Socialist leader and founder and editor of the influential Yiddish newspaper in New York, The Forward. He studied for the rabbinate in his native Russia, but soon turned toward radical and socialist views. Upon his arrival in America in 1882, he found a fertile field for his ideas among immigrant Jewry. Cahan worked actively as labor organizer, lecturer, and editor of various Yiddish periodicals. In 1902, he became the editor of The Forward, a post he held until his death. A talented writer, he published successful short stories and novels in English, notably The Rise of David Levinsky. In this work Cahan described his generation’s problems in a way that has been recognized as a classic of immigrant literature in the U.S.