[Woman in entryway, Satu Mare]

This recently discovered vintage print includes an annotation in Vishniac’s hand, “Satu Mare,” referencing the town that is the seat of the Satmar Hasidic sect. Significantly, Vishniac’s photograph captures a relatively secular subject—a young woman in modern dress and hairstyle smiling directly at the photographer—in a town commonly associated with the most rigid observance of ultra-Orthodox Jewish practices. Although this is the only identified image of Satu Mare by Vishniac, it is likely that he took more than one shot during his visit, and that the archive contains other negative frames awaiting identification. This image and others like it contribute to a more nuanced understanding of the prevalence and intermixing of secular life in observant communities in Eastern Europe prior to World War II.