In Polish Woods

Joseph Opatoshu (Yosef Meir Opatovsky) was born in 1886 in the Polish kingdom, which was part of the Russian Empire. The language of his work was Yiddish.

After emigrating to the United States, he became perhaps the most American of all Jewish writers.

Romanticize Jewish underworld in the literature and introducing the figure of a "strong Jew," he anticipates "Odessa Stories" Babel.

  Along with this Opatoshu creates historical works, covering events from the Bar Kochba revolt of the Jews of Poland to the history of the nineteenth century.

Thus, the novel "In the Polish forests" (1921) unfolds on the eve of the Polish uprising of 1863.

 It reflected the contradictory and even opposite tendencies of the Jewish ideology of the period, largely determine the future shape of the Jewish people - Hasidism, enlightenment and assimilation.

Series "In the Polish forests" and "1863" is considered one of the pinnacles of creativity Joseph Opatoshu.