The Growth of Jewish Chicago.

Forty-Two Years' Recollections. By Philip P. Bregstone.

WIELDERS OF THE PEN.

To the uninitiated it may be surprising to learn that a Yiddish newspaperman requires a broader education than a newspaper writer in any other language. He must know Yiddish, the language in which he writes; to have a thorough knowledge of Yiddish he must know Hebrew. It is essential that he speak the tongue of the country in which he resides and those of Russia and Poland, since the heart of Jewry lies in those two countries. It is therefore no exaggeration to say that the average Yiddish reporter is by far superior in intelligence, education, and general information, to the average writer on any other newspaper.

The army of writers who now wield the pen for the two Chicago Yiddish dailies, the Courier and the Forward, are all seasoned men who display extraordinary skill in all departments. Besides Zolotkoff, Melamed, and Loebner, we find 2on the editorial staff of the Courier, Dr. A. M. Margolin, who for the past twenty-three years has been demonstrating his ability in every field of journalistic and literary endeavor. He abandoned a medical career that he might take to the pen. Dr. Margolin was born in Bobruisk, province of Minsk Russia, on May 5, 1884. He comes of a family where wealth, culture, and Jewish scholarship abide in close harmony. After he completed a general course of Jewish education in a Cheder and Yeshivath, at the age of sixteen, he wandered out to Plotzk. There he made his home with a relative, A. J. Papirna, one of the first neo-Hebraic publicists and critics. Papirna prepared Margolin for the seventh class gymnasium. In May 1905, he graduated with honors. His intentions were to enter the University of Warsaw and major in mathematics, but the political disturbances of the students at that particular period caused him to change his mind and instead he entered the medical school of the Berlin University. Four years later he commenced the practice of medicine and for two years he was house doctor in the clinic of Dr. Schwarts, in Karlsbad. In 1914, he came to London, England, and for three months he was connected with a German hospital, until the outbreak of the war. His experience as a Russian subject residing in England and being a conscientious objector as a matter of 3principle is very interesting. His lot was thrown together with men of the type of Tchicherin, now Minister of Foreign Affairs for the Soviet Government, but then a political refugee in London. In 1917, Dr. Margolin was arrested on charges of preaching pacifism, but a week later was discharged and he emigrated to New York; six months after his arrival in New York, in October of the same year, he came to Chicago to join the editorial staff of the Courier where he has been ever since. Dr. Margolin began his first endeavor in the field of journalism in 1903, by contributing to Hebrew and Russian publications. His first Yiddish attempts appeared in the Warsaw Volkszeitung of the same year. Since then he has contributed to almost every leading Yiddish newspaper and magazine published in Europe. He translated Henry Bernstein's drama, "Samson" from French into Yiddish. He writes well in every branch of journalism and literature; essays on social, political, moral, and esthetic subjects, humor, poetry, and historical sketches, but his principal field is criticism and reviews of the drama. In 1911, he married Clara Bleichman, a well-known dramatic star on the Yiddish stage. Besides the daily articles in the Courier, and his work as Chicago correspondent for the New York Day, he is engaged in gathering material for a history of the Yiddish Theater and I know no writer who is as fit for the task as Dr. Margolin. His review of a Yiddish drama reminds one 4of a review by James Gibleous Huneker of one of Ibsen's dramas. He is all embracing.

Solomon Greenblau has been on the Courier staff for the past twelve years. He was born in 1876, in a small town in Lithuania. He attended Cheder and later graduated from the City Normal School of Jacobstadt, Courland. He prepared himself for the Gymnasium and successfully passed the entrance examination, but was refused admittance because of the "numerus clausus." He went to Warsaw and became a bookkeeper and later engaged in business for himself. In 1904, he emigrated to London and for the first time tried his hand at journalism. He worked on several London Yiddish newspapers. In 1909, he came to Chicago and began to write for the Yiddishe Presse, the daily published by Liebling. Shortly afterwards he became city editor of the Jewish Labor World; when this publication merged with the Jewish Forward, Greenblau joined the staff of the Jewish Courier. He writes in an essayistic style and has produced many short stories, monographs of historic men and women and biographical sketches of many literary characters.

Morris Indritz is one of the younger writers. He was born July 15, 1890, in Courland, Russia, now the Republic of Latvia. He descended from a Chassidic 5family and it is obvious from his writings that he journeyed to the "Rabbi" on many occasions, in the company of his father, Naphtoly Indritz, when Morris was still a youngster. The mystic soul which comes to him as a heritage, has absorbed the spirit of modernism, blending harmoniously into a marvelous background for his fluent and docile pen. His daily stories of Chassidic life which appear in the Courier, and the interesting volume which he had published some four years ago, under the title "In the Tents of H. B. D." in which he gathered the many legends and stories woven about the lives of the "Miracle Makers" are told in a splendid style, with a fine imagination, sincere sympathy, and much gusto. These stories find a large and appreciative reading public.

The finest work tendered by Kalmen Marmor in the literary field was done while he was a resident of Chicago, for here he was removed from the New York "Kibbitzarnies," the influence of which was hardly conducive to the best results of a genius of his type. Marmor is a man of vast learning and great erudition; an independent thinker, a dreamer of the highest type, possessing a rare imagination and a keen vision which penetrates the veiled vistas and above all, he knows how to give expression to his thoughts and phrases them in a most delightful manner. When Marmor first came to this country, Yehoash, the Yiddish poet, dedicated a poem to him. My appreciation for the poet and for the subject of his inspiration gave me sufficient courage to attempt to translate the poem 6from Yiddish into English. The title of the poem is "Dream on, Friend!"

The combination of a scholarly and philosophical mind coupled with a fine poetic vision is a rarity in the world's literature. Marmor is the happy possessor of both; he is a thinker and a poet. His greatest fault is that he is too often carried away by lofty ideals and becomes the propagandist and thus ceases to be the artist, for the one is incompatible with the other.

The editorial staff of the Forward is composed of Jacob Siegel, city editor; Morris Ziskind, labor editor; and Jonas Spivak, Dr. Z. Lorber, M. Bogdansky, Morris Tolchin, and Samuel Samd, who are all feature writers, and each in his own masterly way. The opportunities for a writer on the Forward, are more limited than are those of the Courier. The latter is regarded as being extremely conservative in its editorial policy and caters to the most orthodox elements in Jewry, but every writer of the staff enjoys the fullest freedom to write on any subject he deems proper and in any manner that pleases him best. The Forward is ostensibly a Socialist publication and as such is presumed to be radical in its tendencies, and progressive in its policies, but its writers are denied the freedom granted to the members of the staff of the Courier. They are strictly disciplined and are forced to follow a certain policy, any 7deviation from which meets with severe disapproval. This policy is highly justified for two reasons: A newspaper representing certain party principles, a philosophy of life and all that concerns the adjustment of a social order and an economic system must be uniform; it can tolerate no contradictions or variance of opinions. The second reason for the necessity of uniformity and discipline is that the main office of every Yiddish Forward in the United States is in New York and there is one editor-in-chief over all of them, in the person of Ab. Cahn, whose stamp must be borne on every paper. No one excepting himself is permitted to review a book, a drama, or a work of art. It is obvious therefore that the members of the staff must content themselves with cramping limitations and restrictions. They are deprived of the opportunity to develop individuality, the foundation on which alone all art is built. And yet the staff of the Forward is composed of a group of writers, all of whom are highly talented and a few endowed with even more than that. Ziskind, Siegel, and Samd display a great capacity for real newspaper work and would be extremely useful on any daily American paper.

Jonas Spivak possesses not only a fine talent for journalism, but he also masters a splendid literary style and is blessed with a fine imagination. A volume from his pen, containing some very delightful and original sketches of 8Chassidic life is soon to come off the press. Knowing how vividly and with what poetic realism he portrays a subject; and having been privileged to have read some of the stories from his manuscript, I am sure that this volume will find a great market among the readers of Yiddish.

Dr. Z. Lorber is an essayist; he presents his subjects on ethics, social science, and political economy in a smooth flexible manner, easy to digest and comprehensive, not too heavily overloaded with foreign words and phrases, as is usually the custom with those writers who try to overawe their readers with their knowledge and erudition. He lays no great claims and makes no pretenses; he delivers all he undertakes to give to his readers.

M. Bogdansky may be placed in the same category; he too writes in an essayistic style, but often tries his hand in a lighter vein, not without success.

Morris Tolchim is one of the younger writers and very modern in style. His mind runs towards all the novelle; the short story would be his real field. He knows how to tell a story effectively and his tales are very realistic in form and substance. All in all they are an able set of young men and every one of them is a "social Socialist."