The early documentary photographer Sol Libsohn was born in Harlem, the son of East European immigrants. Self-taught, he went to work for the Works Progress Administration in the 1930s, recording the lives of New Yorkers struggling during the Great Depression. In 1936, he was one of the cofounders of the Photo League, a group of left-wing photographers, most of whom were Jewish, who were committed to documenting everyday urban subjects and ordinary American lives.
Why should I take it to heart
I have new things on my mind,
Imagination that helps me to forget at times.
Why should I take it to heart
I have so much before that to love,
I always have friends…
Alfons Himmelreich created Land is Life as a cover for the May 1940 issue of the magazine A Land in Construction, a publication of the Jewish National Fund. He accepted the commission as an act of…
“Cookalein” is a story from Will Eisner’s graphic novel, A Contract with God and Other Tenement Stories. The “cookalein” (or kuchalein, “cook for yourself”) was a popular and affordable type of…