He was also a leading figure of the Sholem Aleichem Folk Institute, a Jewish cultural organization that operated Yiddish secular schools for children.

His childhood, early years, and difficult experiences growing up in Czarist Russia, are vividly described in his two-volume autobiography, which has been translated from Yiddish into English: My Jewish Roots (1954) and In The Thicket (1963).

The poverty stricken family lived in a small hut where his mother, Mere (Lifschitz), struggled to help make ends meet by baking bagels and rolls.

[1] Although he had become fully secular, he felt it essential to assure the survival of Jewish values, culture and traditions in the new generation of Jews growing up in America.

[7] To that end, he became a devoted "yiddishist," viewing the Yiddish language as the singular instrument that could succeed in perpetuating Jewish ideals among secular Jews and their children.

He once again described himself as a believer, but only in his own unorthodox theistic style, which in many ways mirrored the revisionist proposals of Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan.

For his last 28 years, until his death in 1970, he was teaching a group of devoted adult followers regarding the application of the Scriptures and Talmud to modern Jewish life.

[12] With the furtherance of his "Yiddishist" goal in mind, his early works were written in Yiddish for children, in a series of books focused on Jewish legends and themes, such as: "Shmerl Nar" (later translated as The Wandering Beggar), about a Jewish simpleton accomplishing accidental "miracles" as he wandered about Russian towns; and "Helden Fun Khelm" (later translated as The Wise Men of Helm and supplemented by More Wise Men of Helm), about a mythical town of Jewish fools and their comic foolishness.

Thus "Medines Isroel Un Erets Israel" (1950) set forth the ethical conflict between the dual concept of Israel as a nation state and as a religious home; "In De Teg Fun De Ershter Nevyim" (1959) focused on the ethical demands of the early prophets; "Oyf Eigene Drokhim" (1962) described his own searching path in Yiddish life; and "Emune Fun a Dor" (1970), published in the year he died, set forth his last legacy.