With the influx of Jewish Yiddish-speaking immigrants to New York, the audience for Yiddish publications grew. Forward publisher Louis Miller proposed the title Forverts – Forward in English – transliterated from Vorwärts, the German Socialist Democratic party newspaper, whose ideals inspired the Forward’s founders. These images help tell the story of the Forward newspaper itself, whose daily updates of local and international news helped shaped a way of life for Jewish immigrants for generations.

Abraham “Ab” Cahan was the founding editor of the Forward and made the paper a success. He thought that it must align itself with the interests of the workers, outside of their preoccupation with the daily struggle for bread. Cahan was the first intellectual activist to speak in Yiddish while addressing the working masses in the Lower East Side’s meeting halls. This picture appeared on the front page of the paper’s 30th anniversary edition in 1927.

Often overlooked, doors are perhaps the most important feature of a building. They are the means by which we escape the often crowded and chaotic streets of the city. Every building has one (well, maybe except for the Raymond Street Jail which was accidentally constructed in 1836 sans front door), but some outfit this largely utilitarian feature with more panache than others. This collection highlights some the city's loveliest historic doorways, from the simple but classic columns of early 19th century Federal rowhouses to the gloriously geometric brickwork of Art Deco apartment houses, and everything in-between.

The Lower East Side, traditionally an immigrant, working-class neighborhood with a rich Jewish history, has in recent years experienced rapid gentrification. Despite A LOT of changes, many of the neighborhood's diverse local landmarks have survived into the 21st century.

The photo published in The Forward on December 25, 1968 had this curious (and sexist) caption: Israel’s Prettiest Join New York’s Finest at Times Square (טיימס סקװער in Yiddish), New York as a New York police officer stands in the center and observes stoically.”

The longtime home of the Jewish Daily Forward sits on East Broadway between Rutgers and Jefferson Streets. The Yiddish-language newspaper was founded in 1897 and built its iconic headquarters in 1912 at ground zero for its Eastern European constituents. The legendary paper still publishes digitally but its landmark building is a testament to the changing landscape of the neighborhood - and country. Through Spring 2020, the Museum at Eldridge Street is teaming up with the Forward to present an exhibition of metal press plates in the Forward archives. These artifacts of the printing process show the ways in which images were used in the Forward to illustrate Jewish culture around the world. In the exhibition, the plates are displayed alongside contemporary prints made in the traditional process at the South Street Seaport Museum's Bowne & Co., Stationers. More information at eldridgestreet.org/pressed.

Much-beloved by his legions of Forverts-reading fans, actor Edward G. Robinson was born Emanuel Goldengers in Romania and grew up in a Yiddish-speaking household on the Lower East Side. Here, he visits the paper’s office for a shot with editor Cahan at the time his film The Hole in the Wall was released.

The Forward Building, 175 East Broadway, ca. 1989. Once the headquarters of the city’s Yiddish-language newspaper, The Forward, 175 East Broadway is a Beaux Arts architectural masterpiece that sits directly across from Seward Park. Designed to the plans of architect George Boehm, the Forward Building was erected in 1912 to accommodate the paper’s growing staff and replace its former makeshift-office in a tenement building. When completed, this ten-story tower was the first “skyscraper” in the Lower East Side.

Group of Socialist leaders including Forward editor in chief Ab Cahan (in center, looking to his right), former Vienna, Austria vice-Mayor Dr. Max Winter, and Frank R. Crosswaith, founder of the Negro Labor Committee

Located on a stretch of East Broadway once known as “Yiddish newspaper row”, this was the headquarters for Vorwärtz, or the Jewish Daily Forward, the most widely read Yiddish newspaper in the United States. First published in 1897, it was immensely influential on the Jewish community for its support of socialist causes and for its articles offering advice on everyday struggles, making the most of America’s opportunities and encouraging children’s education. The terra cotta-clad building features medallions with faces of socialist heroes Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Karl Liebknecht and Ferdinand Lassalle above the entry, Vorwärtz in Yiddish at the building’s crown, and a clock at the parapet. The paper moved uptown in 1974 and the building was converted to condominiums in the 1990s. The Forward Building is a New York City Individual Landmark.

This photo is of Workmen’s Circle Branch 1 at a picnic for social justice at Brooklyn’s Ulmer Park. It ran in the Forward in July of 1931. The local socialist party hosted annual picnics every summer since 1900 to help start the Socialist Party's campaigns. By the time this photo was taken, the picnic had been a yearly tradition for three decades.

On January 1, 1936, New York’s Lower East Side got its first subway stop, changing it from a land of crowded tenement dwellings and slums to a gentrified city district practically overnight. This is the story of the East Side Subway, איסט-סײַד אונטערבאַן. In Yiddish, the subway is called the unterban, though colloquially it was called the subvey which is how The Forward spelled it out for readers.

Discussions of vaccinations in New York City have an interesting history. The city’s 1947 smallpox outbreak is notable both for being the last smallpox outbreak in America and for spurring the largest mass vaccination effort ever conducted for smallpox in the country.

Junction of Essex Street, Canal Street, East Broadway and Division Street, May 9, 1930. Seward Park, named after New York Senator and later Secretary of State William Henry Seward, is visible at center-left. Opened in October 1903, Seward Park features the first municipally-built playground in the United States.

Over a 130 years ago, New York’s Lower East Side was home to the world’s largest Jewish community. Between 1881-1924 over 2 million Eastern European Jews called this neighborhood home. And just as generations of immigrants have and continue to do, this community transformed the LES, creating a network of businesses, synagogues, public gathering spaces and more. Today, the LES has gone through many changes, but look closely. Tucked along these bustling blocks, signs of immigrant Jewish life – and hopes – still remain.

The early fight against fascism in the United States predates WWII and started in the city with a huge march for May Day in 1934. The Forward was there to march, and also to cover it in all its excitement and color.

Abraham Cahan, leader, publisher, and writer, was the founding editor of the Forward, America's oldest independent Jewish news organization. Born in 1860, to an Orthodox family in Podberzhie a small shtetl near Vilna (Vilnius) Lithuania, in what is today Belarus, the unorthodox, socialist Cahan had been a revolutionary in his youth. He identified with the narodny (folks) movement that opposed the Czar and briefly believed in a kind of agricultural socialism. Escaping the Czar’s secret police along with his fellow communards of the Am Olam, movement, Cahan arrived in the U.S. in 1882 with the idea of creating agricultural communes here.

At the peak of its popularity, the Jewish Daily Forward erected a ten-story office building at 175 East Broadway designed by architect George Boehm and completed in 1912. The building includes marble columns, stained glass windows, and bas reliefs of Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Ferdinand Lassalle (founder of the first mass German labor party) and a fourth portrait of an unknown man (thought to be some other German socialist). The Forward moved out of the building in 1974 and it was used as a Chinese church for some time. In the early 2000s the building was converted into condos.

And just like that, another year here at Urban Archive is coming to a close in just a few short days! We've asked our partners to pick some of their favorite stories, images, and facts they encountered this year to share with you. Check them out below!

In 1912, the Forward built a grand, 10-story building at 175 East Broadway; its offices remained there until 1974. Two huge 30,000-watt neon rooftop signs proclaimed the paper’s name in glowing Yiddish (facing north) and English (facing south). The signs could be seen from East River bridges and all over the Lower East Side.

Foward Building ARCHITECT: George A. Boehm DATE: 1912 STYLE: Beaux-Arts, Skyscraper The Forward Building, a ten-story Beaux-Arts style skyscraper completed in 1912, is a major early work of architect George A. Boehn whose nearly fifty-year practice was distinguished by designs for public buildings in New York City and Westchester. The ten-story Forward Building remains to this day a towering presence within the context of its immediate Lower East Side neighborhood.

The intersection of downtown's Canal and Essex has long been a favorite for seasonal Jewish holiday shopping. Specifically, for the date palm fronds, ritual citron fruits, myrtle and willow branches required for prayers on the Sukkoth, or sukes in Yiddish, harvest holiday. These are still only sold in the brief window of time that is the week after the Day of Atonement and the start of Sukkoth, usually by local community street vendors that build temporary pop-up kiosks just for that purpose.

The big, bold signage of the historic Lower East Side is part of its iconic legacy. From gold leaf Yiddish lettering on Kosher shop windows to gleaming neon marquees, the many big & busy storefront signs certainly contributed to the frenetic, frenzied atmosphere of the streets. And there are still some great signs in the neighborhood! But a lot has been lost, too. Here are some of our favorite signs we wish were still hanging around the Lower East Side today. There's a corresponding blog post to go along with this story (plus an extra sign that's not in this list!) at www.eldridgestreet.org/blog/lessigns!

The longtime home of the Jewish Daily Forward sits on East Broadway between Rutgers and Jefferson Streets. Since its construction in 1912, the Forward Newspaper building has been a staple of the Lower East Side. Today, it is a testament to the neighborhood’s changing landscape. The Forward Newspaper Under the leadership of its founding editor Abraham Cahan, the Forward not only served as the Jewish immigrant community’s most significant news source, but also granted the community a voice. Starting in 1902, Cahan invited readers to send their stories and responses to topical questions such as ‘May a women wear rouge?’ and ‘Can a socialist go to synagogue for Rosh Hashanah?’ The newspaper’s most popular section was an advice column titled ‘The Bintel Brief.’ Readers posed questions to the editors on lighthearted and serious themes. One struggling reader, who was losing his job, wrote the paper wondering whether he should keep a portion of his income or give it to his blind father in Russia. The editors advised him to give the money to his ailing father as the reader, a young man, remained employable. The Forward building exemplified the newspaper’s importance. It continues to be one of the tallest buildings in the neighborhood and arguably one of the most beautiful. Elegant terra-cotta designs and classical figures adorn its facade. Neighborhood lore claims that Abraham Cahan wanted the entire neighborhood to see the building. After Word War II, the newspaper declined as the worldwide population of Yiddish speaking people shrank and assimilation took hold in the United States. In 1983, to save the paper, an English language supplement was created. Today, The Forward exists with a rich on-line presence of over one million monthly visitors. The newspaper is no longer Socialist leaning, but continues to report on politics, art and culture. A Chinese Church and Bible Factory Just as the newspaper was forced to adapt, so has the building. In 1974, with falling readership, the newspaper sold it to the Lau family, who transformed the bottom floors into a Chinese church and the top floors into a bible factory. Luxury Apartments In 2004, developers Ronald Castellano and Christopher Hayes took over the building and converted it into luxury apartments. A one bedroom apartment recently sold for 1.545 million dollars, and Oscar winning actress Tatum O’Neal once owned an apartment in the building. Amenities include 24 hour doorman, roof deck and a refrigerator in the lobby to store perishable deliveries. Fortunately, the facade is a landmark. Relics of its previous life remain, including the decorative busts of Socialist leaders Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, who gaze down on today’s capitalist tenants. The Forward building epitomizes the changing landscape of the Lower East Side. The neighborhood first took shape with the arrival of immigrants at the turn of the 20th century and became a bustling and crowded hub. But as gentrification spread across New York City, the area underwent transformation. Instead of the classic Jewish delicatessen and other Jewish stores, there are art galleries, vegan restaurants and organic supermarkets. The neighborhood once housed the city’s most impoverished communities; now, it inhabits the city’s most affluent. The Museum At Eldridge Street, preserves the Lower East Side’s history, while as a cultural institution it is also arguably part of the gentrification equation.

Back in 1930, a year into this country’s greatest economic depression, everyone’s favorite Yiddish newspaper was getting spooky with their ads. This Yiddish Forverts Breyer’s ice cream ad for Halovin featured witches soaring and a 2 quart special order nut filled pumpkin flavored ice cream Jack- o’- lantern. Other unique flavor combos for the holiday were on offer, such as ‘choconut’ and orange as well as Halloween decorative novelties including cats, dried colored corn and skulls. Given the pagan, death centric holiday that is Halloween, it wasn't a natural with the Forward's immigrant readership. Forward former Executive Editor and Whiskey Correspondent Dan Friedman recalled it best "For the Jewish community — coming from Europe — the devilish practices of Halloween were not only bewildering but also threatening. Yes, we could come to terms with people walking the streets dressed in costumes, but it was harder to understand an alien custom where people banged on our front doors demanding goods — promising retribution if they weren’t satisfied. “Trick or treat” seemed, if not quite a pogrom, a lose-lose proposition. As indeed perhaps it still does." And yet, the Yiddish paper had done a lot of public service journalism on behalf of Halloween for its readership. Mystical Yiddish writer and poet Dovid Einhorn spent columns of text explaining the early Druid roots to Halloween. The Forward's Jay Grayson, normally on the sports beat, clearly had time to spare and contributed his thoughts on how Jewish parents ought to permit their children to go out trick or treating. Don't fear the doorbell ringing on Halloween, he advised. Do as the Americans do and generously offer free candy to the strangers in costumes! And as far as Breyer's-the Forward had what to say on the topic of ice cream as well, with Friedman initiating a series on Jews and ice cream (with staff doing the tastings!), and former Forward Middle East Correspondent Naomi Zeveloff uncovering their own family relationship to the Haagen-Daazs mishpokhe. What's left to say except, L'chaim Halovin!