Yizkor (cover)

No biographical details are known about M. Loyb, who illustrated Yizkor: tsum ondenk fun di gefalene vekhter un arbeyter in erets-yisroel (Yizkor: In Memory of the Fallen Watchmen and Workers in the Land of Israel) (New York: Po‘ale Tsiyon, 1916). The book commemorates fallen Jewish guards and workers who were connected to Hashomer, the first Jewish defense organization in Palestine. Active in Palestine from 1909 to 1920, Hashomer was comprised primarily of Zionist socialist immigrants from the Russian Empire. Its members dressed in what they regarded as local garb and prided themselves on their riding skills; the figure on Loyb’s cover is meant to represent a Hashomer watchman.