Page:The Cambridge History of American Literature, v4.djvu/189

Yiddish Journalism 6oi ham Cahan ; Malthusianism and Capitalism by Philip Krantz. Of belles-lettres we find only The Swimming Coffin, a fantasy by Jacob Gordin. The evolution of this magazine, still the only serious American Yiddish monthly, may be judged from the table of contents of any issue of recent date. We now find fiction and poetry predominating, and topics of the times treated without academic pretension. This evolution is characteristic of all Yiddish-American journalism. There has been a levelling up and a levelling down in Yiddish period- icals which have put them on a sound financial basis and have removed both hyper-intellectual and vulgar elements. The editors and contributors of Jewish newspapers now realize that their readers are live men and women. Having adopted the features of American journalism "which make a paper go," they have also retained the traditional elements of definite social and political policies in both general and specifically Jewish matters. The Jewish Daily Forward (founded in 1897), which harbors practically the entire Arbeiter Zeitung group, with Abraham Cahan as editor-in-chief, B. Feigenbaum, Philip Krantz, Z. Libin, and others as contributors, has become a potent force with the Jews of America. It is committed to socialism, but its socialism no longer hangs out of joint with its actual environment, and it undoubtedly makes for better citizen- ship among the immigrants. It is the largest Yiddish news- paper in America, and, indeed, in the world. Several other Yiddish dailies have attained the proportions of metropolitan newspapers. Of these The Day is the more influential and widely read. The Jewish Morning Journal, The Warheit (now merged with The Day), The Jewish Daily News, all pub- lished in New York, have each their following, and have to a large extent freed themselves from objectionable features. Though the Yiddish book market is becoming stabilized and several publishing houses operate on a business basis, the daily newspaper is still the vehicle of the best fiction produced. The Jew is known for his love of the song, and the sadder the song the more intense the response. The badchen, the wedding bard, with his mournful singsong and his opening formula "Weep, bride, oh weep!" is a traditional figure of the Ghetto. The modern composer of literary verse is known among the