Joseph Opatoshu (Yiddish: יוסף אָפּאַטאָשו; December 24, 1886 – October 7, 1954) was a Polish-born Yiddish novelist and short story writer.

Opatoshu was born in 1886 as Yosef Meir Opatowski[2] to Jewish parents, Dawid (or Dovid) and Nantshe, near Mława, Congress Poland.

[1] His father, a wood merchant, came from a Hasidic family and had become a Maskil.

At the age of 19 Yosef went to study engineering in Nancy, France.

[citation needed] However, privation [clarification needed] sent him to the United States in 1907, where he settled in New York City, where his name became Joseph Opatovsky, and he later took the professional name of Joseph Opatoshu.