Today is the 150th anniversary of the birth of Abraham Cahan, the longtime editor of the Forverts. It is hard to imagine a more influential figure in the history of American Jewry than Cahan, who helped found the Forverts in 1897 and was the guiding force behind the paper until his death in 1951. Under…
Back when Jewish clarinetists such as Benny Goodman and Artie Shaw were becoming giants of the swing era, their lesser-known co-religionist Mezz Mezzrow (born Milton Mesirow), was honing his own reputation as a gadabout session player and producer with the likes of Fats Waller, Louis Armstrong and Sidney Bechet. Mezzrow was celebrated as a marijuana…
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