Chana Pollack is the Forward’s archivist. Contact her at pollack@forward.com.
Chana PollackArchivist
By Chana Pollack
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Life Throwback Thursday: A Yiddish Actress of Many Names
Welcome to Throwback Thursday, a weekly photo feature in which we sift 116 years of Forward history to find snapshots of women’s lives. Shaindel Kalish is pictured here, in 1934, in her role as Manuela the young heroine from the acclaimed Weimar production “Madchen in Uniform,” which was translated and re-staged for American audiences as…
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Life First African American Hebrew School Grad
Welcome to Throwback Thursday, a weekly photo feature in which we sift 116 years of Forward history to find snapshots of women’s lives. In December 1933, 15-year-old Verlette Valentine, class valedictorian at Institutional Synagogue of New York, was featured in the Forverts as the first African American to graduate from a Hebrew school. At the…
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Life Throwback Thursday: Teenage Ambassador to Israel
Welcome to Throwback Thursday, a weekly photo feature in which we sift 116 years of Forward history to find snapshots of women’s lives. In 1952, Carole Frances Asnin of Brooklyn won the New York City-wide “Share Your Birthday” contest promoting “intergroup understanding.” The contest was organized by El Al along with Mrs. Elizabeth Heller’s “Share…
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Life Throwback Thursday: Jewish Congresswoman from Utah
Welcome to Throwback Thursday, a weekly photo feature in which we sift 116 years of Forward history to find snapshots of women’s lives. Florence Prag Kahn, the first Jewish woman to serve in Congress, was a pioneer in many ways. She was born in 1866 in Salt Lake City, Utah. Her parents were Polish Jewish…
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Life Throwback Thursday: New York’s First Female Mayoral Candidate
Welcome to Throwback Thursday, a weekly photo feature in which we sift 116 years of Forward history to find snapshots of women’s lives. Swedish immigrant Olive Johnson was the first female candidate for Mayor of New York City. Johnson arrived in the US with her family in the 1890’s, and shortly thereafter joined the Socialist…
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Life Throwback Thursday: The Cosmetics Queen
Welcome to Throwback Thursday, a weekly photo feature in which we sift 116 years of Forward history to find snapshots of women’s lives. Khaye Rubinstein, founder of the eponymous and enormously successful cosmetics firm Helena Rubinstein Inc. was born on December 25, 1870, in Krakow Poland, the eldest of eight daughters. She briefly dabbled in…
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Life Throwback Thursday: The Concert Pianist
Welcome to Throwback Thursday, a weekly photo feature in which we sift 116 years of Forward history to find snapshots of women’s lives. Concert pianist Irene Jacobi (formerly Schwarcz) was a graduate of New York City’s Institute of Musical Art, now known as the Juilliard School. She met her husband Frederick Jacobi when he was…
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Life Throwback Thursday: Guyana’s Jewish President
Throwback Thursday is a weekly photo feature in which we sift 116 years of Forward history to find snapshots of women’s lives. Born in Chicago, Janet Rosenberg was the first female president of Guyana, the country’s first Jewish and U.S. born leader and the third woman elected as chief executive of a country in the…
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