The Rise of David Levinsky

Acclaimed by literary critic Carl Van Doren as the most important of all immigrant novels, The Rise of David Levinsky takes place amid America’s biggest and most diverse Yiddish-speaking community during the early 20th century. David Levinsky, a young Hasidic Jew struggling to master the Talmud, seeks his fortune amid the teeming streets of New York’s Lower East Side. All the energy formerly focused on his religious studies now turns in the direction of rising to the top of the business world, where he discovers the high price of assimilation. Author Abraham Cahan founded and edited the Jewish Daily Forward, the world’s most widely read Yiddish paper, and his direct experience contributes mightily to the authenticity of this monumental work.