Menachem Kipnis (1878–1942) was one of the early twentieth-century’s greatest Jewish eastern European ethnomusicologists, folklorists, and photographers. He had a weekly column in the Warsaw Yiddish newspaper Haynt, retelling humorous old folk stories about the fictional Polish town of Chelm, populated exclusively by fools. At the same time, his photographs of Jewish life in eastern Europe regularly appeared in the Forverts (Forward), the most popular Yiddish daily newspaper in the United States. Now, for the first time, Kipnis’s stories and photographs are published together in a single book.

Menachem Kipnis brings these photographs and stories into dialogue with one another, bridging the Jewish communities in Poland and in America during the interwar period. This dialogue, between image and text, between European metropolis and American metropolis, captures a key historical moment when American Jews sought to imagine the lives of their coreligionists in the “Old Country” and eastern European urban Jews sought to distinguish themselves from their Jewish compatriots who were still living in the shtetl. Including an introductory essay, annotations, and an epilogue by Sheila E. Jelen, Menachem Kipnis suggests new ways of understanding both visual and literary depictions of eastern European Jewish culture between the two world wars.

Women’s rights activism and the reformation of the legal thought in early twentieth-century Poland were deeply intertwined—sometimes contradictory, yet mutually dependent—shaping debates around the 1932 abortion law and challenging traditional views on female sexuality and motherhood. Set against political transformation, economic hardship, and societal pressure, this book explores the clash between liberal “moral reform” ideas and the ideal of the “traditional” Polish family. Through individual stories from rural Suwalki county, it reveals how precarity, gender roles, and state expectations influenced women’s choices, with abortion often serving as necessary healthcare and survival. Rich in legal case studies, it offers scholars and readers a comprehensive overview of interwar sexuality debates and timely reflections on how these issues resonate today. This interdisciplinary work highlights the enduring impact of the male gaze in decisions affecting women’s lives.