The images gathered here attest to the Forward’s unwavering commitment to public service journalism and to the importance of enhancing Jewish community engagement here and abroad. The paper was founded by socialists and read by a community of workers who saw calls for social justice, protests and demonstrations as means to attain their democratically achieved rights – and also as a way to inform the public.

When police tried to evict 17 tenants from a working class, Eastern European immigrant Jewish neighborhood in the Bronx, some 4,000 tenants participated in a “rent riot.” The strikers were successful – evicted families were allowed to stay and also obtained a rent reduction. This protest sparked similar acts of resistance in other neighborhoods across the city.