The Hebrew Free School Association was established in New York City in 1865 with the opening of a day school teaching general and Jewish subjects on New York City's Lower East Side. After arguments were made against "separate education" for Jewish immigrant children, additional free schools in New York and elsewhere were established as supplementary programs for public school students. This picture shows students of the United Hebrew Free Schools of Detroit, Michigan, posing for a portrait with musical instruments and their visitor, Yiddish poet, playwright, composer, and folk singer Solomon Shmulewitz-Small (1868-1943), during the 1930s.

Institution: YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, Territorial Photographic Collection.