The thirteenth of sixteen children on the Lower East Side in 1909, Jacob's immediate family placed him in an orphanage when he was five years of age following the death of his father, a day laborer. At sixteen, living near the bustling seaport of Manhattan’s South Street and lured by the romanticism of the sea, he lied about his age and sailed out on the last of commercial sailing ships traveling the world as a merchant seaman. For nearly eleven years he sailed cargo schooners and oil tankers before once again making New York his home.

Lipkin studied art at The Cooper Union and The Art Student’s League eventually going on to exhibit with artists of the calibre of Louise Nevelson and Zorach in the 1950's. Between 1940 and 1979 Lipkin participated in over seventy group exhibitions at venues such as the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Pensylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Aududon Artists, and The Parrish Art Museum. During that same period he also exhibited his work in twenty-one one-man shows. A thirty-year retrospective of his work was held in Philadelphia in 1968 underwritten by the Provident National Bank.

Having lived in Babylon, Long Island, since the time when it had dirt roads, Jacob Lipkin’s one wish of his latter years was to have his home and sculpture garden preserved as a museum by the town. With that in mind he donated his property and sculptures to the township only to have the them rescind their promise two years later. Today there is no Lipkin museum in Babylon; his sculptures are scattered in museums and collections across the world. His works are in private collections and museums such as The Smithsonian in Washington, the Jewish Museum in New York, The Fogg Art Museum at Harvard, The Tel Aviv Museum, The New York Historical Society, and many others. Although adept in different media his special love was carving stone.