect from soul, or maybe of real and spiritual, a gain and a loss.

The Dickens sense in the title is no accident. This is the only Cahan novel I know of, but it’s very well developed, entertaining, capturing many different worlds in both Russian and America. It’s long coming of age, and a full fictional autobiography, if you like, and one that clearly reflects Cahan’s own experience. Recommended to those interested in American Jewish heritage.

[Frieda Vizel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This wonderful novel written as a first person narrative is the life story of a poor Russian boy who emigrates to America and becomes a multi millionaire. The story is told in complete detail, with a lamenting, nostalgic feel. It is well written and arresting, but rambles too much at times, which although digressive, adds to the effect of genuine storytelling. Some of the thoughts the narrator offers about life after one gets all the success and fame one can dream of were really insightful. The story really reinforced my dislike for the American ambitious culture in which success if valued to the point we lose focus of what's important in life. The immigrant culture of NY that is so vividly portrayed in this narrative, down to the life of Jews in the Catskills, were fascinating backdrop for the story.

[Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Published in 1917 by the founder and editor for 50 years of the Jewish Daily Forward, this looks at the American immigrant experience of the time for Eastern European Jews. A couple of ironies: Cahan, a life long socialist, made his hero a rags-to-riches businessman who despised socialism; Cahan’s mission was to explain Jewish life to American readers and make it seem less strange and threatening, while the novel began as pieces solicited by a national magazine that aimed to stir up anti-Semitism for sales partly by using Cahan’s Realist writings.

The story follows David Levinsky’s childhood and young adulthood as a Jew in the Russian Empire, living with his mother in poverty and studying the Talmud full time. Here Cahan takes time to explain such concepts as Talmud and the yeshiva, in line with his mission to explain Jewish life to an American readership. This didacticism fades away into a more naturalistic mode after this early start, however.

After his mother is killed in anti-Semitic violence, money is raised for David to emigrate from Russia to America, where he lives among the mass of Jewish immigrants in New York City. Speaking only Yiddish, knowing only Talmud study, and having no money, he embarks on a gradual transformation to become “American”. He learns English, abandons his practice of Judaism, learns a skill in the trades (it was the time when cloak-making was a huge business!), and in a few decades has become a wealthy factory owner.

Another irony, perhaps: Cahan, a socialist who believed in a universal working class, presents a sympathetic portrait of the cost of casting off one’s particularist ethnic identity (which maybe anticipates his sympathy for Zionism by the time of his death in 1951). When David tells an older man in his community in Russia of his plans to emigrate, his friend replies, “To America! Lord of the World! But one becomes a Gentile there.” “Not at all, there are lots of good Jews there, and they don’t neglect their Talmud, either,” David replies. But of course he does, becoming as much of a Gentile as America of the turn of the twentieth century will allow.

In one fantastic section of the novel Cahan portrays the beginnings of the Jewish summer colonies in the Catskills, where middle class Jews could vacation together from the city. David is with a crowd in the ballroom of one such hotel, where the noise is mostly drowning the band out. But this abruptly changes when the conductor picks a certain tune:

He was working every muscle and nerve in his body. He played selections from “Aida,” the favorite opera of the Ghetto; he played the popular American songs of the day; he played celebrated hits of the Yiddish stage. All to no purpose. Finally he had recourse to what was apparently his last resort. He struck up the “Star-spangled Banner”. The effect was overwhelming. The few hundred diners rose like one man, applauding. The children and many of the adults caught up the tune joyously, passionately. It was an interesting scene. Men and women were offering thanksgiving to the flag under which they were eating this good dinner, wearing these expensive clothes. There was the jingle of newly-acquired dollars in our applause. But there was something else in it as well. Many of those who were now paying tribute to the Stars and Stripes were listening to the tune with grave, solemn mien. It was as if they were saying: “We are not persecuted under this flag. At last we have found a home.” Love for America blazed up in my soul.

That’s the promise of America, it seems to me. Of course the flip side of this general acceptance is often assimilation, which is not an unalloyed positive (as many a second-generation immigrant with identity confusion can attest). In the end despite all his wealth David is unhappy and alone, cut off from community and a feeling of home. It may not be surprising that a socialist would portray his titan of capitalism thusly, as something of the Ebenezer Scrooge type despite David’s frequent philanthropic activities, but resting alongside his overemphasis on money is his loss of cultural identity.

I am lonely. Amid the pandemonium of my six hundred sewing-machines and the jingle of gold which they pour into my lap I feel the deadly silence of solitude. I can never forget the days of my misery. I cannot escape from my old self. My past and my present do not comport well. David, the poor lad swinging over a Talmud volume at the Preacher’s Synagogue seems to have more in common with my inner identity than David Levinsky, the well-known cloak-manufacturer.

Identity can be a challenging thing!

[david · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are many who read futuristic sci-fi novels. There are others that read contemporary fare. Me, I am stuck in the epoch of the late 1800’s to the early 1900’s. And I think I know partially why that is. I succumb to the intense and literate authors who are immersed in only what they see and read and hear and perhaps dream of within the limitations of that time. Before the Internet. Before TV. Before cars.

There was less irony, less homogeneity, less societal-imposed unstated rules, more liberties in a sense that have been eroded by the copious laws that exist today. That is not to say I am regressive, I am not. But I still like to escape in the sentences and paragraphs of a time when men hold the door open for a woman, authors can portray the differences between high society and the proletariat, wardrobe details are of an importance to any caste, the sparse topographies of their homeland, and boys chase girls, and women attempt to decipher men. Yes, I know it is old fashioned, and I know that we are supposedly all the same nowadays, however, it is innocent enough to just be immersed in a world where there are balls, and heated conversations, and difficult interactions, and disappointments, and occasional highs, without it emerging from social media, etc.

Perhaps I am a romanticist, but no crime is committed by allowing my mind to wander as I turn the pages of a book to listen and watch. Most of it is polite yet erudite speak which I encounter less of today.

These are manifest in the pages of Thackeray, Austen, Dickens, Hugo, Cather, Twain, Lawrence, Bronte, and so many others.

This is a fictional autobiography of a young man from Russia who emigrates to the United States. We find him thinking of and attempting the same things many of us would do. He must learn new behaviors in a new country, he has love interests, he needs money to eat and to sleep, he seeks community. He falls, he gets up, he falls again…

Nothing drastically new here. But it is a nice story. A well told story. I do not need much and this book, as do other fine works of that era, display a modesty and a simplicity that I find lovely. And I appreciate the work that the author must invest in his product.

[Benjamin Fasching-Gray · Rating 4 out of 5]

One schande after another! Actually quite gripping, I had been a bit nervous that there might be too much commerce, but instead I found the story of his rise in the needle trades as exciting as the chapters about talmud schools and infatuations with modern women. Cahan sees the hypocrisy in everyone but still manages to make every character someone I want to spend time with... even grasping Mrs. Chaiken. The Catskills chapter moved me a great deal, and set me to wondering about my grandparents...

Cahan originally wrote this for McClure’s and sometimes that was a little grating. Writing for the gentiles, we are left to guess what are the “ring-shaped rolls” he bought in the Jewish bakery. Seriously? It’s hard to imagine there was a time when English speakers may not have heard of a bagel. There were other, more subtle instances where I thought had he been writing for a Jewish audience this scene would have been different. But I guess when Cahan wrote for Jews, he wrote in yiddish. So the flavor isn’t as heavy here as in some other books about the Jewish lower east side. The end is also less than satisfying but all in all this is a fun visit to that time and place.

I also thought one could give it a queer reading. The main character has several crappy, doomed from the start infatuations with women, but some of his relationships with men are far more spiritual. I can imagine him sending for Naphthali and then having him as a boarder, then he wouldn’t be lonely. Or what happened to his yiddish theater buddy? That guy is definitely gay. It’s the attention that other men receive that causes him to make life-changing decisions but all the women he claims to desire are out of reach... except for the prostitutes. I know Cahan is saying that being an orphan, coming from extreme poverty, and committing that hard to business can leave you lonely in a world where you suspect everyone ... but one could also read another, less explicit reason for Levinsky’s deep sense of loss and longing for those days bent over the talmud.

Levinsky is desperate to impress the people he considers “aristocrats.” As long as he is Antomir, that means he either must excel at talmud, or he must go to college and become a more modern kind of scholar. In the Babylon of late 19th Century New York, he must make money to “show them.” He never really does know what it is he really wants. I often think that about people bent on getting rich, although the ones I meet are not likely to “succeed” like Levinsky, still I often have the impression that they have chosen business or finance because that’s what’s expected, but there is no other dream they’re giving up, it’s just that their dreams are so pathetic: get rich. And then? Na, ja, spend it. Sure there are people who care about a product or service and then lo and behold they make a successful business out of it, that’s not what I mean. I mean young people whose only vision for their future revolves around consuming status symbols.

[Ayelet Waldman]

This novel was wonderful, but it's of a very particular kind. It's a tale of business -- the garment business to be exact.

[Shelley Diamond · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was interesting in showing the difficulties of having an Orthodox Jewish background in Russia, then immigrating to the U.S.A., then trying to figure out how to make money and survive economically while you are learning a new way of living in a different culture.

The aspects I disliked in this book were that the protagonist is a capitalist who takes advantage of his workers, illegally breaks union rules, hates socialism and all efforts to improve the life of working people, is proud of his ability to lie and manipulate others to his own advantage, and is sexually pushy to a nearly abusive extreme.

This story shows the life of a man who I would consider despicable as a person if he was alive today. Knowing the context of his life and history, I can understand that he just had no emotional intelligence and no proper upbringing (both his parents die early on), but really, this guy gives Jews a bad name and is an example of the kernel of truth of stereotypes.

[Jennifer S. Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

This autobiographical novel charts the rise of David Levinksy, an immigrant to New York in the late 1880s. The novel is quite long, and it took a while to get through it, but it was well worth the read. The differences between David's life as a Talmud student in Russia and his life as an upcoming cloak maker in New York are striking. At the beginning, it's difficult to see how this scholarly, pious boy is to become this amoral American, but the progressing is clear and logical. Really interesting to see what life was like, especially as it's close to the time my own relatives immigrated.

[Illiterate · Rating 3 out of 5]

Immigrant escapes superstitions and attains wealth, but feels isolated and becomes nostalgic.

[jedidja · Rating 3 out of 5]

Points for the overall story, iconic author who knows his history, and a very nuanced, pretty depressing ending, but giant minus points for an amazingly unlikable MC and what is possibly the most awkward romance plot I have ever read. I'm cutting it some slack because of how old this book is but if you are looking for good romantic chemistry and believable love stories, don't expect to find them here 🧍‍♀️

[Jayme · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am so confused about what to write in this review.

From a literary perspective, this is not a very good book. The writing is not pretty. The narrative alternates between rambling and skipping years without warning, leaving the reader very muddled as to the passage of time. The early chapters in particular are painted to such high pathos that I almost stopped reading. And, well, Levinsky treats most women he encounters abominably, which certainly doesn't ingratiate him.

And yet, I found this book so oddly compelling. It tells the story of a man who leaves a Russian shtetl for New York City at 20, in the late nineteenth century, and through hard work, happenstance, and luck becomes a successful cloak manufacturer (that's in the first two pages). I think what drew me to it is that this book welcomes "what might have been" comparisons. As I read, I kept imagining how differently my own ancestors may have fared in the same situation - young, ambitious, with nothing to lose - rather than coming to America as they did decades later, bent and broken from unbearable experiences, with mouths to feed and nothing to miss.

I like that the narrator is plain spoken about how many small things helped him along the way, and what he gained and what he lost because of the choices he made. Overall, the book's lack of literary ambition makes it a refreshing take on the immigrant narrative, a quick read, and a good jumping off point for one's own musings.

[Eli Mandel · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. Sure it was long winded, but the insight was sharp and accurate.

While the author spends considerable time building up certain situations and characters, he neglected to do the same for others. For example, we get a good idea of the development of Levinsky's love for his first two flames, but a very vague idea as to the third. We get a strong sense of his childhood in Antomir, his early struggles in America, his early struggles in business, but a very vague idea as to the development of his success in business, except by after the fact explanations.

Also, as I said, it is quite long winded, and meandering. I almost abandoned the book three quarters of the way through and I rarely do that (and in the end I didn't do that this time either).

The author, while he had good insight into human nature, had limited ability to describe people, their looks, their mannerisms, their moods etc. which results in most of the characters looking and sounding the same.

One last criticism; the ending was as lame and as put on as can be, although certainly not unexpected.

And yet, I really enjoyed the book, I found it to be a very insightful look at the Russian Jewish immigrant experience in the 1880s, as well as a good look at life in Antomir from that period.

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

The contrast between the life of a “Talmudist,” someone in Antinomar, Russia who lives in accordance with strict orthodox Jewish law, and an American capitalist could hardly be more stark, and there’s no way David Levinsky can hold on to a little bit of the old tradition while succeeding in the New World. He does indeed find material success, eventually. He tells you on page 1 that he is very rich now. It’s like a Dreiser novel, in that material success is correlated with the selling of one’s soul. But this narrator is far more introspective than a Dreiser character. He is lonely and he knows he sold his soul for material success. I like this book for its depiction of the learning of English, as it slowly replaces Yiddish (code-switching, before they had the term. Also for the way that the memories of the earlier culture are eclipsed by the bright new society, so much so that it’s not clear whether we should trust the dim memories that guided the narrative of the first 100-or-so pages. Even though David’s early life is marked by anti-Semitic violence, he does not seem to harbor hatred toward the Gentiles.

[Vincent · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was recommended in a recorded course I took - on the basis of Mr. Cahan and his importance as an American.
I found it very interesting and it is rated as only "liked it" most probably due to thway a late n20th century man reads the story.
The beginning with the "origin" of Levinsky is really very interesting and is likely (I hope) the part that the recommender calls semi autobiographical of Cahan.
Levinskiy rises but on the way lies and cheats a bit and is always looking for ways to get more less than his competition - generally OK but anyway read the book and find out.

It is also quite interesting how he explains the suppression of sexual contacts at least with "proper" Jewish woman in this book. It reminds me a bit of the sexual mores that were explained to me in the 1970s by a Sri Lankan (male) friend. And from what I seem to be easily able to find it seems to me that Cahan never married - which might have mightily influenced this work and I will try to find out.

Anyway really worth reading - especially if any of your ancestors emigrated from eastern Europe in the late 19th century and early 20th century.

[Elizabeth (Alaska) · Rating 3 out of 5]

It isn't especially well-written and the characters not especially well-drawn - I usually require at least one of those elements to be remarkable, if not both. I think the story - a rather typical story of a poverty-stricken immigrant making good - would have been better in the third person rather than the first person.

It is said to be autobiographical, but I think it is only partly so. It comes from the writer's own experiences, certainly, but perhaps as much the Jewish immigrant experience in general as the Cahan's. I did not know the establishment and growth of the New York garment industry would be of interest to me. There is just enough history of it together with the advent of unionism to provide a backdrop.

I seem unable to say why I liked this, and yet it kept me reading. Perhaps it was the late 19th Century time period. This author has a couple of other titles that might prove interesting, and I'll keep them in mind for the future. Almost, but not quite good enough for 4 stars.

[Czarny Pies · Rating 3 out of 5]

For all the talk of America being a country of immigrants the few books written by new-comers to this continent have never had much of an audience. David Levinsky is a great classic that describes the experience of one Central European who makes a life for himself in New York in the late 19th century.

This novel was assigned reading in an undergraduate history course that I took in the 1980's. Anyone majoring in American history ought to read this book. Literature lovers may be frustrated by the English prose of Levinsky who grew up speaking Yiddish at home while being schooled in Russian. Nonetheless this book is worth the slog for anyone who wants to truly understand either the U.S.A. or the Big Apple.

[Shirley Brown · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting book. Even though it was first published in 1917 it has many moments when it could have been written today. A sad story of a Russian Jewish boy who was born into poverty in Russia. His mother dies and he is left an orphan. He slowly begins to rise, but finds that he is not happy. He falls in loves at least three times but is unsuccessful in any marriage. He learns to adapt and then finds that he was happiest reading the Talmud that he is as the well-known cloak manufacturer.

[Ben Kintisch · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the great classics of Jewish literature. Tells of an immigrant who makes it big in the garment district. The tale is familiar in a broad sense, but the details are rich and teach us about the industry in which so many of American Jews' families toiled. Now we take for granted that many retail giants and fashion labels are Jewish names. This book is a great adventure that shows you how it happened.

[Lynne · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed it but mainly because I like all things regarding NYC in the early 1900's. I also love to learn about other cultures and this book really gives an indepth look at Jewish culture. It's also interesting because it showed why so many eastern European jews immigrated to the US and how their lives were before and after their immigration.

[Jonathan Lopatin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have heard about this book for years, without having read it. It is a fascinating historical document (and very interesting novel) about the lives of Easter European immigrant Jews of my grandparents generation. There is not an ounce of sentimentality here. Yes, it is a bit dated but definitely worth the effort

[Vitalia Strait · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really liked the style of writing and I wasn't bored in the book, but I despise David Levinsky himself. He is one of the most annoying and selfish characters ever put to paper and I spent most of the book wanting to slap him. For this reason, I cannot give it any more than three stars, even if he was meant to be characterized that way.

[Kristyna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it.

I especially enjoyed the depiction of life in a Jewish ghetto in a small Russian time at the end of the 19th century and the metamorphosis of David, the peddler into Mr. Levinsky, the businessman.

[Lauren Klein · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hey what is amazing about this truck is that it was written in 1914. It feels so contemporary. I loved the early years in Bellorusse and about coming to America and getting started here. When I first read it, I thought I was reading an autobiography.

[Geoffrey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Something of a page-turner, actually. Possibly a bit didactic, but effectively tragic nonetheless.

[M. Newman · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is hands down, the best novel ever written about immigrant Jews of late 19th century New York.

[Jack Goodstein · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jewish immigrant rises economically but falls morally--think "The Rise of Silas Lapham" Ebook can be downloaded free from iTunes.

[Ben · Rating 4 out of 5]

All at once he brightened up bashfully and took to reciting a Hebrew poem. Here is the essence of it:

"Since the destruction of the Temple instrumental music has been forbidden in the synagogues. The Children of Israel are in mourning. They are in exile and in mourning. Silent is their harp. So is mine. I am in exile. I am in a strange land. My harp is silent."

"Is it your poem?" I asked.

He nodded bashfully.

"When did you compose it?"

"A few weeks ago."

"Has it been printed?"

He shook his head.

"Why?"

"I could have it printed in a Hebrew weekly we publish here, but--well, I did not care to."

"You mean The Pen?"

"Yes. Do you see it sometimes?"

"I did, once. I am going to subscribe for it. Anyhow, the poem belies itself. It shows that your harp has not fallen silent."

He smiled, flushed with satisfaction, like a shy schoolboy and proceeded to recite another Hebrew poem:

"Most song-birds do not sing in captivity. I was once a song-bird, but America is my cage. It is not my home. My song is gone."

"This poem, too, gives itself the lie!" I declared. "But the idea of America being likened to a prison!"

"It is of my soul I speak," he said resentfully. "Russia did not imprison it, did it? Russia is a better country than America, anyhow, even if she is oppressed by a czar. It's a freer country, too--for the spirit, at least. There is more poetry there, more music, more feeling, even if our people do suffer appalling persecution. The Russian people are really a warm-hearted people. Besides, one enjoys life in Russia better than here. Oh, a thousand times better. There is too much materialism here, too much hurry and too much prose, and--yes, too much machinery, but alas! the things of the spirit, too, seem to be machine made in America. If my younger children were not so attached to this country and did not love it so, and if I could make a living in Russia now, I should be ready to go back at once."

"'Comfort ye, comfort ye, my people, saith your God,'" I quoted, gaily. "It's all a matter of mood. Poets are men of moods." And again I quoted, "'Attend unto me, O my friend, and give ear unto me, O my comrade.'" I took up the cudgels for America.

He listened gloomily, leaving my arguments unanswered.

[Caren · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was compelled to read Abraham Cahan’s novel as it is regarded as the first piece of Jewish American fiction to emerge out of the mass migration of Eastern European Jews at the end of the 19th and the early 20th centuries (Adam Kirsch, “The Blessing and the Curse: The Jewish People and Their Books in the 20th century”). Cahan himself had arrived from Russia, basing the novel on his own experience as a “greenhorn” living and working in New York, publishing the text in 1917.

Reading the narrative for its historical and cultural significance, I was able to overlook its melodrama, its overwritten passages, and its self-consumed main character, David Levinsky. The portrayal of Levinsky’s climb up the ladder of financial success was ultimately poignant, as he concluded that “the poor lad swinging over a Talmud volume at the Preacher’s Synagogue [in his Russian cheder] seems to have more in common with [his] inner identity than David Levinsky, the well-known cloak manufacturer.”

Although we marvelled at his status as a self-made millionaire, we saw through to the self-pitying man who felt “the deadly silence of solitude.” The incredible rise of Levinsky’s success in business had him questioning whether he was actually “happy”. He had abandoned his strict religious observance upon his arrival in America, had resigned himself that he would not be following his intellectual interests to receive a college education, and had remained a bachelor, lonely and disconnected from a family life he had envisioned for himself. Cahan portrayed Levinsky’s successes and failures with meticulous detail, both financial and personal.

The community of Jewish immigrants in which Levinsky worked and lived was drawn with such precision that the reader could feel its energy, hear its Yiddish-accented voices in its spoken English, and admire the strength it took to become part of the new world, the “goldena medina” (the golden country) they had risked their lives to join.

[Saul · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am absolutely fascinated by this book. Part of that may be that—as a child of the ‘70s and ‘80s—I knew many elderly Eastern European Jews who grew up as immigrants in David’s New York. These were my relatives. I knew them only at the end. Where did their attitudes and mores come from? What were they like in youth? Why were some so taciturn and others still so full of Yiddish good humor?

As David ascends to overwhelming success in the garment industry (and, to a lesser extent, in real estate) and incredibly poor decisions in his romantic relationships, he details every aspect of American Jewish immigrant life between 1885 and 1910: the synagogues, the seders, the pushcarts, the garment industry, the capitalists, the socialists, the Catskills, the Yiddish dailies, the Yiddish theatre. We experience it all through David’s consciousness. He is callous, selfish, pretentious and haughty. But he is also always believable. He seems to embody more than a type. He is a fully fleshed-out human being. Cahan is very patient with him. David’s worst qualities make him a multi-millionaire and yet a person incapable of deep connections.