He was born in the town of Zaleshchiki in Eastern Galicia on Nov 22 1854. His father, Zvi, owned real estate, but after the fire of 1866, his financial situation deteriorated so far, that he could not pay tuition for his son's education.
When he was twenty, a wealthy real-estate lender took him into his home as a match for his daughter. It was in his father-in-law's house where he continued his education. There was a tutor who taught German to his father-in-law's children and he studied with him "sneaking" his first knowledge in that language. Soon he started to read books in German, and also studied Hebrew books.
On 1876 his wife died, and he returned to his hometown, where he stayed for half a year. Six months after his return to Zaleshchiki he married a second wife, and moved to her town of Kolomea (Eastern Galicia).
In 1878 his firs t published work, "Tumath ahawah" (Love is Over), appeared in HaMebit (The Observer) edited by Perez Smolensky. At that time he started to publish his own works in "HaShahar" (Dawn). It was in that magazine, in volume 10, where he published a general review on "Jews in Galicia" which was printed in 5 consecutive issues.
When the magazine "HaTor" (a Biblical expression for Springtime) started to be published in Colomea, he became the assistant editor for Abraham Ginlzler. When it was closed, he moved to Riga, and in the summer of 1881 he worked in the editorial of "HaShahar" as an assistant to the technical editor, and also edited the Letters to the Editor section.
In 1882 he went to Botosani in Romania, where he established, together with Zvi Eleazar Teller the monthly "HaOr" (The Light). Yet, after the appearance of the second issue, he left Romania and "restarted" HaOr on his own, and he published this way six more issues of that magazine. It was in the "HaOr" monthly where he published his story "Releaser of Prisoners" which was published later in 1883 in a special edition.
Toward the end of 1883 he was appointed as a teacher for Jewish religion of the general schools in Kolomea in Eastern Galicia, a position that he held for 10 years. In this period he wrote "Sicronoth," a cultural historical picture of Jewish life in Galicia (Lemberg 1886) and his great story "Dimath ashukim" (Tears of the Oppressed), which was one of the first stories in modern Hebrew to depict the oppression of the Romanian Jews in the 1880s and which suggested that the solution was a Jewish home in Palestine.
In 1888 he published a series of stories "New and Old Ones", and became an assistant editor in the "HaShemesh" (The Sun) magazine which was established by H.L. Gotlib , and in 1891 he edited in Yiddish a paper called "Volks-Blat "(Peoples Paper). From time to time he published essays and pictures in "HaMelitz", "HaZfira" and in Broide's magazine "HaYahadut" (Judaism).
In 1893 he resigned and settled in Vienna, where he wrote his story "One Soul from Israel " (Warsaw 1894) and also a selected group of his articles "Plays and Play Fragments" (Krakow 1890). Also, he published at that time stories, articles and drawings in the Krakow's "HaMegid", Breinin's "From East and West", Sokolov's "Book of the Year", and Gonzig's "Luah Eliyasaf".
In 1906 he moved to Lemberg in Eastern Galicia and joined the editorial board of Bader's Yiddish language "Nayes Lemberger Togechlatt" (New Lemberg Daily Paper) and "HaEt" (The Time). He returned to Vienna just before the 1914-1918 war.
In 1920, one volume of "Ketavim Nivharim" (Selected Works) was published, a story called "Tale of a Woman" (Vienna 1923) appeared, and two books in Yiddish: "Shtrechlich Fon Der Milhama Zeit" (Horrors of the Time of War, Vienna 1917) and "Skizzen, Bilder un Humoresken" (Sketches, Pictures and Humoresques, Vienna 1921).
In 1927 he visited America, stayed about two years and then returned to Vienna. In following years he published memoirs in "Tageblat" (Daily Paper), in "HaDo'ar" (The Post) and also in "HaOlam" (The World). Some of these memoirs were later published in the Yiddish book, "Menchen Un Geshe'enishn" (Men and Events,Vienna 1931).
In 1934 he made Aliyah to Eretz-Yisrael. Here he published drawings and memories in the Israeli papers. When he was 80 years old, a Jubilee committee was established to publish his collection of memories under the name "From the Book of My Memoir."
At the beginning of 1936 he became ill and weak. On March 1 1936 (7 Adar 5696) he died and was buried in Tel-Aviv, in the "Old Cemetery,"
Written by Jerome Silverbush based on research done by Moshe Silberbush