Writer, born in Bilgorai, Poland, the brother of Isaac Bashevis Singer. He and his family moved to Warsaw (1908), and he was educated to become a rabbi. By the age of 18 he left home and lived a secular life, held a series of odd jobs, and studied science, language, mathematics, painting, and writing. During World War 1 he was conscripted into the Russian army, and worked at forced labour during the German occupation (1915). He moved to Kiev, Russia, where he worked as a proof-reader for a Jewish newspaper, and wrote stories and plays before returning to Warsaw (1921). His novel, The Sinner (1933), was well received in the USA and he emigrated to New York City 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.
Israel Joshua Singer (November 30, 1893, Biłgoraj, Poland - February 10, 1944 New York) was a Yiddish novelist. He was born Yisroel Yehoshua Zinger the son of Pinchas Mendl Zinger, a rabbi and author of rabbinic commentaries, and Basheva Zylberman. He was the brother of Nobel Prize-winning author Isaac Bashevis Singer and novelist Esther Kreitman.
Singer contributed to the European Yiddish press from 1916, and in 1921 became a correspondent for the leading American Yiddish newspaper The Forward. He wrote his first novel, Steel and Iron, in 1927.
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