"I found that I must paint those things that were meaningful to me—that I could honestly paint in the shapes and colors I felt belonged to them. What shall I paint? Stories."
—Ben Shahn
Ben Shahn was a Jewish immigrant from Lithuania and came to the United States as a child with his family. In addition to painting, Ben Shahn made photographs of the everyday scenes that surrounded him. This painting depicts a scene similar to those Shahn photographed to document the lives of Jewish immigrants in New York City. Here, the woman carrying a child wears clothing that suggests she follows the traditions of Orthodox Jewish immigrants. The Hebrew letters on the storefront glass read "Jewish books" and "holy day books," indicating the store’s specialized stock. Such bookstores served the community by providing texts written in Hebrew and prayer books for the observance of Jewish holy days. Shahn places the woman inside the shop's entrance, whose architectural lines imply that she finds shelter in Jewish faith.
