ABSTRACT
Yoysef Opatoshu died in 1954 after a long and productive career as a fiction writer and activist in the worldwide Yiddish cultural movement. His novels and short stories have been largely ignored by scholars and translators during the past six decades, however, and have fallen into obscurity. An examination of the early critical reception of Opatoshu’s masterwork In poylishe velder (In Polish Woods), first published in New York by Farlag Maks N. Mayzel in 1921, might shed light on some of the reasons why awareness of his contributions has diminished, and might help lay the groundwork for an effort to redefine his place in the modern Yiddish canon.
