His father's preoccupation with religious devotion necessitated that Halpert sell Jewish newspapers, books and candy after school to help support the family.
At the Neighborhood Guild, later called University Settlement House, he met Jacob Epstein, who gave him his first instruction in drawing.
He and Man Ray studied under Robert Henri at the Ferrer Center and, in 1913, Halpert left to set up an artists' community in Ridgefield, New Jersey.
In 1915, Halpert returned to Europe and traveled to France, Spain, London and Portugal (Vila do Conde) with the Delaunays, whose abstract work had little influence on him.
during the summers of 1926 and 1927, the Halpert's rented a farmhouse at Perkins Cove in Ogunquit, Maine, an artist colony established by the critic and patron Hamilton Easter Field and frequented by Yasuo Kuniyoshi, Bernard Karfiol and Marguerite and William Zorach, among others.