The facade of its long-time headquarters on East Broadway bore busts of Marx, Engels, and LaSalle; its masthead was once blazoned with the refrain from the Communist Manifesto, "Workers of the World, Unite!" But The Forward, newspaper of the great migration of Yiddish-speaking Jews to New York in the early Twentieth Century, has been through a lot since those glory days. Now it is embarked on yet a new course, and those whose affections it holds are watching with hope and apprehension.

Back in 1990 The Forward took the big step of publishing a weekly English-only edition alongside it's Yiddish edition. (Now it publishes a Russian language edition as well.) The Forward Association hired a bright and brash young member of The Wall Street Journal's editorial page, Seth Lipsky, to edit the English paper. It was an unconventional step: while Lipsky admires The Forward's socialist heritage, he shares some of The Journal's views on both tax and social issues. He is also an unabashed foreign policy and defense hawk, who sees a lot to admire both in Paul Wolfowitz and Ariel Sharon. Members of The Forward Association were flattered to have a rising journalistic star come to a paper that the Uptown crowd looked on as a somewhat awkward relic the past.

But some of Lipsky's enthusiasms also produced bouts of indigestion. One memorable episode was The Forward's 1993 challenge to Johnetta Cole, former President of Spelman College and, at the time, a key official in President- elect Clinton's transition team. It had been rumored that Dr. Cole was in line to be appointed Secretary of Education in the Clinton Cabinet. The Forward reported that Cole had been active in a number of groups that supported the Castro regime and in the pro-Soviet U.S. Peace Council. She never got an appointment, although few in the Clinton Administration were grateful that The Forward brought these matters to public attention.

Lipsky also made enemies with what he describes as "his innings" of conflict with AFL-CIO President John Sweeney (Lipsky was a fervent admirer of Lane Kirkland and AFL-CIO Cold War liaison Irving Brown) and his sniping at the peace efforts of "Barak the Bumbler."

By the summer of 2000 Lipsky found himself on shaky ground. Old timers from the "right" social democrats in The Forward Association were fading out, and new blood was rising into leadership that saw opportunities both in a softer stance on international and cultural issues and a revival of the anti-capitalism of The Forward's Golden Age. The editorial of May 26, 2000 was Lipsky's last, in which he wistfully recounted his belief that a synthesis may have been possible between the universalism of The Forward's socialist traditions and his own hard-edged Zionism.

Lipsky has since been replaced by J.J. Goldberg, son of the late Justice Arthur Goldberg, and a frequent contributor to Anglo-Jewish journals. Goldberg sees promise in another kind of synthesis: the reconstitution of an American Left that fractured during the Vietnam Era. Where Lipsky would argue that strains within the Left were inevitable in order for the U.S. to exploit the “New” high-tech and global economy and to win the Cold War, Goldberg would contend these strains were needlessly inflamed in ways that gave the Right unwarranted influence. Goldberg's editorials have described the Cold War as a "sterile rivalry"; he contends that those he calls "the Commentary crowd" ascribe too much influence to figures such as the Reverend Al Sharpton and the tenured radicals of the campus Left. He holds that European Social Democrats offer a model that Americans should try to follow.

Goldberg is also sharply critical of Israeli Prime Minister Sharon, and believes that a peace settlement can be had if Israel will pull back from the West Bank and the settlements to defensible borders. While he recognizes that some might interpret such a pull-back as evidence of Israel's weakness, he contends that Israel is strong enough to defend itself against any attempt to exploit that misperception. "Today Israel's foreign policy is one of keeping American Jews scared," he explains. "Many Israelis themselves want peace."

Goldberg's opportunities at The Forward are much brightened by reports that it soon may be richer by what The New York Times reports to be the princely sum of $80 to $90 million. That's what analysts say should be the amount eventually paid to The Forward Association by Disney/ABC for the lease and eventual sale of radio station WEVD (“Eugene Victor Debs”), which recently traded its homey talk shows and balalaika music for 24/7 ESPN sports broadcasting. With that kind of financial support, J.J. Goldberg and his backers may be able to conduct a real test of whether American Jewry can provide a critical base of support for a new New Left in the United States.

September 11 can hardly have been helpful to that purpose, nor are the on-going antics of Yassir Arafat. And while Tony Blair is still flourishing, the alliances the German SPD has made with Berlin's Communist Party—manqué and the fading Greens shows that “unity on the Left” has its problems in Europe. So far, the focus of the new Forward has been on what marketers call "strategic positioning" (definitely left of, and less hard-nosed than, Commentary, somewhat to the right of, and less fuzzy, than Tikkun). But the real challenges the social democratic tradition faces will require very careful and honest self-appraisal. Let's hope the new Forward will rise to them. (http://www.forward.com)

Waiting for Mr. Reich

Some social democrats may remember Otto Reich, former Ambassador to Venezuela. He was a supporter of democracy and free trade unionism who worked closely with the AFL-CIO's AIFLD, and later served on the Freedom House Board of Directors. Months ago President Bush nominated Otto Reich to be Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs. But the Senate Foreign Relations Committee has not had a vote or even a hearing to consider this nomination. An individual Senator--Christopher Dodd of Connecticut--has put a “hold” on Reich's nomination, evidently because of his energetic support for the Nicaraguan Resistance during his service in the Reagan years.

The ability of individual Senators peremptorily to block Executive Branch nominations strikes us as an abuse of democratic process and the Constitution. Republicans have often used it: Senator Helms blocked the appointment of capable Clinton-era figures such as Morton Halperin and Peter Romero. One little-appreciated effect of this informal Senatorial arrangement is the reinforcement it gives to a culture of conformity in the foreign affairs community. No one with aspirations ever wants to do anything that might pique even a single Senator.

Adrian Karatnycky, President of Freedom House, offers this observation: "The anti-Communists of Eastern Europe have left the issues of how to settle scores to the democratic political process. But here, what someone did back in the Cold War can still be used to settle scores in ways that have little bearing on the issues of today. That would seem strange to people in Poland, Hungary or the Czech Republic."

Muravchik's Heaven on Earth

Josh Muravchik may soon be coming up again for air: his new book about the idea of socialism and the luminaries who advanced it, "Heaven on Earth: The Rise and Fall of Socialsm" (Encounter Books), has gone to the printer, and should be available in a few months. We'll give readers of Notesonline a heads-up about how to order the book—-and our own impressions of Josh's always provocative approach--in a future issue.