The agitator among the immigrants has also rendered other highly useful service, besides the impetus which he gave to the development and popularization of the Yiddish press. The average laborer immigrant from Russia knew very little of newspapers, although practically every one of them could read his mother tongue—Judeo-German or Yiddish. But the Russian government did not permit at that time the publication of popular newspapers, and we find, for instance, in the year 1886, three daily papers in Russia in the old Hebrew language, which is understood by the more educated classes, and not one in Yiddish. But little as the immigrant knew about newspapers, he knew less, or actually nothing at all, about politics. The explanation of the aims of the one party for which the agitator wanted to win him had to be preceded by introductory explanations of the nature and functions of parties generally, of their utility as a means of inaugurating reforms, and their power to carry them out when a successful campaign places the government in their hands. The Socialist agitator was thus the first teacher of civics, and he was a very active worker for the cause of naturalization. He was anxious that the immigrant workingman should become a citizen and build up with his vote the Socialist party which the native laborer was so slow to recognize.
But the large majority of the Jewish laborers had enough of Socialism by the time they were entitled to citizenship; the number of voters of that party increased very slowly, and, like the above-mentioned case of the unions, they were not the same from year to year. While the Jewish population was increasing rapidly in some parts of New York and other large cities, and the number of non-Jewish, or rather non-immigrant, voters in some districts became very small or practically disappeared, the number of Socialist votes was fluctuating, and never became a majority or even a plurality in a district. While the leaders were preaching that all opportunities were now gone and all avenues of advancement were closed for the poor man, every individual among their followers was struggling to raise himself above his surroundings. Americanization meant the abandonment of extreme views on all subjects, and the naturalized immigrant, even when he remained a manual worker, was soon voting for one of the two great American parties. He still retained a leaning towards radical reform, for the Russian mind is much inclined to theorizing; but he would now seldom go further than support an American reformer or join one of the movements instituted by the better elements for the purpose of purifying city governments. But as the reform element usually signalizes its accession to power by a severe enforcement of Sunday-closing laws and other interferences with personal liberty which smack of persecution, the immigrant Jew usually joins the other disappointed classes to turn the reformers out of office at the next election.
There was a slow and steady turning away from the dry and monotonous radical literature of that period, which was a counterpart of the turning away from extreme politics. In one respect the change in literary tastes or requirements amounted to a revulsion—one might almost say, to a revolution. The first attempt to publish in Yiddish a sensational novel in weekly or semi-weekly installments, popularly known as “Heften,” which was made in New York about 1890, met with extraordinary success. The number of such ventures soon multiplied, and the sales were large in other cities as well as in the place of publication. The Yiddish periodical press became endangered, but it saved—and revenged—itself by beginning to publish one, two and sometimes as much as three serial stories in daily installments, a practice which in a short time ruined the business of the “Heften.”
It was also about this time that the “Maskilim” or half-Germanized Hebrew scholars, who were forced to the background by the domination of the radicals at the beginning of the “Russian period,” began to forge to the front again. The number of Jews who could read Hebrew was fast increasing, the proportion of intelligent and well-educated men being much larger among those who were forced to emigrate than among the earlier immigrants. Well known Hebrew scholars who arrived in that period began the publication of Hebrew periodicals, and while none of the publications survived, some of them existed for a number of years and exerted a certain influence; besides contributing to develop the talents of new writers and to lay the foundation for a Neo-Hebrew literature in America, which is progressing slowly but surely.
One of the first of the Hebrew editors of the new period was Ephraim Deinard (b. in Courland, 1846; a. 1888), the author and traveler. He established the weekly “Ha-Leomi” (Nationalist) in New York in 1889, and it existed for about two years. Another traveler and author, Wolf (or William) Schur (b. in Utian, Russia, 1844; d. in Chicago, 1910), established his weekly “Ha-Pisgah” (The Summit), which appeared in New York and Baltimore in the years 1890–94 and in Chicago in 1897–1900. The “ha-Ibri” (The Hebrew), also a weekly, was founded by K. H. Sarasohn and edited by Gerson Rosenzweig (b. in Karatchin, in the government of Grodno, Russia, 1861; a. 1888) during the time of its existence, from 1892 to 1898. Of the Hebrew monthlies of that period only the “Ner he-Maarabi” (Western Light), which appeared in 1895–97, edited first by Abraham H. Rosenberg (b. in Pinsk, 1838; a. 1891) and afterwards by Samuel B. Schwarzberg, deserves to be mentioned.
In one respect the Hebrew and the Yiddish writers were struggling with the same difficulty—that of making themselves understood to the largest possible number of readers. The method prevailing in Russia, of writing as hard or using as high a language as possible so that the highly intelligent reader—the title to which every reader of a newspaper there at that time laid claim—should take pride in being able to understand the contents, would not attract readers here as it does where scarcity of printed matter makes the public accept with eagerness whatever is offered. But the Hebrew writer came here with a style that may be termed aristocratic, and the Yiddish writer, who had to begin everything anew, had hardly any style. It was all easy as far as the work of the agitator was concerned; denunciations and accusations are always easily understood, and this alone is one of the reasons of their popularity. But when it came to the parts where the writer wanted to describe or to explain, especially in the scientific or semi-scientific articles which a public that had no systematic schooling so eagerly devoured, the language of most of the writers was inadequate and not easily understood.
Thus it comes that, although most of the Yiddish periodicals of that time were advocating, some of them with great vehemence, certain principles, or leading certain movements, the earliest reputations were made by stylists who were not identified with particular movements. The highest popularity among the reading masses was attained by Abner Tannenbaum (b. in Shirwint, Russia, 1848; a. 1887), whose perspicuous writing, whether as the author of the “Heften,” which he inaugurated, or on his favorite subject, popular science, simply could not be misunderstood. George Selikovich (b. in Retovo, government of Kovno, Russia, in 1863; a. 1887), a linguist and a good Hebrew stylist, is another writer whom everybody could easily understand, and who acquired popularity with the public to whom Yiddish periodical literature was brought down here, for the first time in its history. Nahum Meir Schaikewitz (Shomer, b. in Nesvizh, government of Minsk, Russia, 1849; a. 1888; d. in New York, 1905), the novelist and playwright, also appealed to the masses with his easy flowing style, and was a favorite here with the same classes which used to read his works and see his plays in the old country.
The recognition accorded to these writers, none of whom were agitators or even party men, proves that even in the time when it seemed that the “ghetti” or neighborhoods of the Jewish immigrants were seething with movements and agitations, the great masses were not much interested in them; though the curious crowded the largest meeting rooms, and many who were not yet sure of their newly found freedom were inclined to test it by participating in a march or some other form of demonstration which was forbidden in their old home. Some writers, on the other hand, who followed the Russian usage of subordinating their art to the cause which they were advocating, were extolled by their partisans as great geniuses, but had a much smaller public than the above-mentioned literati.
The writers of Hebrew, who by reason of their training and inclination held more aloof even from their own public, have not yet solved the great question of style; which partly accounts for the remarkable fact that their periodical literature has actually vanished in the two decades in which the possible number of their readers has increased almost tenfold. Some of the best known Hebrew literati from the Old World came here since the establishment of the Neo-Hebrew periodicals which were mentioned above: men like the poet Menahem Mendel Dolitzki (b. in Byelostok, 1856; a. 1892); the exegete Abraham Baer Dobsevage (b. in Pinsk, 1843; a. 1891; d. in New York, 1900); the philosopher Joseph Loeb Sossnitz (b. in Birz, 1837; a. 1891; d. in New York, 1910); the grammarian Moses Reicherson (b. in Wilna, 1827; a. 1890; d. in New York, 1903), and the knight-errant of Hebrew literature, Naphtali Hirz Imber (b. in Zloczow, Galicia, 1856; a. 1892(?); d. in New York, 1909). But neither they nor others less known, who could perhaps be more productive under more favorable circumstances, could accomplish much even in those branches of literary journalism where Yiddish has not penetrated. They were not entirely idle, and some of the results of their literary labor will be mentioned in the proper place in a following part of this work. But they have not influenced the Jewish spirit and have contributed little to the general intellectual development of the community. The traditional war for progress which they waged in their old homes, where they were often the only learned or enlightened men in the community, had no place in a world where general education is so easily accessible; and they could not feel at home in the ranks of the conservatives, where they belong in this country. Most of them floundered until the rise of the Zionist movement, which they joined half-heartedly. Many took to teaching of Hebrew, and are still waiting for the expected revival of interest in Hebrew literature which the new nationalism is supposed to produce.