The Yiddish Book Center's Wexler Oral History Project presents a portrait of a prolific writer and Jewish thinker, through the lens oral history. In this segment, we explore the other side of the writer’s life, his career as a dentist.

How does a prolific writer in Yiddish pay his bills in New York City? Like many well-known Yiddish writers, Simon had a surprising day job—as a dentist. He took an equivalency exam qualify for dental school, which in turn allowed him and his family to rise to a reasonably comfortable middle-class life. His son-in-law Milton, also a dentist, explains why Simon was both a genius in writing, and a genius in dentistry and oral surgery.

Notable in the family stories is the fact that Simon accepted payment for his services in the form of artwork during the Great Depression, exchanging check-ups for portraits. However, while dentistry brought him artwork and a unique social notoriety, it also took his finger from unprotected use of an early X-ray machine.