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32-764: Abraham Cahan was born July 7, 1860, in Paberžė in Lithuania (at the time in Vilnius Governorate , Russian Empire ), into an Orthodox , Litvak family. His grandfather was a rabbi in Vidz , Vitebsk , his father a teacher of Hebrew and the Talmud . The devoutly religious family moved to Vilnius in 1866, where the young Cahan studied to become a rabbi. He, however, was attracted by secular knowledge and clandestinely studied Russian , ultimately demanding that his parents allow him to enter

64-544: A mark on the Russian Jewish workers' movement. Paber%C5%BE%C4%97 Paberžė ( Lithuanian for near the birch (forest) ) is a village in Vilnius District Municipality , Lithuania , it is located only about 21 kilometres (13 mi) north of Vilnius city municipality . According to the 2011 census, it had population of 919. The territory of Paberžė was inhabited from the early Middle Ages . In

96-694: A month after arriving in the United States, Cahan attended his first American socialist meeting, and a month later he gave his first socialist speech, speaking in Yiddish. Although he found American society to be a vast improvement over life in Russia, he began to express certain criticisms of American conditions from a Marxist perspective. Cahan quickly mastered English . In addition to writing for various publications, by 1883 he dedicated much of his time to teaching English to working class Jewish immigrants. He taught at

128-776: A string of newspapers and magazines including The American, Everybody's McClure's, the author of a half dozen books; a lecturer, and a prominent club man. In 1934, Steffens and Winter helped found the San Francisco Workers' School (later the California Labor School ); Steffens also served there as an advisor. Steffens died of a heart condition on August 9, 1936, in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California. In 2011, Kevin Baker of The New York Times lamented that "Lincoln Steffens isn't much remembered today". Lincoln Steffens

160-691: A symbol of American socialism and Jewish immigration, and assumed the role of an Americanizing agent instructing its readers in the social, economic, political, and cultural aspects of the United States. Cahan received criticism from fellow Jewish journalists because he didn’t limit the Forward to Jewish topics, but wrote on a variety of themes and was one of the more temperate voices in the Socialist Party of America , respecting his readers' religious beliefs and preaching an increasingly moderate and reformist form of socialist politics as time progressed. The Forward

192-609: Is made tolerable by hope and a plan." After his return, he promoted his view of the Soviet Revolution and in the course of campaigning for U.S. food aid for Russia made his famous remark about the new Soviet society: "I have seen the future, and it works", a phrase he often repeated with many variations. The title page of his wife Ella Winter 's Red Virtue: Human Relationships in the New Russia ( Victor Gollancz , 1933) carries this quote. His enthusiasm for communism soured by

224-698: Is mentioned in the Danny DeVito movie Jack the Bear (1993). Lincoln Steffens is mentioned in the 1987 novel The Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe . Characters on the American crime drama series City on a Hill , which debuted in 2019, make numerous references to Lincoln Steffens. The Autobiography of Lincoln Steffens is the favorite book of one of the members of The Group in Mary McCarthy 's 1963 novel of

256-456: The Forward covered extensively, prompted Cahan to take on leadership of the Forward full-time in 1903, taking over total editorial control and running the newspaper full-time until 1946. In his years working at the Forward, Cahan transformed the self-identified socialist newspaper from an obscure paper with only 6000 readers to the forefront of Yiddish journalism. The Jewish Daily Forward became

288-507: The Mexican Revolution and began to see revolution as preferable to reform. In March 1919, he accompanied William C. Bullitt , a low-level State Department official, on a three-week visit to Soviet Russia and witnessed the "confusing and difficult" process of society in the process of revolutionary change. He wrote that "Soviet Russia was a revolutionary government with an evolutionary plan", enduring "a temporary condition of evil, which

320-678: The 16th century, the village was known as Beržai (Lithuanian for birch trees ). In 1613, the village was marked on a famous map of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania — Magni Ducatus Lithuaniae, et Regionum Adiacentium exacta Descriptio printed in Amsterdam and financed by the Lithuanian magnate Mikołaj Krzysztof "the Orphan" Radziwiłł . In the second half of the 17th century, Catholic monks lived in Paberžė, there

352-579: The Cities (1904) and The Struggle for Self-Government (1906). He also wrote The Traitor State (1905), which criticized New Jersey for patronizing incorporation . In 1906, he left McClure's , along with Tarbell and Baker, to form The American Magazine . In The Shame of the Cities , Steffens sought to bring about political reform in urban America by appealing to the emotions of Americans. He tried to provoke outrage with examples of corrupt governments throughout urban America. From 1914 to 1915, he covered

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384-654: The New York Ghetto (later filmed as Hester Street ). By 1901, Cahan had published six of his stories in a variety of popular magazines. Cahan’s most popular novel was The Rise of David Levinsky , a semi-autobiographical account that mirrored Cahan’s own experiences of immigration, describing a Jewish immigrant's process of Americanization and showcasing the Jewish-socialist cultural establishments in New York. Cahan died of congestive heart failure on August 31, 1951, at

416-660: The Teachers Institute of Vilnius from which he graduated in 1881. He was appointed as a teacher in a Jewish school funded by the Russian government in Velizh , Vitebsk, in the same year. In Czarist Russia , repression from both the government and the Russian Orthodox Church restricted the travel, settlement, and educational opportunities of Jewish subjects, who were subject to discrimination and brutality. By 1879, when Cahan

448-665: The Young Men’s Hebrew Association ( YMHA ) and often incorporated socialist speeches into his lesson plans. He also briefly taught in the English Department at the Orthodox Etz Chaim Yeshiva . Cahan formally joined the Socialist Labor Party of America in 1887. Cahan’s education in Russian and English and his literary and journalistic abilities allowed him to excel as a socialist, and toward

480-751: The age of 91, in Beth Israel Hospital in New York City. He was buried in Mount Carmel Cemetery in Queens, New York . Cahan’s education of immigrants, his work through the Jewish Daily Forward, and his commitment to socialism influenced the Jewish immigrants in New York who came into contact with his work. In addition to influencing American Jewish culture, his works were published in Russia, leaving

512-564: The eldership is very diverse: Lithuanians – 20,4%, Poles – 60,6%, Russians – 13,2% and others – 5,8%. Religious composition is as diverse: Catholics , Old Believers and Eastern Orthodox . According to the census of 2021, the composition was the following: out of 3175 inhabitants, 1882 or 59,2% were Poles , 748 or 23,6% were Lithuanians , 363 or 11,4% were Russians , 90 or 2,8% were Belarusians , 10 Ukrainians and 84 of other ethnicity or refused to answer. Lincoln Steffens Joseph Lincoln Steffens (April 6, 1866 – August 9, 1936)

544-587: The end of his career he was considered a leading figure of the radical Jewish left. In keeping with his socialist politics, Cahan believed that immigrants needed to combine formal learning with informal studies about local life and community customs to achieve not only an education but also integration into American society. He also encouraged women to use labor and education to elevate their status in society. Soon after arriving in America Cahan wrote articles on socialism and science, and translated literary works for

576-400: The leftist politics of the region. When John O’Shea , one of the local Carmel artists and a friend of the couple, exhibited his study of "Mr. Steffens’ soul", an image which resembled a grotesque daemon, Lincoln took a certain pride in the drawing and enjoyed the publicity it generated. Who's Who does not give his Carmel address. We object! A student of philosophy, he has been editor of

608-460: The pages of the Yiddish language newspaper of the Socialist Labor Party , the Arbeiter Zeitung ( Yiddish : אַרבעטער צייטונג , lit.   'Worker's Newspaper') Cahan edited the Arbeiter Zeitung from 1891 to 1895, and followed that position with an editorship at the paper Di Tsukunft ( Yiddish : די צוקונפֿט , lit.   'The Future') through 1887. Afterward, Cahan

640-546: 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 the United States came from the Russian Empire). Cahan arrived by steamboat in Philadelphia on June 6 of 1882 at the age of 21 and immediately traveled to New York City , where he would live for the rest of his life. In July 1882, barely

672-460: The same title . Autobiography of Lincoln Steffens is mentioned in the Joseph McElroy novel Women and Men . And it is mentioned as a favorite by Marilyn Monroe in her Autobiography "My Story" (she reads it during the making of All About Eve and is warned by Joseph L. Mankiewicz to not tell anyone due to possible Communist ties). Lincoln Steffens is a somewhat frustrated witness to

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704-659: The school's founder and director, stern disciplinarian, Alfred Lee Brewer. Steffens began his journalism career at the New York Commercial Advertiser in the 1890s, before moving to the New York Evening Post . From 1902 to 1906, he became an editor of McClure's magazine, where he became part of a celebrated muckraking trio with Ida Tarbell and Ray Stannard Baker . He specialized in investigating government and political corruption, and two collections of his articles were published as The Shame of

736-525: The time his memoirs appeared in 1931. The autobiography became a bestseller leading to a short return to prominence for the writer, but Steffens would not be able to capitalize on it as illness cut his lecture tour of America short by 1933. He was a member of the California Writers Project , a New Deal program. Steffens married the twenty-six-year-old socialist writer Leonore (Ella) Sophie Winter in 1924 and moved to Italy, where their son Peter

768-463: The vicinity of the village, there are archaeological sites Pilata and Pilaškučiai . Paberžė itself is an old settlement, first mentioned in historical records in 1484 when the first church was built. In 1503, Paberžė parish was established. In 1517, Grand Duke Sigismund I the Old granted the privilege of establishing a tavern in Paberžė, profit of this establishment was used to support the local church. In

800-534: The village was famous for its rodeo with bulls (the only such place in Lithuania ). During the interwar period, Neo-Gothic church with well visible modernist features was built (finished in 1932). In 2013, coat of arms of Paberžė were created with the birch tree leaves depicted. According to the census of 2011, there were 919 inhabitants in Paberžė village and 3,670 in Paberžė eldership, which covers an area of 209 square kilometres (81 sq mi) and includes 127 villages. The ethnographic composition of

832-526: Was a Catholic church and a parish school. In 1676, a new wooden church was built, which was renewed in 1759 and rebuilt in 1793. In 1860, the wooden Catholic church was rebuilt again. In 1866, after the January Uprising , it was transferred to the Eastern Orthodox Church . A local Catholic priest converted to Eastern Orthodoxy and encouraged his parishioners to do the same. Before World War I ,

864-433: Was also home to an early and long running advice column for Jewish immigrants, A Bintel Brief . Cahan distinguished himself through not only Yiddish literature but also his English fiction that dealt with the sociological and historical process of immigrants becoming Americans. By 1896, Cahan had published his first short story, “A Providential Match”, and just a year later he published his first novel, Yekl: A Tale of

896-581: Was an American investigative journalist and one of the leading muckrakers of the Progressive Era in the early 20th century. He launched a series of articles in McClure's , called "Tweed Days in St. Louis", that would later be published together in a book titled The Shame of the Cities . He is remembered for investigating corruption in municipal government in American cities and for his leftist values. Steffens

928-651: Was born in San Francisco , California , the only son and eldest of four children of Elizabeth Louisa (Symes) Steffens and Joseph Steffens. He was raised largely in Sacramento , the state capital; the Steffens family mansion, a Victorian house on H Street bought from merchant Albert Gallatin in 1887, would become the California Governor's Mansion in 1903. Steffens attended St Mathews , where he frequently clashed with

960-575: Was born in San Remo. In 1927, they relocated to Carmel-by-the-Sea, California , the most significant art colony on the Pacific Coast, and settled in a cottage close to the intersection of San Antonio Street and Ocean Avenue. During their stay, he authored his autobiography and managed the Pacific Weekly. The cottage underwent renovation in 1992. Ella and Lincoln soon became controversial figures in

992-513: Was made a full-time reporter for the New York Commercial Advertiser , and it was this position as an apprentice of reporter Lincoln Steffens that prepared Cahan for his coming role as a founding editor of the Jewish Daily Forward . Cahan founded the Forward while he was still juggling several newspaper jobs and published its first issue in 1897. The horror of the Kishinev pogrom , which

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1024-589: Was still a teenager, he had associated himself with the growing radical revolutionary movement in Russia. After the Emperor Alexander II of Russia was assassinated by a member of the Narodnaya Volya in March 1881, all revolutionary sympathizers became suspect to the Russian police. In 1882 the Russian police searched Cahan’s room for radical publications that could be linked to the revolutionaries. The visit from

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