While Willy has neither the multi-generational sweep nor the moral gravitas of I. J. Singer’s family sagas, its themes are nonetheless timeless, its struggles archetypal. A father and son quarrel, and, in the process, a richly compact narrative emerges. Their respective stories define what is lost and what is gained in immigrant passage to the new world. The eponymous hero, Volf Rubin—Willy (Vili) Robin in America—is the rare agon who shares center stage with his antagonist, that is, his m...

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. As waves of industrialism and capitalism flood the city...

In the Polish city of Lodz, the twin brothers Ashkenazi grow up with contrasting characters. Max, depicted as sickly and cunning, is driven by ambition and greed to be more successful than his brother, whereas Yakub, robust and a dolt in school, is drawn to easy living and decadence. Historically and geographically expansive, the novel begins after the Napoleonic Wars and ends after World War I, more than a century later, the rise and fall of Lodz and its Jewish inhabitants emerging as the...

As one of the most well-known Yiddish writers of the twentieth century, Israel Joshua Singer produced an impressive opus - presented in three volumes in Collected Works - in which he tackles religious, social, and political challenges facing the Jewish people. Unabashedly critical, he does not offer substitutes for what he views as failed ideologies, instead seeing the writer's role in the honest expression of and engagement with this inescapable predicament.In this volume, Singer'...

It was the autumn of 1926 when Israel Joshua Singer, at the invitation of the editor of the New York Yiddish daily Forverts, traveled to the Soviet Union for a reportage that would take him several months. “These images and impressions are written in a moment, as is always the case with travelers,” he would comment on his work, which nevertheless constitutes an exceptional, and in many ways unique, testimony.I.J. Singer, who had already observed the Soviet country in depth at the h...