Josef Opatoshu (1886–1954)

Joseph Opatoshu was born Yosef Meir Opatowski to a Jewish family in Mlawa, Poland. His parents were Dovid and Nantshe Opatowski. His father, a wood merchant, sent him to the best Polish schools in the country. At the age of 19, he went to study engineering in Nancy, France. In 1907, poverty sent him to the USA, where he settled in New York City and modified his name. He worked in a shoe factory by day and studied engineering at Cooper Union at night. In 1914, he finally graduated as a civil engineer, but found literature a more congenial profession. He published stories in Yiddish periodicals and anthologies, and in 1914 edited an anthology of his own, Di Naye Heym (The New Home). A Roman fun a Ferd Ganev (A Novel about a Horse Thief), published in 1912, and based on a boyhood acquaintance, was his first novel to attract wide attention. He joined the staff of the Jewish daily newspaper Der Tog and for 40 years contributed stories, sketches, and serials, most of which were later reprinted in book form. His novel In Poylishe Velder (In Polish Woods, 1921), the first volume of a trilogy, brought Opatoshu international fame. His final historical novel, Der Letster Oyfshtand (The Last Revolt, 1952), was an imaginative reconstruction of daily life in 2nd-century Judea. His son David Opatoshu (1919–1996) became an actor and writer who worked extensively in the Yiddish theater.