He studied in the Kamenets state school for Jews, where Avrom Ber Gotlober was the supervisor Mendele Mocher Sforim was his teacher.
[3] Tannenbaum immigrated to America in 1887, settling in New York City and initially opening a small candy and cigar store.
He also edited the Zionist Mevaseret Tsiyon in 1898, and from 1889 to 1893 he contributed to the anti-religious Tefila Zaka that was published every year on the High Holidays by the New York anarchist group Pyonire der Frayhayt.
[4] He had an easy writing style that made his work intelligible to people not used to reading at all, and managed to develop a large audience that were introduced to information on various scientific and historical subjects through him and his translations and articles.
[5] He also wrote both the two-part book "History of the Jews in America" and "Commercial, Industrial, and Agricultural Geography of the United States" in 1905.