Image by phil stern

By Chana Pollack April 23, 2020

On April 22, 1897, The Forward published our very first issue. The one-page sheet in Yiddish costing a penny carried reports from the Middle East war front, accounts of Cuban unrest and stories of a steam-fitters’ strike in New York. The headlines held an enormous amount of news and information. “From the Class Struggle: Locked Out Steamfitters are Holding Fast,” blared one headline. “Enough Swinders!” declared another.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

Forwarding the News

Thoughtful, balanced reporting from the Forward and around the web, bringing you updated news and analysis of the crisis each day.

Terms(Required)

I agree to the Forward's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Email(Required)

A post shared by The Forward (@jdforward) on Apr 22, 2020 at 11:24am PDT

With that one page, our Yiddish-language daily newspaper joined New York’s immigrant presses. Through the leadership of founding editor, Abraham Cahan, by the 1930s The Forward became the voice of the Jewish immigrant with a circulation rivaling The New York Times.

In 1988, when we were only 91-years old, Marlene Booth and Linda Matchin made a documentary about us called The Forward: From Immigrants to Americans. It’s chock-full and ongepakt with delightful scenes such as legendary actor and Broadway’s “Tevye,” Zero Mostel, reading everyone’s favorite Bintl Brief advice column, hear eyewitness accounts of early New York City labor history and catch up on little known gems of Forward history like the fact that we offered readers the great works of literature, such as Flaubert, in translation.

Matchin and Booth and crew were there at our 90th birthday, and scenes of that get-together are part of this film. So sit back and join the show taking a look back at our shared history, while we keep moving forward. And here’s to many more years of fearless, independent Jewish journalism together.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

$36 $500

$120 $180 Other amount