Pauline Newman stared out the New York City factory window at the East River. She could see kids her age playing in a park as she worked alongside fellow Jewish immigrant children. Their labor was dangerous and, it seemed, inescapable for poor youngsters like themselves in the early 20th century. However, Newman did escape and turned her life’s work into fighting the reality she encountered in the United States. Born in Lithuania, she became a pioneering young activist in her adopted homeland. Leading strikes on behalf of impoverished tenants and factory workers, she helped swell the ranks of unions, while becoming an ally of national labor advocates such as Frances Perkins and Eleanor Roosevelt. Meanwhile, she had a hidden relationship with her longtime partner and fellow labor activist, Frieda Miller, and helped Miller raise her daughter Elisabeth.…