It’s the seventh day of Passover, a yom tov, so today’s

“Forwarding the News” is a special edition prepared in advance.

THE FORWARD AT 125

I share a birthday with the Forward. So do a lot of other people and things.

On April 22, 1897, New York’s Lower East Side welcomed a new daily newspaper: the Forward. Its office was above a saloon.

Even though there was much to celebrate for that debut issue, the writers and editors and typesetters and secretaries likely didn’t imbibe that day. Because 125 years ago, as it does today, that date coincided with the seventh day of Passover.

I know this because, well, I have access to Google and a decent Internet connection – but also because I’m somewhat of an authority on April 22. Like, did you know that on this day in 1864, the U.S. Congress passed the Coinage Act, which allowed for the inscription of “In God We Trust” on all coins? Just imagine what life would be like without that: coins, with no mention of religion? In the United States of America?

I come by this expertise naturally: April 22 is also my birthday (1975). The fact that I was born on the same day as this newspaper was something I mentioned in my job interviews in a feeble attempt to impress my future bosses, as if my career aspirations were somehow astrologically predestined. It would’ve been enough that my Yiddish-speaking grandparents, immigrants from Ukraine and Russia, were avid readers of the Forward of yore. Dayeinu. But no, this was kismet, some would say bashert.

“It’s impossible to describe the joy,” recalled Elias Frank, one of 12 typesetters who helped put together that first issue of the Forward. “Personally, I started having palpitations.” Once I got the job, I could relate.

Of course, it should go without saying that my birth, and that of the Forward, were not the only major events in history to happen on April 22. We share a birthday with Jack Nicholson (1937). And also an American composer named Jack Nitzsche (also 1937!) who worked on the film score for Nicholson’s “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.” It’s also the birthday of Vladimir Lenin (1870).

Pope Alexander VIII was born on this day (1610). Strangely, it’s also the date that two other popes – Caius and Agapetus I – died (296 CE and 536 CE, respectively). Richard Nixon also died on this day in 1994. But I digress.

At precisely noon on this day in 1889, an estimated 50,000 people lined up to grab the 2 million acres that were available in the Oklahoma Land Rush. Within hours, the cities of Oklahoma City and Guthrie were formed. In 1945, at the Jasenovac concentration camp in Yugoslavia, the prisoners revolted and 80 escaped – that’s why today is Holocaust Remembrance Day in Serbia.

Today is also Earth Day, first established in 1970 – 73 years after the Forward’s birth and five years before mine. It’s tough sharing your birthday with, you know, the entire planet. But I guess it’s not as bad as my dad, a rabbi, who was born on Christmas.

Rita Levi-Montalcini, a Jewish Nobel Prize winner, was born on this day in 1909. On April 22, 2009, she became the first Nobel laureate to reach the age of 100. She was feted at Rome’s City Hall.

But wait, there’s more: Immanuel Kant, German philosopher (1782); J. Robert Oppenheimer, the father of the atomic bomb (1904); Aaron Spelling, producer of “Charlie’s Angels” and “Beverly Hills 90210” (1923); and Bettie Page, pinup model (1923); Estelle Harris, who played George Costanza’s mom on “Seinfeld and died this month (1928); John Waters, filmmaker (1946); Peter Frampton, guitarist (1950).

Ab Cahan, an idealistic young man from the shtetls of Vilna, arrived in America with big hopes and dreams. He founded the Forward that fateful April day when he was 36 (double chai!). His newspaper was the talk of the town, around pushcarts and in coffee shops. By the 1920s, it was selling 250,000 copies a day – more than The New York Times.

The Forward and his legacy lives on – with some 1.5 million online readers most months, in ever-evolving new formats like podcasts and this very newsletter. Our Yiddish section even has a TikTok account.

So, what would Cahan think of all this? Honestly, I have no clue. He was born on July 7.

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JOIN THE CONVERSATION

We’ve got special coverage and events planned to celebrate our quasquicentennial all year long. Next week, join Jodi Rudoren, our editor-in-chief, for a conversation about the Forward’s past, present and future with her three predecessors: Seth Lipsky, J.J. Goldberg and Jane Eisner.

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ALSO FROM THE FORWARD

Igal Roodenko, fifth from left in striped suit, with other members of the Journey of Reconciliation. (Courtesy)

Remembering the only Jew on the first Freedom Ride:It was 75 years ago this week that a group of Black and white activists journeyed across the South, buoyed by a 1946 Supreme Court decision barring segregation in interstate travel, to challenge local laws that still barred interracial seating on buses. Among them was Igal Roodenko, a Brooklyn-born botanist, pacifist and ardent Zionist; he received a 22-day prison term for participating. Our editor-at-large, Robin Washington, who made an award-winning documentary about that first ride, takes a look back at Roodenko’s life to mark the anniversary. Read the story ➤

Jews who are not from Ukraine are joining the fight to defend the country: Robert Zaretsky, a history professor, compares this to the legions who volunteered for service in the Spanish Civil War. About 10% of those volunteers were Jewish, including 1,000 mostly young and mostly idealistic men who joined the Abraham Lincoln Brigade. These volunteers “largely hailed from the Old World,” Zaretsky notes. “Many of them were already accustomed to packing their bags, having migrated westward across the continent to escape the pogroms and persecutions in the east.” Read the essay ➤

Mistaken for a right-wing media star, this Orthodox woman met a cyberbullying mob:Chaya is a common Jewish first name. Raichik is a common Jewish last name. This did not occur to hundreds of online vigilantes who went after the wrong woman, thinking she was the creator of an anonymous anti-LGBTQ Twitter account who was outed this week in The Washington Post. “I almost feel like I’m the sacrificial lamb,” she told our Louis Keene. Her parents’ address was posted online and she had to hire a security guard. She went from exasperated to frightened. Read the story ➤

Plus:

YOUR WEEKEND READS

We’ve prepared a free, printable magazine of our favorite stories from the week. In this edition: Nora Berman preps for her trip to Poland to take part in what is perhaps the final March of the Living with Holocaust survivors; Benjamin Ivry fetes Elaine May on her 90th birthday; Arno Rosenfeld reports on a celebrity cantor that found a new gig after sexual misconduct allegations; Mira Fox discovers why so much matzo is not kosher-for-Passover; and much more.

Download your copy now ➤

ON THE CALENDAR

On this day in history: Yehudi Menuhin, one of the greatest violinists of the 20th century, was born on April 22, 1916. Albert Einstein attended three of 13-year-old Menuhin’s performances in Berlin in 1929, the first of which inspired Einstein to remark, “Now I know there is a God.” The legacy of Menuhin’s illustrious career has been captured by recordings of his performances, including his takes on works with Jewish themes like Maurice Ravel’s “Kaddish.” Perhaps more complicated and confusing to interpret were Menuhin’s “intemperately voiced political views,” which included statements downplaying the significance of the Holocaust and criticizing Jews for antagonistic feelings toward Germany after World War II. Read more ➤

Last year on this day, we reported on a survey that found conservatives are more likely than liberals to hold antisemitic views.

On the Hebrew calendar, it’s the 21st of Nisan, the day the Bible says the Red Sea split.

PHOTO OF THE DAY

The painting in question: Camille Pissarro’s “Rue Saint-Honoré, dans l’après-midi. Effet de pluie” (Wikimedia)

For two decades, heirs to a German Jewish art dealer have been trying to get back a family painting looted by the Nazis during the Holocaust. On Thursday, the Supreme Court ruled in their favor, marking a tipping point for one of the longest-running looted art cases in American history. “Our ruling is as simple as the conflict over its rightful owner has been vexed,” wrote Justice Elena Kagan.

Read the news ➤

Read our special report about the case ➤

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Play today’s Vertl puzzle (aka the Yiddish Wordle)

Thanks to Kayla Cohen for contributing to today's newsletter.

You can reach the “Forwarding” team at [email protected].

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