About The Forward Association
The Forverts is a legendary name in American journalism and Jewish life. Launched as a Yiddish-language newspaper on April 22, 1897, the Forverts(Jewish Daily Forward) fought for social justice, helped generations of immigrants to enter American life, broke some of the most significant news stories of the century, and eloquently defended democracy and Jewish rights. Under the leadership of its founding editor, the charismatic Abraham Cahan, the Forverts embodied the voice of the Jewish immigrant.
By the early 1930s the Forverts had become one of America's premier metropolitan dailies, with a nationwide circulation topping 275,000 and influence that reached around the world and into the Oval Office. Thousands more listened regularly to the Forward's Yiddish-language radio station, WEVD. The newspaper's editorial staff included, at one time or another, nearly every major luminary in the then-thriving world of Yiddish literature, from the beloved "poet of the sweatshops," Morris Rosenfeld, to Sholem Asch, Avrom Reisin, and the future Nobel laureates Isaac Bashevis Singer and Elie Wiesel. In 1983 the Forverts cut back to a weekly publishing schedule. The Forverts today continues to serve as the primary publishing vehicle in the world for younger and more established Yiddish writers. Since he was appointed editor in 1998, Boris Sandler has again transformed the Forverts into an internationally acclaimed paper and web site - http://yiddish.forward.com/ - that attracts readers in many countries with its high standard of political and cultural analysis. A younger editorial staff and regular contributors have helped energize and modernize the publication. The staff of the Forverts also produces a weekly one-hour Yiddish radio newsmagazine (broadcast in New York City and streamed on the paper's web site to make it available worldwide) and publishes "Vayter," a 4-page monthly newspaper for students of Yiddish.
In 1990, the Forward Association launched an English-language Forward parallel to the Forverts as an independent weekly newspaper committed to covering the Jewish world with the same crusading journalistic spirit as Cahan's Jewish Daily Forverts. The new Forward quickly established itself as a fearless and indispensable source of news and opinion on Jewish affairs. The Forward is committed to incisive, hard-hitting reportage while returning to the populist, progressive spirit that was the Forward's hallmark in its early years. If the old Forverts served American Jews eager to make America fully their home, the new Forward provides this generation a way to reconnect to a set of perspectives, to ways of understanding their family lives, their communal and spiritual concerns, their place in the politics and culture and media of the global village, that they can still recognize as inflected with Yidishkayt. We treasure our independence, of perspective and organization, even our financial independence, as the essential precondition for fearless journalism. That kind of journalism is harder and harder to sustain today, in America and in the Jewish world, but is ever more necessary to an informed and engaged public.
Both the Forward and the Forverts have a strong web presence. Our website, www.forward.com, the winner of the 2007 Web Marketing Award for Best Newspaper Website, is updated frequently - with its launch, we have returned to our roots as a daily publication. Increasingly interactive, with web-exclusive features, the Forward online is much more than the print version of the weekly Forward.
The Yiddish paper section of the website provides access not only to the current edition of the Forverts, but also to Vayter, the publication created for Yiddish students in the classroom as well as our weekly radio program, which is broadcast live in the New York City metro area.
To mark our 110th Anniversary in 2007, we have published the critically-acclaimed A Living Lens: Photographs of Jewish Life from the pages of The Forward.
As the governing entity that owns and publishes the Forward newspapers, the Forward Association is responsible for the policies, assets, and budget of the Forward newspapers. Its 76 members elect an 11-member board of directors who bear the actual fiduciary responsibilities. The members of the Association serve on its eight standing committees (Audit, Compensation, Budget, Development, Editorial Review, Grants, Investment Policy, and Nominating and Membership.) They elect the Executive Director of the Association, and their approval is needed to confirm the Executive Director's choice of editor of the Forverts and the Forward.
The Forward Association, now in our second century, seeks to strengthen itself with new members who share our commitment to peoplehood, to Yiddish culture, to social and economic justice. We have never broken our links to the past, to the struggles, hopes, and dreams of our immigrant forebears; we look forward with the same confidence that they had in themselves, their children, their culture, and their future in America.