Shimshon Lemberger was born in Zamosc, Poland, immigrated to Palestine in 1933, and settled in Haifa. He worked as a concrete form maker for the Solel Boneh construction company, until he fell ill and switched to off ice work. At around 60 he began painting, when sheets of paper and a box of paints he had bought for his grandson remained unused. A room in his apartment was transformed into a studio, where he painted daily.

- The discovery -
Gershon Knispel, an artist and art consultant for Haifa Municipality since
1964, met Lemberger through a Haifa friend in the early 1970s. He encouraged him to keep painting, and made sure his works were exhibited.

- The work -
Initially, Lemberger created plaster reliefs which he painted; subsequently, he began working on canvas. In his paintings he tried to revive the shtetl from which he hailed-the Passover Seder, Matzah baking, the wedding dance, going to the heder, snow-covered streets, and local characters such as the seamstress and the cobbler. In addition, he created paintings after stories, such as Judah Loew ben Bezalel's (Maharal) The Golem of Prague and If Not Higher by I.L. Peretz (also a native of Zamosc). Painting gave him an opportunity to return to the long gone town and to the family he left behind, who did not survive the Holocaust. His memories are impressively detailed. His painterly language is engaging in its inventions, including a one-point perspective with a high horizon and a sharp entry into the depth. 

Over time he also began painting Haifa scenes, as meticulously depicted as his shtetl vistas. Growing older, he felt that he had said everything he had to say and ceased painting.