In 1990, the former Wall Street Journal editorialist Seth Lipsky created The Forward, a weekly English-language newspaper that was intended to carry on in the spirit of The Jewish Daily Forward, a paper that was founded in 1897 and became central to the Yiddish-speaking community of New York in the early 1900s. Like its predecessor, The Forward focused primarily on Jewish affairs. But Mr. Lipsky’s inspired editorship made it a paper that was read and respected far outside the Jewish community. On any number of issues, from Israel to U.S. foreign policy to the achievements of the Giuliani administration, one could turn to The Forward and be sure of finding well-informed, intelligent reporting conveyed in lively, no-nonsense prose. The Forward has had no party-line except an ingrained suspicion of party-lines.

All that is about to change. Mr. Lipsky’s editorial inde ...

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