This archival Forward photo shows an eighteen-year-old Hermoine stumping for her father, at a youth rally, during his 1930 congressional campaign. Famous and local favorite Socialist politician Judge Jacob Panken, is seen here on the wall posters at Lower Manhattan’s Stuyvesant Casino. Born June 23, 1911, Hermoine Panken, the only child of Judge Panken and suffragist and Socialist politician Rachel Pallay was a child of Yiddish speaking parents who were progressive secular Jewish immigrants from Russia and Ukraine.

Panken spent part of her childhood on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, living at 200 East 10th St., across the street from the building pictured above.

In November of 1927, Hermoine made the papers when she and a fellow pollworker accused two inspectors of tampering with the election -- an election her father lost -- by repeatedly pulling down levers in voting booths and entering booths while voters were inside at the 201 Elizabeth St. polling place.

Public reactions to the inspectors’ acquittal made the front page of The Forward under the headline “Five Thousand Protest Tammany Swindle of Votes in Panken's District.” The Forward reported that a protest and open air meeting took place at P.S. no. 4 and spread out over an entire block of Rivington Street, seen above. “People kept flowing to the location, standing in the corridors and classrooms once the auditorium got full.” The paper also reported that Judge Panken’s wife Rachel addressed the crowd.

Panken attended Friends Seminary, seen above, and later Douglass College, the women’s college at Rutgers University. There she studied social work and also participated in glee club, singing soprano, the Pro and Con debating team and assisted with the University’s yearbook, The Quair. She also spent time studying abroad at the University of Grenoble in France. Besides English, Hermoine spoke French, German and some Yiddish.

As a social worker, Panken worked for the Department of Health as a social investigator. Her son, George Mokray, said that her job was investigating home situations for children or elders, making sure their living conditions were humane. During WWII, Panken was an aviation cadet in the Women's Army Corps. As the first contingents of WAC troops were deployed overseas, Panken was assigned to the 5th Army in Casablanca, Morocco, North Africa, in August of 1943. She left as a captain.

Panken married Edward S. Mokray on March 18, 1946. Her father, performed the ceremony at her parents’ home, 525 West End Ave, pictured above. The pair first met when they were both studying at the University of Grenoble in France. Years later, they reconnected, this time during WWII when Mokray was on leave from the army in New York and looked up Hermoine. Mokray had worked for his family’s real estate company before volunteering for the 10th army division, also known as the ski troops. After the war on the GI bill he studied engineering and architecture, working on municipal projects including the Albany airport and the New Jersey turnpike. He later worked on developing new technology for street signage.

As newlyweds, Hermoine and Edward lived in Lower Manhattan’s Stuyvesant Town Peter Cooper Village development. The couple had two children, Joan and George, and moved to Yonkers in the early 1950s. Around this time, Hermoine graduated from NYU School of Law but didn’t practice. Instead, she ran for Congress in 1958 and 1960 as a Democrat for New York’s District 27 under the name “Hermoine P. Mokray.” During her 1960 run, she told The New York Times that she drove a compact car that she said “represents what government should be — useful but without chrome.”

In 1970, Hermoine, along with her mother Rachel Pallay Panken and her son George Mokray, marched down Fifth Avenue as specially invited guests Gloria Steinem, in the Women's Strike for Equality. Rachel Pallay Panken was one of the veteran suffragettes -- winners of the fight to ratify the 19th Amendment in 1920 -- and was therefore personally invited to the demonstration by the strike’s organizers. Hermoine’s son George Mokray recalled that he and his mother marched together with Steinem, while the 91-year-old Rachel followed in a car. The Forward covered the excitement before the 10,000-marchers-strong demonstration -- which took place on August 26, the 50th anniversary of the women's voting rights amendment -- quoting march leader Betty Friedan. “We don't seek to riot but we will march down the entire width of Fifth Avenue from one sidewalk to the other.” The march went down Fifth Avenue from 59th Street to 42nd Street where a meeting was held at Bryant Park (pictured above). The Forward reported that the striking women demanded free abortions, child care and equal rights for employment and education and that many of the women marched with their children.

The paper also reported that there were simultaneous demonstrations at City Hall Park demanding an end to discrimination against women. Crowds reached around 1500 attendees including men and children. New York City’s Commissioner of Consumer Affairs, Bess Myerson addressed the crowds, warning that women will use their economic and political power to further their aims. New York’s Deputy Mayor, Richard Aurelio, officially declared it a day for women's equal rights. Smaller satellite marches were also held in cities and towns nationwide including Boston, Denver, San Francisco, Syracuse, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Los Angeles and others. In an editorial, Forward editor in chief Moyshe "Morris" Crystal sympathized with and even supported most of the women’s demands but also cautioned that the leadership of the women's movement “tends toward extremism.” He was particularly wary of the Equal Rights Amendment, claiming it would harm women by allowing them to be drafted and damage their rights in custody disputes. Crystal retired shortly after the editorial’s publication. Hermoine Panken Mokray died December 31, 1971.