This is an image of the front page of the first issue of the Forward. Published on April 22, 1897, the Jewish Daily Forward rapidly grew and quickly became the most widely read Jewish news source anywhere. By the 1920s, this Yiddish-language daily had more readers than the New York Times. With rigorous reporting, incisive editorials and powerful commentary, the Forward chronicled the events that affected immigrants eager to earn their place in American life.

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.

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 laborers, outside of their preoccupation with the daily struggle for bread. Cahan was the first intellectual activist to address the working masses in the Lower East Side’s meeting halls in Yiddish. This picture appeared on the front page of the paper’s 30th anniversary edition in 1927.

This 1897 photograph of the composing room staff was taken at 14 Duane Street, in the since-demolished original Forward headquarters. Several children are among the workers, a testimony to accepted child labor practices at the time. One of the boys, Sam “Steamer” Kulchinsky, worked at the Forward for 40 years, eventually leading the mailing department. In those early years, type was set by hand by a dozen typesetters who earned a penny per line. As writers finished their articles, the typesetters grabbed the handwritten copy and got to work. Later, after the introduction of linotype machines, typesetters used a keyboard similar to a typewriter and lead letters were created one after the next, creating lines of type.

Bundled to keep warm, this woman stands with a pile of Forward and other newspapers to sell on the Lower East Side. Here we see that selling newspapers was not just a job for the “newsies,” the street-smart, impoverished child laborers who hawked them on the streets. It was a rough-and-tumble game, with vendors zealously guarding their territory. East Broadway was hub for Yiddish papers, though they were widely sold throughout the City.

Readers of the Forward looked to the paper for important news. Here, a large group gathers at the corner of Essex and Delancey Streets to read the Forward’s reporting that the Second World War had ended.