thumb|right|abraham cahan, socialist newspaper editor and novelist. abraham "abe" cahan (july 7, 1860 &ndash; august 31, 1951) was a belarusian-born jewish-american socialist newspaper editor, novelist, and politician.sanford e. marovitz, abraham cahan. new york: twayne publishers, 1996, pp. 1-5. ==biography== ===early years=== abraham cahan was born july 7, 1860, in podberezhie in belarus (at the time in vilna governorate, russian empire), into an orthodox litvak family. his grandfather was a rabbi in vidz, vitebsk, his father a teacher of hebrew language and the talmud. the devoutly religious family moved in 1866 to vilna (vilnius), where the young cahan received the usual jewish preparatory education for the rabbinate. he, however, was attracted by secular knowledge and clandestinely studied the russian language, ultimately prevailing on his parents to allow him to enter the teachers institute of vilna, from which he was graduated in 1881. he was appointed teacher in a jewish government school in velizh, vitebsk, in the same year.marovitz, abraham cahan, pp. 1-12. ===cahan's immigration=== abraham cahan lived in russia when the country was a pre-industrial christian autocracy that restricted the travel, settlement, and educational opportunities of jewish subjects. the czarist government treated the jewish minority as a distinct, autonomously governable population; it was subject to discrimination and even brutality.jeffrey s. gurock, american jewish history: east european jews in america, 1880-1920: immigration and adaption. new york: routledge, 1998; pg. 60. by 1879, when cahan was still a teenager, he had associated himself with the growing radical revolutionary movement in russia.marovitz, abraham cahan, pp. xvii-xix. after czar alexander ii was assassinated by a member of the socialist revolutionary party in march 1881, all revolutionary sympathizers became suspect to the russian police. in 1882 the russian police searched cahanâs room for radical publications that could be linked to the socialist revolutionary party. the visit from the police prompted the young socialist schoolteacher to join the great emigration of russian jews to the united states that was under way (at the time, three quarters of jewish immigrants to america came from the russian empire).gurock, american jewish history, pg. 83. cahan arrived by steamboat in philadelphia on june 6 of 1882 at the age of 21 and immediately traveled to new york, where he would live for the remainder of his life.isakov vladimir, "the conspiracy conception in the radical socialist thought of russia of the 1840s-1880s: periodization and typology." social sciences, vol. 38 (2007), pg. 35. ===socialist leanings=== abraham cahanâs interest in socialism began in his youth in russia. in july 1882, barely a
1860_births 1951_deaths 19th-century_American_novelists 20th-century_American_novelists American_Marxists American_memoirists American_newspaper_editors American_newspaper_founders American_people_of_Belarusian-Jewish_descent American_political_writers Belarusian_Jews Imperial_Russian_emigrants_to_the_United_States Jewish-American_history Jewish_American_novelists Jewish_advice_columnists Members_of_the_Socialist_Labor_Party_of_America Members_of_the_Socialist_Party_of_America People_from_Smarhon_Raion People_from_Vilna_Governorate Yiddish-language_journalists