LEON IZRAEL

LEON IZRAEL (December 12, 1887-January 12, 1955)

Born in Pinsk, he was a painter and caricaturist.  He studied in religious schools as well as in a Russian school.  He came to the United States in 1905.  In 1909 he published, using the pseudonym Lolo, his first caricature—of Yankev Gordin in Der groyser kundes (The great prankster).  He later contributed work as a draftsman for various newspapers and journals.  In his last years, he was the regular caricaturist for the Forverts (Forward).  He illustrated a number of Yiddish books.  In 1953 he published an album of eighty pictures, Di amoliker ist said in bilder (The East Side of the past in pictures) with a forward by Dovid Einhorn.  A number of his caricatures were reprinted in English periodical publications.  In 1912 he received an award from the national artists academy in New York.

Source: Hilel Rogof, Der gayst fun forverts (The spirit of the Forverts) (New York, 1954), p. 261.