Mark Zborowski

Born in Uman, Ukraine, Mark Zborowski studied anthropology at the University of Grenoble in France and immigrated to the United States in 1941. During the prior two decades, Zborowski had worked as a spy for the Soviet secret police (NKVD). In America, Zborowski worked for the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research before joining anthropologists Ruth Benedict and Margaret Mead on their Research in Contemporary Cultures project at Columbia University. Zborowski’s historical and ethnological expertise became central to the project’s goal of anthologizing Jewish life in Eastern Europe. His work alongside Elizabeth Herzog culminated in Life Is with People, which for decades after its publication remained among the most popular portraits of East European Jewry.