• 45,000 works of art
• Castles
• Estates
• Cash
• Assets worth $250 million at the time — equal to several billion dollars today

Picasso was likely the wealthiest artist in history, a multimillionaire long before his death.

And yet… he lived like a poor man.

He wore simple striped shirts.
Ate modest Mediterranean meals.
Worked in cluttered, dusty rooms filled with canvases and chaos.

One of his most famous lines sounds like a paradox:
“I wanted to live like a poor man — with lots of money.”

But it wasn’t a contradiction.
It was a strategy.

In the mindset of the average person, wealth means complication:
gold-plated toilets, huge mansions, luxury cars.
But houses require upkeep.
Yachts require a crew.
Status comes with endless social obligations.

Wealth, instead of creating freedom, often creates chains.
It demands attention.

When skyscrapers began blocking the view from his villa in Cannes (La Californie), Picasso didn’t sue, complain, or fight the developers.
He simply called his agent and bought another home —
the Château of Vauvenargues, an empty, quiet castle with bare walls perfect for his paintings.
No parties. No extravagance. Just space and silence.

To him, “living like a poor man” meant having as few obligations as possible.
A poor man doesn’t waste time maintaining assets — because he has none.

Picasso used money to eliminate survival stress,
but kept the simple lifestyle of someone who owns little —
so he could focus on his work.

He wasn’t an ascetic.
He simply understood a truth most people never learn:

Everything you own demands a piece of your attention.
And attention was his most precious resource.

We often confuse “standard of living” with “standard of consumption.”
For Picasso, his true standard of living was measured by the hours he could spend painting, uninterrupted by the administrative chaos that great wealth usually brings.

He used capital to build a bubble around himself —
a bubble where he could create.

In today’s Instagram era, success means showing off.

But Picasso believed real wealth isn’t the size of your possessions —
it’s the minimum amount of attention those possessions demand from you.

It’s not about how much you have.
It’s about how little of your life it consumes.

Brought to you by David Dor

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Exciting news! Today, President Biden and EPA Administrator Michael Regan announced stringent new limits on climate pollution from power plants. These standards are part of a suite of federal tools that the administration will use to help our country meet our recent climate commitments.

Thank President Biden and EPA Administrator Regan and urge them to finish the job and finalize the strongest climate pollution standards possible.

Today’s announcement — federal limits on climate pollution from power plants — means we will have yet another tool to help meet our goal for a safe and habitable planet for the future. While frontline and fenceline communities have borne the increasing burdens of the climate crisis, power plants have been allowed to pump deadly carbon dioxide pollution into the air we breathe and the planet we call home with nearly no federal limits — until now.

The continued use or expansion of fossil power plants is incompatible with a livable future. Simply put, we must not merely limit the use of fossil fuel electricity: we must end it entirely. Sierra Club will continue to fight for a rapid transition to clean energy to protect communities and the environment. So as the EPA takes comments from the public on this proposal, we will demand these protections be as strong as possible, and that fenceline communities have the same access to clean air as the rest of the country.

Tell President Biden and Administrator Regan that you support making these protections for our climate as strong as possible! Don’t forget to personalize your message to have the greatest impact.

But we know the work to confront the climate crisis doesn’t stop at strong carbon pollution standards.

Over the last two years, President Biden’s EPA has proposed new limits on pollution from heavy trucks and cars, tightened soot standards, limits on hazardous air pollutants like mercury, and safeguards against methane pollution from oil and fracked gas equipment, and more.

In the coming weeks, fossil fuel companies and their political allies will use every dirty polluter trick in the book to convince the public to oppose these common sense standards. They’re afraid this will reduce their record-breaking profits, hold them accountable for their pollution, and encourage utilities to switch to renewables.

What these polluters won’t tell you is that strong limits on carbon emissions are not only possible, but they can also lower energy bills as we adopt cheap and abundant clean energy and create new jobs.

It’s absolutely necessary that our country not only meet the emission reduction goals that EPA’s standards would achieve, but actually surpass them to save the planet. So as our opponents try to divide us, it’s even more important that we organize and fight for these protections.

The fight for a livable planet and stable climate will take all of us. Ultimately, President Biden and Administrator Regan will make the final decision on how strong these final protections will be.

Send a personalized message today to show them the public supports the strongest possible climate pollution standards to protect our communities.

Yours in the climate movement,

Ben Jealous
Executive Director
Sierra Club

P.S. Want to take other actions to protect our climate? Submit a public comment for other recent EPA pollution standards — including reducing pollution from heavy-duty trucks, cars and vans, and curbing mercury and other air toxics from power plants.

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In September 2008, the company changed it’s name from the R.A.B. Food Group to the Manischewitz Company, under which it operates today.

It all started with Rabbi Dov Behr

The B. Manischewitz Company, LLC traces its beginnings back to the spring of 1888, when Rabbi Dov Behr Manischewitz opened a small Matzo bakery in Cincinnati, Ohio.

A humble beginning

It was largely from his spiritual concerns that he set out to make matzo or unleavened bread for Passover, first for his family and a few friends, but soon for many of the devout Jews of the city. His bakery soon evolved into a successful business, innovative and prosperous––though never inattentive to the spiritual needs of its customers.

From small bakery to booming business

By the end of the century, demand for his matzo had become so great that Rabbi Manischewitz turned to the use of gas-fired ovens, replacing the older coal stoves being used by other Jewish bakers. The newer ovens allowed for much more careful control of the baking speed, insuring a consistent and standard quality to the matzos.
He also introduced portable traveling-tunnel ovens, and was the first to package his matzos for shipment to places beyond the immediate neighborhood of his bakery. He even began shipping his matzos overseas, to such diverse places as England, Japan, France, Hungary, Egypt and New Zealand. His bright, clean bakery would become a model for future kosher bakeries, both in America and abroad.

Matzo on the move

In 1932, the company built a second factory. Located in Jersey City, New Jersey, the plant quickly became the model for all new machine-made matzo bakeries worldwide. Closer to a much larger Jewish population than that of Cincinnati, the new factory also made distribution of the company’s product more efficient and quickly enlarged its customer base. The Manischewitz label was soon dominant in ethnic grocery stores and delicatessens in the larger East Coast cities. Thanks to the technology and efficiency of the New Jersey factory, Manischewitz was able to close down the Cincinnati facility altogether.

Same quality, more quantity

In 1940, Manischewitz produced its first Tam Tam cracker. It signaled the initial departure from its line of matzo products. About the same time, in a licensing arrangement, Manischewitz wines began to be sold throughout the country.
In 1954, the company purchased a processing plant located in Vineland, New Jersey. The Vineland facility, which has now ceased operations, manufactured all of the company’s canned and jarred products, including old familiar favorites like gefilte fish, chicken soup and borscht. The plant was primarily a hand-pack processing operation stressing careful attention to quality and flexibility. Workers there packed about 2,000,000 lbs. of fish and 1,000,000 lbs. of beets each year.

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