Israel Joshua Singer 1893-1944, Polish-American novelist and playwright who wrote in Yiddish, older brother of Isaac Bashevis singer. Living variously in Poland and Russia, he earned a literary reputation in both countries. His collection of stories Perl un Andere Derzeylungen (1922; tr.Pearls, 1923)was acclaimed by the New York publisher Abraham Cahan, who hired singer as Polish correspondent to his Yiddish newspaper the Jewish Daily Forward . Singer’s epic masterpiece Di Bruder Ashkenazi (tr. The Brothers Ashkenazi,1936) details Jewish industrial developments before World War I . Singer emigrated to the United States in 1934.