Beginning in the mid-1930s, a number of young American Jewish women picked up cameras to photograph their urban world. They learned their craft at the New York Photo League (1936-1951), a largely Jewish left-wing school and camera club that not only taught photography but also encouraged a way of seeing the world through collaborative projects. Women at the league recognized the city's gendered practices even as they used their cameras to explore its streets. Several, such as Helen Levitt and Vivian Cherry, focused initially on children and their games, finding music, lyrics, and dance in their street performances. Others, such as Lee Sievan and Rebecca Lepkoff, hung around the city's poor neighborhoods, especially the Lower East Side, recording prosaic routines and uncovering grace in them. When viewed retrospectively, these photographs let us see intimacies of urban life through women's eyes at a time when gender constrained most women's gaze.

Deborah Dash Moore is Frederick G.L. Huetwell Professor of History and director of the U-M Frankel Center for Jewish Studies.