Forward

Forward, newspaper based in New York City that publishes both Yiddish and English versions.

The Forward was founded in 1897 by the Jewish Socialist Press Federation as a civic aid and a cohesive device for Jewish immigrants from Europe. It quickly became the leading Yiddish-language newspaper in the United States. Under the guidance of Abraham Cahan, who was its editor from 1903 to 1951, the paper combined conventional news coverage with a commitment to democratic socialism and Jewish trade unionism. The Forward carried columns on government, politics, and education while also providing English lessons and personal advice to its readers. A Bintel Brief, a popular advice column, provided guidance to American Jews about issues of assimilation, religion, and culture. The Forward also carried short stories and novels in serial form, most notably those of Isaac Bashevis Singer. At the height of its influence during World War I, the Forward had a daily circulation of more than 200,000 in 11 local and regional editions, but by the late 20th century its readership had greatly declined, and the paper was published only as a weekly. An English-language supplement to the paper began appearing in 1983, and a Russian-language version was published in 1995–2005.

In 1990 the Forward was wholly revamped, and the English-language supplement was expanded into an independent paper that covered events in modern Jewish spheres. In the following decades, the Forward gained influence as a liberal news source about issues related to Jewish life. The paper attained its highest English-language circulation as a printed newspaper in the early 2000s. Some of the English-language Forward’s notable work has included coverage of Iran’s political climate in 2015 as well as a breaking-news story in 2017 about connections between Sebastian Gorka, who was an adviser to U.S. Pres. Donald Trump, and a Nazi-allied organization. The Forward transitioned to an exclusively digital form in 2019, citing the need to better accommodate readers. Concurrently, the paper reduced its staff by about 30 percent. The Bintel Brief advice column was revived in 2020 to address 21st-century Jewish quandaries; it also became a podcast.