[The Bar Mitzvah of Michael Spiegel: Album 1]

The recent discovery of a two-volume bar mitzvah album, made in 1948 by Vishniac, indicates that in addition to his freelance work for various Jewish community and relief organizations in the 1940s, he photographed private Jewish events, such as the bar mitzvah of Michael Spiegel in Forest Hills, Queens.
Sonia and Sigmund Spiegel emigrated from Vienna to New York, via Havana, in December 1940 with their son Michael. They lived first in Manhattan, where their daughter Miriam was born, then moved to Forest Hills, Queens, in 1946. Michael Spiegel’s bar mitzvah service took place at Forest Hills Jewish Center, a conservative synagogue in Queens, followed by a party in the family home nearby. All 48 prints in the two albums were printed, arranged, mounted and signed by Vishniac. In 2012 Miriam Victory Spiegel donated the albums to ICP.