Harkening back to his Jewish roots, Gropper published in 1970 a series of twenty-four color lithographs on Jewish village life called The Shtetl. This series was purchased with the Peter Graham Fund for Radicalism in Literature and Art. Gropper had these remarks on his artwork:
I react to life and it's a stimulant to me. It could be a phase, it could be an attitude, it could be a mood. It's broad. I'm open for any little thing, but I am of a period. I come from a sort of humanistic element. I love people and when I draw or paint, it comes out
