Isaac Bashevis Singer.

A rabbi’s son, Isaac Bashevis Singer was born in Leoncin, Poland on November 21, 1903. His older brother Israel Joshua Singer a writer. He studied at the Warsaw Rabbinical Seminary but chose a secular path, working as a journalist for The Jewish Daily Forward after emigrating to the United States in 1935.

Singer’s Yiddish stories and novels first appeared in The Jewish Daily Forward, where he worked as a journalist. He broke through with the novel The Family Moskat in 1950. In 1978, he won the Nobel Prize in Literature, the first Yiddish-language writer to do so. Films adapted from his works include Yentl 1983 starring Barbra Streisand and Enemies, a Love Story 1989 directed by Paul Mazursky. He appeared as himself in the documentary Isaac in America: a Journey with Isaac Bashevis Singer 1986.

He married twice: first to Runia Pontsch, with whom he had a son, Israel Zamir, born in 1929. In 1940, he married Alma Wassermann and remained with her until his death. His siblings included writer Israel Joshua Singer and novelist Esther Kreitman. He became a United States citizen and lived much of his life in New York City.

The 1978 Nobel Prize in Literature secured his position as the preeminent Yiddish writer of the 20th century. Translations of his works into dozens of languages keep them in circulation. He won multiple National Book Awards. His vivid storytelling preserves Yiddish language and culture, and his stories remain staples of Jewish literary studies.