click for larger view

Republished together by Dover in 1970, Cahan’s 1896 novella “Yekl: A Tale of the New York Ghetto” and his 1898 collection, “The Imported Bridegroom and Other Stories of the New York Ghetto,” are not “Dubliners.”

click for larger view

Cahan overwrites. In fact, he is guilty of crossing the street — crossing the street and jumping on a trolley — to avoid le mot juste. His sense of plotting is somewhat predictable (America makes love and marriage between immigrants difficult), and the transliterated dialogue can sometimes be trying: “Once I live in America, I want to know what I live in America. Dot’sh a’ kin’ a man I am!”

Forwarding the News

Thoughtful, balanced reporting from the Forward and around the web, bringing you updated news and analysis each day.

Terms(Required)

I agree to the Forward's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Email(Required)

But for all the faults of this collection, there’s something winning here. Fact is, I loved watching Cahan’s characters become Yankees (the title character, Yekl, transforms into Jake once he lands on American soil). This, “laddas and gentlemen,” is the world of our great-grandparents, and we’d do well to eavesdrop on their lives, if only to figure out how we got to here from there.

In the scene below (from the eighth section of “The Imported Bridegroom”), Shaya, a Talmud prodigy, confesses a secret to his betrothed, Flora.

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

2X match on all Passover gifts!

$90 → $180 $180 → $360

$360 → $720

Other amount