David Ben Bekker (1897-1956) was born Ben Menachem in Poland. He studied at the Bezalel School for Arts and Crafts in Jerusalem and at the Antokolsky School in Vilna.
Issachar Ber Ryback (1897-1935) was born in Elisavetpol, Ukraine, and studied at Kiev Academy. He exhibited for the first time in 1915 at the Kiev Spring Exhibition.
The subject of this portrait was the first Jew to graduate from Yale University.
Sigmund Waterman (1819-1899) was born in Bruck near Erlangen, in Bavaria, Germany. He studied in the University of Erlangen before emigrating in 1840 to America, where he settled in New Haven.