ABSTRACT
The opening round table discussion at the International Academic Conference on Joseph Opatoshu, held in Regensburg in April of 2012, was entitled 'S'iz shver tsu zayn a yidisher shrayber, the Case of Yoysef Opatoshu'. Born in the Stupsk Forest, near Mlava, Opatoshu was inspired by the family stories told by his mother, Nantshe, who came from generations of forest dwellers. His father, Dovid, was a lumber merchant, a maskil, descendant of a long line of Hasidic rabbis. Yosef had arrived in America in 1907, doing a variety of low-paying jobs (teaching Hebrew, selling newspapers, working in a shoe factory) while pursuing his engineering studies at night at Cooper Union. Yosef's and Adela's personal lives were completely enmeshed in the international world of Yiddish culture. The members of their closest circle were politically of the left, culturally and artistically experimental, and socially bohemian.
