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Audiobook edition · 4 h 3 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if becoming someone new means feeling ashamed of the people you love?
In Abraham Cahan’s short novel Yekl, Yekl Podkovnik calls himself Jake and longs to be a Yankee. He works long hours in a crowded New York sweatshop, then spends his evenings at a dancing academy. There, he admires Mamie Fine as a true American girl. His wife and young son still wait in the old country.
When Gitl and Yosele reach New York, Jake meets them with duty, dread and a little tenderness. Gitl hopes for a home and a marriage, but Jake wants distance from his past. In the cramped rooms of the Lower East Side, Cahan brings their uneasy family life close, asking what the wish to belong can cost those nearest to us.
What you’ll discover
- A name worth changing Follow Jake’s hunger to belong as American manners become a measure of his worth.
- Life inside the sweatshop Enter a crowded workplace alive with immigrant talk and Cahan’s rough, closely observed detail.
- Steps toward another life Visit the dancing academy, where learning the steps also means learning American social ways.
- A family under strain Meet Gitl, whose hopes for marriage confront her husband’s shame about his past.
- Humor with an uneasy edge Find a funny, intimate portrait that takes Jake’s wish to belong seriously.
Who will love it
Readers drawn to immigrant stories, lively city scenes, sharp dialogue, and flawed characters will love this novella. It also suits those curious about Jewish New York in the 1890s.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Jake performs his new identity
- The past becomes a stranger
- Dancing gives Jake the attention he wants
- Grief reaches beneath the new name
- Gitl reflects the past Jake rejects
- Gitl faces the new world alone
- Language creates closeness and distance
- A new identity carries family costs
Who’s who
- Jake (Yekl)A big, boastful cloak maker who longs to pass as a Yankee and is ashamed of the family he left in Russia.
- GitlJake's devout, simple wife, who crosses the ocean with her son and hopes to win back the husband she remembers.
- Joey (Yosselé)Jake and Gitl's small, sturdy son, who loves his father's games and soon learns a few English words.
- Mamie FeinA sharp, stylish dance-school girl who has saved money and wants Jake for herself.
- FannyA fair shop girl nicknamed the Preacher, who loves Jake and warns his wife about Mamie.
- BernsteinA scholarly, vain cloak maker who reads English with a dictionary and boards with the family.
- Mrs. KavarskyThe talkative, bossy neighbor who pushes Gitl to adopt American ways.
- Joe PeltnerThe curly-haired dancing master who runs the academy that Jake cannot stay away from.
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Yekl
by Abraham Cahan · 1896
A New York cloak maker hides his Russian family from new acquaintances, then struggles when his wife and son arrive.
Medium levelUnder 2 hours to read2 languages
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In short
What happens when a man tries so hard to become someone new that he forgets the people who knew the old him? In Yekl, a cloak maker named Jake stands in a sweltering New York shop and lectures his shopmates on boxing champions and the glories of being a Yankee.
Yekl at a glance
- Reading time
- About 2 h1 h 35 min fast, 2 h 20 min slow
- Length
- 28,000 words
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
- First published
- 1896by Abraham Cahan
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
Jake performs a Yankee he is not
The story opens in a cloak shop on a hot midsummer day. The workers sit idle, waiting for the boss to bring work. Jake lectures his shopmates on Boston, New York, and boxing. In a few pages Cahan shows you what Jake wants to be: a real Yankee, never a greenhorn.
Jake is a big man with powerful arms and a clean-shaven face. He speaks Yiddish packed with mangled English. He tosses around the names of famous fighters as if they were his friends. A presser mocks him, saying that shaving off a mustache does not make a Yankee.
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Which edition is right for me
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 15 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- First published
- 1896
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 2 h 35 min
- Level
- Medium level
Cite this edition
Cahan, Abraham. Yekl. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/yekl.
Cahan, A. (2026). Yekl. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/yekl (Original work published 1896)
Cahan, Abraham. Yekl. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/yekl.
@book{cahan2026yekl,
author = {Cahan, Abraham},
title = {Yekl},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/yekl},
note = {First published 1896}
}
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What is Yekl about?
Yekl tells of Jake, a Russian Jewish cloak maker in New York who has remade himself as an American and hides his wife and son in Russia. When they arrive, his two lives collide.
Who is Abraham Cahan and when was Yekl written?
Cahan was a Jewish immigrant from the Russian empire who became a leading Yiddish newspaper editor in New York. He published Yekl in 1896, drawing on the life of the East Side he knew.
Who are Jake, Gitl, Mamie, and Bernstein?
Jake is the cloak maker who used to be Yekl. Gitl is his wife from Russia. Mamie is a dance-school girl who wants him. Bernstein is a scholarly boarder in the family's flat.
The author
Abraham Cahan
1860–1951 · American journalist and novelist
Abraham Cahan (1860–1951) was a journalist and novelist born in the Russian Empire. He moved to New York City in 1882 and lived there until his death. He wrote Yekl, published in 1896, and The Rise of David Levinsky, published in 1917. He also edited the Yiddish newspaper Forward.
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