18 - Their New York: Possessing the “Capital of Words”

Summary

Abraham Cahan's English fiction is the first among American Jewish writing of New York City. New York, city of power, offering possibilities of hope and misery to its immigrant Jews, also emerges as the premise of Cahan's writing. New York Jewish English writing draws on the expectation of fair play at the heart of American values that serve as a beacon to those Emma Lazarus called the huddled masses yearning to be free. Speaking in the American vernacular, English, these writings articulate the experience of an ethnic group that in its particularity represents us all. Allen Hoff man explores the ways in which New York City draws secular and traditional Jewish life into conversation in his story Building Blocks. Kazin, Cahan, and Roth acknowledge the part of what defines New York as the city of power is the role that it plays as the capital of words.