Isadore Gimble in his store, the Congress Food Market, 5th and East Capitol Streets

EASTERN EUROPEAN JEWISH POLITICS AND THE JEWISH DAILY FORWARD

The first issue of the Forverts, published on April 22, 1897

When Abraham Cahan spoke, as in this 1933 address, the nation listened

“The Forverts became their battle cry: Forward toward a new social vision of equality and justice, and at the same time, forward into the American society that the immigrants were reaching out to embrace.“((A Living Lens: Photographs of Jewish life from the pages of The Forward Edited by Alana Newhouse and Archived by Chana Pollack. Forward Books W.W Norton & Company Ltd., New York and London 2007. p.21))

Many Yiddish newspapers emerged in New York during the late 19th century, making the Yiddish Press an integral part of Eastern European Jewish immigrant life. The Forverts, or the Forward, was a daily Yiddish newspaper founded in 1897.((“Forverts” The Jewish Daily Forward.com. Web. 4 May, 2010. <http://yiddish.forward.com/help/our_history.html>)) I chose to focus on The Forward because it was an intellectual, political, and community publication that I found played a very particular role in the lives of Eastern European Jews.

One of the founders of the Forward, Abraham Cahan, was a socialist Jewish immigrant from Lithuania who fled Eastern Europe when many revolutionaries were being arrested after the assassination of Tsar Alexander II. Cahan arrived on the Lower East Side in 1882 and quickly became active in politics, emerging as a popular leader and intellectual. As editor of the Forward, he pushed both a socialist democratic political agenda, and an immigrant community one. ((“Abraham Cahan” The Jewish Virtual Library. Web. 4 May, 2010. <http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/cahan.html>))

Women Workers Strike - 1912

The Forward became an extremely successful newspaper involved in many of the labor and trade union struggles of Jewish garment workers. The Forward building, established in 1912, also served as physical location for many of these struggles. Directly across from Rutgers Square, the Forward building was often at the heart of political activity as garment workers would celebrate or protest in and around the building.((“Garment Strikers Storm The Forward”, The New York Times, March 2, 1913. Web 16 March. 2010. Print Page 3.“GARMENT WORKERS CHEER STRIKE ORDER; 150,000 Members of the Allied Unions State the Demands They Would Enforce” The New York Times, December 30, 1912. Web 2 May 2010. Print Page 1.))

Photo essays that came in a special Sunday segment of the newspaper

The Forward did not only involve itself in labor politics, but also in the social concerns and conditions of the immigrant community as a whole. There were features such as the “Gallery of Missing Husbands”, which posted pictures of husbands who had deserted their families, the “Bintel Brief”, which allowed immigrants to write letters to the editor seeking advice, and special Sunday photo segments showcasing the people of the Lower East Side.((A Living Lens: Photographs of Jewish life from the pages of The Forward Edited by Alana Newhouse and Archived by Chana Pollack. Forward Books W.W Norton & Company Ltd., New York and London 2007.)) The myriad of services and information the Forward provided to the immigrant community made it a significant force in Jewish politics and everyday life.