The Forward has published a special section for its new March 25 issue to commemorate and honor the 100th anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire. The section features the first-ever translations of the Jewish Daily Forward’s original Yiddish coverage of the event, including the front page of March 25, 1911, the day of the fire, stories about the heroes of the fire, and Editor Abe Cahan’s editorials about the tragedy.
The special section also includes an original essay from David Von Drehle, author of Triangle: The Fire That Changed America, as well as the winners of its Triangle Fire Poetry Contest, a prize poetry contest that the Forward held earlier this year to elicit submissions for both an English and Yiddish poem to honor the poetry of Morris Rosenfeld who documented the fire at the time and to reflect upon the fire’s meaning and legacy. The winner of the English poem was Zackary Sholem Berger of Baltimore, Md and the winner of the Yiddish section was Alec (“Leyzer”) Burko of New York City.
Lastly, another neat part of the section is a video tour featuring Chris Connor, a retired NYC fire marshal who visits the current building where the Triangle Fire took place (now a part of NYU’s campus) to document what went wrong on that fateful day.
