Singer contributed to the European Yiddish press from 1916. In 1919, he and his wife Genia went to Ukraine, where he found work on a newspaper, The New Times, and was considered one of the "Kiev Writers". Then they moved to Moscow, where he published articles and stories. After two hard years, in 1921, they returned to Warsaw. In 1921, after Abraham Cahan noticed his story Pearls, Singer became a correspondent for the American Yiddish newspaper The Forward. His short story Liuk appeared in 1924, illuminating the ideological confusion of the Bolshevik Revolution. He wrote his first novel, Steel and Iron, in 1927. In 1934 he emigrated to the United States to write for The Forward. The scenes where Nissan and Max collide are among the best in the book. Nissan is the only person who can honestly tell Max where to get off. Even when Max talks sense about the economic realities of capitalism (e.g. the profit motive as a driver of innovation and investment), Nissan knows just how to reject him. When Max tries to make nice to Nissan (in his own self-interest, of course), Nissan's rejoinder is devastating in its directness and simplicity.

He was born Yisruel Yehoyshye Zinger, the son of Pinchas Mendl Zynger, a rabbi and author of rabbinic commentaries, and Basheva Zylberman. He was the brother of the author Isaac Bashevis Singer and novelist Esther Kreitman. He married Genia Kupferstok. His eldest son, Yasha, died at 14 of pneumonia before the family's emigration to America. His younger son, Joseph Singer, was the translator for both his father's works and his uncle's, Isaac Bashevis Singer. Joseph, a painter and writer like his father, married June Flaum Singer, who went on to become a writer. They had four children: Sharon Salinger, Brett Singer, I.J. Singer and Valerie Singer. The three daughters followed in the family business and are also published poets and novelists. It is all but required, when intro­duc­ing the Yid­dish writer I(srael) J(oshua) Singer, to iden­ti­fy him as the old­er broth­er of the Yid­dish writer I(saac) B(ashevis) Singer. It was, of course the younger Singer broth­er who would go on to gar­ner the first and only Nobel prize award­ed to a Yid­dish writer. The rep­u­ta­tion­al asym­me­try between the broth­ers Singer is very unfair to Israel, and more than a lit­tle iron­ic. While the two broth­ers lived, it was Israel Joshua (1893 – 1944) who was famous, while Isaac (1902 – 1991) lan­guished dark­ly in his inter­nal con­tra­dic­tions and old­er brother’s shad­ow. The irony is height­ened when the occa­sion for the intro­duc­tion is the wel­come reis­sue of I. J. Singer’s The Broth­ers Ashkanazi. A very powerful story has been seized upon by a very powerful story-teller Singer has a stirring gift of narrative; he always writes with verve, sometimes with intensity; his book has magnitude and color and, as it were, a consciousness of its weighty theme. Attorno a questi due fratelli sono descritti i dilemmi degli ebrei dell’epoca: su che valori basare la propria vita? Dedicarsi agli affari e dimenticarsi delle tradizioni religiose dei padri o restare legati alla tradizione? Nel romanzo il flusso narrativo è inarrestabile: il vecchio sostituisce il nuovo, Marx prende il posto del Talmud; la giacca corta e le guance rasate sostituiscono la gabbana e i cernecchi. Si trova il modo di aggirare la legge religiosa che impedisce agli ebrei di lavorare il sabato. Trionfa l’individualismo assoluto.Unsurprisingly then, it is through Simha's world of schemes, jealousy and manipulation (representing the pejorative stereotype of European Jewry), that Singer chooses to present his rather skeptical critique of bourgeois Jewish life in Eastern Europe.Upon abandoning his devotion to religious study, Simha Meir soon becomes a leading figure in Łódź. Through marrying the daughter of a successful German weaver – Heinz Huntze – he gains a foothold in the weaving industry. I.J. Singer’s literary influence on his younger brother Isaac was profound, despite the differences in their styles and temperaments. He has been called the last of the 19th-century novelists, a writer of long family sagas in the realistic manner, in contrast to I.B. Singer, who, although capable of writing novels in that vein ( The Family Moskat, The Manor), is regarded primarily as a master in the realm of fantasy and in the form of the short story or moral fable. This is a historical novel about Jews in Poland, the Industrial Revolution, and the beginnings of Communism. Moreover, it is a story about a man doing what he does best and chasing false idols, ideologies, and glory; Max longs to be called the King of Łódź, and his figure is partly modeled on Izrael Poznański. [2] See also [ edit ]

The Brothers Ashkenazi is a historical novel that provides a literary rendering of the industrial revolution, political upheavals, and social conflicts in the Polish city of Lodz in a time spanning from the second half of the 19th century through to the first quarter of the 20th century. The story is told from the perspective of the Jewish community by following the life stories of two brothers, Max and Jacob. Eventually, Israel Joshua invited his younger brother, the future Nobel prize winner Isaac Bashevis Singer, to the United States and engineered for him a job with The Forward.Altra similitudine: Simcha Meyer Ashkenazi è la fotocopia di Beppino Scacerni detto Coniglio Mannaro. Anzi, è possibile che Bacchelli, per creare il suo personaggio, si sia almeno in parte ispirato da qui. In the Polish city of Lodz, the Brothers Ashkenazi grew up very differently in talent and in temperament. Max, the firstborn, is fiercely intelligent and conniving, determined to succeed financially by any means necessary. Slower-witted Jacob is strong, handsome, and charming but without great purpose in life. While Max is driven by ambition and greed to be more successful than his brother, Jacob is drawn to easy living and decadence. Un grande affresco è quello dipinto da Singer, che si muove nell’arco temporale della vita dei due fratelli Ashkenazi, che danno il titolo al romanzo. I temi affrontati dal romanzo sono veramente molteplici: ho imparato cose della cultura ebraica chassidica che mi erano assolutamente sconosciute, ad esempio mi ha colpito un sacco il fatto che le donne appena maritate dovessero radersi il capo e portare una parrucca.