Marc Chagall was born Moishe Shagall in a Lithuanian Jewish Hassidic family in Liozna, near the city of Vitebsk (Belarus, then part of the Russian Empire) in 1887.
At the time of his birth, Vitebsk's population was about 66,000, with half the population being Jewish.
A picturesque city of churches and synagogues, it was called "Russian Toledo", after a cosmopolitan city of the former Spanish Empire.
As the city was built mostly of wood, little of it survived years of occupation and destruction during World War II.

Chagall was the eldest of nine children.
The family name, Shagal, is a variant of the name Segal, which in a Jewish community was usually borne by a Levitic family.
His father, Khatskl (Zachar) Shagal, was employed by a herring merchant, and his mother, Feige-Ite, sold groceries from their home.
His father worked hard, carrying heavy barrels but earning only 20 roubles each month (the average wages across the Russian Empire being 13 roubles a month).
Chagall would later include fish motifs "out of respect for his father", writes Chagall biographer, Jacob Baal-Teshuva.
Chagall wrote of these early years:
Day after day, winter and summer, at six o'clock in the morning, my father got up and went off to the synagogue.
There he said his usual prayer for some dead man or other.
On his return he made ready the samovar, drank some tea and went to work.
Hellish work, the work of a galley-slave.
Why try to hide it?
How tell about it?
No word will ever ease my father's lot... There was always plenty of butter and cheese on our table.
Buttered bread, like an eternal symbol, was never out of my childish hands.

One of the main sources of income of the Jewish population of the town was from the manufacture of clothing that was sold throughout the Russian Empire.
They also made furniture and various agricultural tools.
From the late 18th century to the First World War, the Imperial Russian government confined Jews to living within the Pale of Settlement, which included modern Ukraine, Belarus, Poland, Lithuania, and Latvia, almost exactly corresponding to the territory of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth recently taken over by Imperial Russia.
This caused the creation of Jewish market-villages (shtetls) throughout today's Eastern Europe, with their own markets, schools, hospitals, and other community institutions.

Chagall wrote as a boy; "I felt at every step that I was a Jew—people made me feel it".
During a pogrom, Chagall wrote that: "The street lamps are out.
I feel panicky, especially in front of butchers' windows.
There you can see calves that are still alive lying beside the butchers' hatchets and knives".
When asked by some pogromniks "Jew or not?",
Chagall remembered thinking: "My pockets are empty, my fingers sensitive, my legs weak and they are out for blood.
My death would be futile.
I so wanted to live".
Chagall denied being a Jew, leading the pogromniks to shout "All right!
Get along!"

Most of what is known about Chagall's early life has come from his autobiography, My Life.
In it, he described the major influence that the culture of Hasidic Judaism had on his life as an artist.
Chagall related how he realised that the Jewish traditions in which he had grown up were fast disappearing and that he needed to document them.
Vitebsk itself had been a centre of that culture dating from the 1730s with its teachings derived from the Kabbalah.
Chagall scholar Susan Tumarkin Goodman describes the links and sources of his art to his early home:
Chagall's art can be understood as the response to a situation that has long marked the history of Russian Jews.
Though they were cultural innovators who made important contributions to the broader society, Jews were considered outsiders in a frequently hostile society... Chagall himself was born of a family steeped in religious life; his parents were observant Hasidic Jews who found spiritual satisfaction in a life defined by their faith and organized by prayer.

Chagall was friends with Sholom Dovber Schneersohn, and later with Menachem M. Schneerson.
Marc Chagall was born Moishe Shagall in a Lithuanian Jewish Hassidic family in Liozna, near the city of Vitebsk (Belarus, then part of the Russian Empire) in 1887. At the time of his birth, Vitebsk's population was about 66,000, with half the population being Jewish. A picturesque city of churches and synagogues, it was called "Russian Toledo", after a cosmopolitan city of the former Spanish Empire. As the city was built mostly of wood, little of it survived years of occupation and destruction during World War II.
Chagall was the eldest of nine children. The family name, Shagal, is a variant of the name Segal, which in a Jewish community was usually borne by a Levitic family. His father, Khatskl (Zachar) Shagal, was employed by a herring merchant, and his mother, Feige-Ite, sold groceries from their home. His father worked hard, carrying heavy barrels but earning only 20 roubles each month (the average wages across the Russian Empire being 13 roubles a month). Chagall would later include fish motifs "out of respect for his father", writes Chagall biographer, Jacob Baal-Teshuva. Chagall wrote of these early years:
Day after day, winter and summer, at six o'clock in the morning, my father got up and went off to the synagogue. There he said his usual prayer for some dead man or other. On his return he made ready the samovar, drank some tea and went to work. Hellish work, the work of a galley-slave. Why try to hide it? How tell about it? No word will ever ease my father's lot... There was always plenty of butter and cheese on our table. Buttered bread, like an eternal symbol, was never out of my childish hands.
One of the main sources of income of the Jewish population of the town was from the manufacture of clothing that was sold throughout the Russian Empire. They also made furniture and various agricultural tools. From the late 18th century to the First World War, the Imperial Russian government confined Jews to living within the Pale of Settlement, which included modern Ukraine, Belarus, Poland, Lithuania, and Latvia, almost exactly corresponding to the territory of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth recently taken over by Imperial Russia. This caused the creation of Jewish market-villages (shtetls) throughout today's Eastern Europe, with their own markets, schools, hospitals, and other community institutions.
Chagall wrote as a boy; "I felt at every step that I was a Jew—people made me feel it". During a pogrom, Chagall wrote that: "The street lamps are out. I feel panicky, especially in front of butchers' windows. There you can see calves that are still alive lying beside the butchers' hatchets and knives". When asked by some pogromniks "Jew or not?", Chagall remembered thinking: "My pockets are empty, my fingers sensitive, my legs weak and they are out for blood. My death would be futile. I so wanted to live". Chagall denied being a Jew, leading the pogromniks to shout "All right! Get along!"
Most of what is known about Chagall's early life has come from his autobiography, My Life. In it, he described the major influence that the culture of Hasidic Judaism had on his life as an artist. Chagall related how he realised that the Jewish traditions in which he had grown up were fast disappearing and that he needed to document them. Vitebsk itself had been a centre of that culture dating from the 1730s with its teachings derived from the Kabbalah. Chagall scholar Susan Tumarkin Goodman describes the links and sources of his art to his early home:
Chagall's art can be understood as the response to a situation that has long marked the history of Russian Jews. Though they were cultural innovators who made important contributions to the broader society, Jews were considered outsiders in a frequently hostile society... Chagall himself was born of a family steeped in religious life; his parents were observant Hasidic Jews who found spiritual satisfaction in a life defined by their faith and organized by prayer.
Chagall was friends with Sholom Dovber Schneersohn, and later with Menachem M. Schneerson.
Marc Chagall