Great Synagogue in Bialystok

... Benn is the descendant of a prominent family in Bialystok: his grandfather was a rabbi in Nowarodok. His father, Szloyme Jakow Rabinowicz, was a distin- guished architect who designed, among other buildings, the Great Synagogue in Bialystok. Already as a youth of fifteen, Benn drew and painted portraits of those around him. Later, he gained recognition from a wide variety of Jews in Bialystok, painting leading Jewish figures. When the Habimah appeared in town for the first time, in 1926, Benn did portraits of the entire com- pany. Every year afterward, he became more famous as a portrait artist. ...