With the influx of Jews from Central and Eastern Europe many members of the Jewish community were attracted to labor and socialist movements and numerous Jewish newspapers such as Forwerts and Morgen Freiheit had a socialist or communist orientation.
Liberal Jewish Americans were not just involved in nearly every important social movement, but in the forefront of promoting such issues as workers rights, civil rights, woman's rights, gay rights, freedom of religion, freedom from religion, peace movements, and various other progressive causes.