Singer, Israel Joshua (1893-1944)

Polish-born US writer who emigrated to New York in 1934. There he wrote novels depicting the conflict between European and American cultures, as in The Family Carnovsky (1943). A master of the Yiddish tradition in America, he is credited for paving the way for his younger brother, Isaac Bashevis Singer.

He was born in Bilgoray, Poland. He and his family moved to Warsaw in 1908, and he was educated to become a rabbi. By the age of 18 he left home and lived a secular life. He held a series of odd jobs, and studied science, language, mathematics, painting, and writing. During World War I he was conscripted into the Russian army, and worked at forced labour during the German occupation in 1915. He moved to Kiev, Russia, where he worked as a proofreader for a Jewish newspaper, and wrote stories and plays before returning to Warsaw in 1921. His novel, The Sinner (1933), was well received in America.