This photo ran in The Forward with the caption “East Side, Cut Off From New York Finally Gets A Subway” on Thursday January 2. It shows John Delaney, Chairman of the Board of Transportation, Manhattan Borough President Samuel Levy, Mayor Fiorello La Guardia, Mayor of New York, Forward Manager B.C. Vladeck and Forward President and local favorite socialist Judge Jacob Panken on the E train at the grand opening of the Rutgers Street Station (now known as the East Broadway stop). The Forward saw the new link to the city as a symbol of progress and a harbinger of more good public works to come in the heart of their readership. It would be a boon for the neighborhood’s residents and economy and for its own working class agenda. “When the subway opens, for the thousands of people who come here to The Forward building daily for a variety of reasons, it will be easier to get to East Broadway,” the paper said on January 2. “Most importantly it will be easier for union activists and Worker's Circle members and other communal organizations who have their gatherings in the Forward building to get here in less than 23-35 minutes.” The Forward also approvingly reported that many old, dangerously dilapidated houses on the East Side would be demolished and safe, up to code, modern affordable and also public housing would be built in its place. As if tolling the bell for the controversies inherent in modern urban planning, curiously on this very same day, The Forward reported that the hurdy gurdy was outlawed in an effort to "clean up" New York City. Other Forward headlines from that day focussed on the rise of fascism in Europe: “New Nazi Drive Against Jews In the Olympics,” and the fight for worker's rights, ongoing in the city: “Lehman Demands Pensions For Those Over Age 65.”

The ribbon cutting drew several thousand people on New Year’s Day, some of whom started queuing near the Forward building on East Broadway at eight o’clock that morning, for the noon ceremony. The Forward's weather prediction was for a cloudy rainy January day, with more rain expected the day after. But for now, the new year found the downtown crowd abuzz with chatter. “They waited patiently for the city authorities to come open the subway. Meanwhile, they shmuesed: They talked amongst themselves about how the subway’s opening is "a new page in the East Side's history,” The Forward reported. “Now they'll also take a look more seriously at fire traps filling the East Side. Many complained that their East Side, where the poor and poorest live, was neglected by city fathers.” Lower East Siders welcomed the first train with “gleeful shouts, applause, confetti and shouts of hurrah.” The Forward reported that nearly everyone in the crowd reached out to touch the new train. “‘A real subway,’ many said, expressing their joy publicly.” The new subway, The Forward said, was “built according to the latest subway techniques. Everything sparkles and shines inside. The walls are marble and the entryway is spacious and airy. At the East Broadway station, there's an escalator (stairs that move).” The paper said that all businesses, homes, Jewish editorial offices and public institutions on the Lower East Sider hung American and Yiddish flags for the occasion. Speeches and music from the ceremony were broadcast on WNYC, and was heard on the neighboring streets. Speakers congratulated the East Side on their new subway. Mayor La Guardia couldn't contain himself and didn't hold back expressing his excitement over the new subway. "Can you perceive how important this subway is for the East Side? How wonderful!"

Mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia, מעיאָר לאגוואַרדיא, front row, center in the subway photo, was a historic mayor of New York City and former Congressman. La Guardia, a pro-New Deal liberal progressive Republican, was a favorite of The Forward for decades even before he began his three-term tenure as New York’s 99th mayor. Born at 7 Varick Street in Greenwich Village, near the intersection pictured above, to an Italian Catholic father and an Italian Jewish mother, La Guardia was raised in Trieste, Italy, Arizona and finally New York. He graduated from Dwight High School on the Upper West Side and New York University School of Law.

Before law school, La Guardia worked for the state department, serving the U.S. consulates in Budapest, Trieste and Fiume, in what is today Croatia. He later served as an interpreter at Ellis Island, pictured above, where he was certified to translate he was certified as an interpreter for Italian, German, Yiddish, and Croatian. In 1922, when running for Congress for the second time, La Guardia won the hearts and minds of New York Jews when he published an open letter in Yiddish to his Democrat opponent, the Jewish Henry Frank, who had accused him of being an anti-Semite. In the letter, La Guardia challenged Frank to a debate, entirely in Yiddish, which Frank -- a non-Yiddish speaker -- was forced to decline. An early outspoken American opponent of fascism, with a sister who later was murdered by Nazis at Auschwitz, La Guardia's frequent criticisms of totalitarianism on at least one occasion created diplomatic crises with Germany. As early as 1934, at a public address, La Guardia warned that "part of Hitler's program is the complete annihilation of the Jews in Germany." La Guardia’s own sister, Gemma La Guardia Gluck, was imprisoned at Ravensbrück concentration camp from 1944 to 1945. Fiorello La Guardia died home at 5020 Goodridge Ave. in Riverdale on September 20, 1947. He is buried at Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx.

Jacob Panken דשאָדזש פּענקין, standing, far-right in the subway photo, was a Jewish, socialist politician and judge in New York. He can be seen standing on the far right in the subway photo. Born in Kiev, Ukraine in 1879 to Feiga Berman Panken and Herman (Chaim) Panken, Jacob Panken was a longtime member of the Forward Association, the historic newspaper’s advisory board, and served as its president from 1917 to 1925. Panken started out as a lawyer, with offices at 3-5 Beekman St. and 382 Grand St., just next door to the building pictured above. He earned himself a place in the history books when he unexpectedly won his election on November 6, 1917, making history as America’s first judge elected on a Socialist Party ticket. In 1934, he was appointed to the Domestic Relations Court by Mayor Fiorello La Guardia and served until his retirement in 1955.

Baruch Charney “B.C.” Vladeck, בּ. וולאַדעק standing, third from right in the subway photo, was an immigrant and labor leader, journalist, longtime manager of The Forward, Socialist politician who helped found The Jewish Labor Committee, housing activist and poet. He hailed from a literary family of siblings, including acclaimed Yiddish critic S. Niger. and writer D. Tsharni. He escaped to the United States from Russia in 1908 after several terms in a Czarist prison for revolutionary activities that included passing on "forbidden" literature. By 1912 he was hired by The Forward and by 1918 was made general manager, a position he would hold until his death 20 years later. “I fell in love with the physical beauty of the country,” he said of the U.S. according to his New York Times obituary. "I was stirred by the democratic spirit of the people. It was tremendous — to have people treat you as an equal." In 1917, he was one of the first Socialists elected to the New York Board of Aldermen, the predecessor of today’s city council. As a politician and activist, he was passionate about housing rights for the poor and middle classes. He was a director of the Amalgamated Dwellings Corporation and in 1934, Mayor La Guardia made him a member of the New York City Housing Authority. Vladeck became ill at his Forward office on Friday October 28, 1938 and died two days later at home at 2 Horatio St., pictured above, at the age of 52. The Vladeck Houses public housing development, built in 1940, was named after him as was a merchant marine ship.