Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Culture

Judith Leiber, Handbag Queen, Was A Jewish Immigrant Success Story

Judith Leiber’s life was one long surprise: Intended by her parents to go into the cosmetics industry, she chose to pursue handbag design, becoming the first female member of the Hungarian Handbag Guild. She survived the Holocaust first by living in a one-bedroom Budapest apartment with 25 other Jews, then in a ghetto basement where she was one of 60 occupants.

After American forces arrived, she met and fell in love with a Jewish G.I., Gerson “Gus” Leiber; they married, and he whisked her off to New York.

Once there, she shortly swept fashionable society off its feet. After landing a position with the handbag department of designer Nettie Rosenstein, Leiber’s work became in-demand after Mamie Eisenhower arrived to her husband’s inaugural ball carrying a Leiber-designed bag.

Leiber, who turned 96 this past January, went independent in 1963, and her trademark jewel-encrusted designs remain fashionable today: In recent years, celebrities such as Blake Lively and Jennifer Lopez have been spotted carrying them on the red carpet.

Now, Leiber’s work is being honored through an exhibit at Manhattan’s Museum of Art and Design. The exhibit, “Judith Leiber: Crafting a New York Story,” tracks the history of Leiber’s company, from its 1963 founding to 2004, when Leiber designed her last handbag.

“She was an immigrant who created a flourishing business—a story that has political and social relevance, especially today,” said the exhibit’s curator, Samantha De Tillio, in a press release. See some of her most astonishing work, included in the exhibit, in the slideshow above.

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.