Isaac Bashevis Singer

Isaac Bashevis Singer was one of the great storytellers of the twentieth century. His writing is a unique blend of religious morality and social awareness combined with an investigation of personal desires. Though his work often took the form of parables or tales based on a nineteenth-century tradition, he was deeply concerned with the events of his time and the future of his people and their culture.

Isaac Bashevis Singer was born on July 24, 1904, in Radzymin, Poland. His parents were religious Jews and pushed him towards a career as a religious scholar. In 1921 he enrolled in Rabbinical School but left only two years later to work for a Yiddish literary magazine. Though his rabbinical studies would remain a strong influence on him, he longed to be a part of a literary community. 

As a journalist, translator, and proofreader, Singer began writing short stories on the side. By 1935 he had published his first book, SATAN IN GORAY (1935). That same year, Singer followed his brother, Isaac Joshua Singer, to America. Isaac Joshua Singer is considered one of the major Yiddish writers of the twentieth century and was the first and greatest literary influence on his younger brother Isaac. 

In New York, Isaac Bashevis Singer began working for THE JEWISH DAILY FORWARD, a Yiddish newspaper dedicated to issues of interest to its newly immigrated readership. During the 1940s, Singer published his work in a number of journals as well as serially in THE FORWARD. Throughout his career, Singer would continue to be a contributor and supporter of THE FORWARD, which remains in existence today as a weekly.

Throughout the 1940s, Singer’s reputation began to grow among the many Yiddish-speaking immigrants. After World War II and the near destruction of the Yiddish-speaking peoples, Yiddish seemed a dead language. Though Singer had moved to the United States, he believed in the power of his native language and knew that there was still a large audience that longed for new work, work that would address the lives and issues of their his. 

In 1950 Singer produced his first major work, THE FAMILY MOSKAT—the story of a twentieth-century Polish Jewish family before the war. He followed this novel with a series of well-received short stories, including his most famous, “Gimpel, The Fool.”

Though not primarily nostalgic, Singer’s work hearkened back to a former time. The setting for much of the work was his native Poland, and the writing addressed existential and spiritual questions through folk tales and parables. These works caught the attention of a number of American writers, including Saul Bellow and Irving Howe, who were greatly responsible for translating Singer’s work and championing it.