N. was born on 22 July 1883 in Dukor, Minsk Gubernia, White Russia. His father was a leather shopkeeper. Until age thirteen he learned in a cheder and Berezin yeshiva, then stood under the influence of Chabad Chasidism. Around 1896 he traveled to Minsk, where he  had, until age seventeen, learned in the yeshiva of the "Totersher kloyz", and also by himself, spent time with the "Musrnikes", was a stronger than ever, [gehaltn] at graduation a rabbinate, but as a yeshiva student he already had given up his general studies, and he became an extern, later an activist [p'ts] under the pseudonym of "Abrahamel", belonging to the left minority of the group (the subsequent [S'S]), in 1904 -- he became one of the S'S leaders and due to his socialistic activity became arrested more often.

N.'s first literary attempt was in Hebrew and Russian. Initially in 1906-07 he began his regular literary work in Yiddish. He debuted in the field of literary criticism in 1907 and [bhdrgh] occupied a place as one of the prominent critics in Yiddish literature.

Since 1917 N. has settled in New York.

Not manifesting any special interest in Yiddish theatre, N. had from time to time held courses in Yiddish theatre, writing at times reviews about offerings, and he published very often critiques dealing with dramatic works from the Yiddish writer.

• Z. Reyzen -- "Lexicon of Yiddish Literature", Vol. II, pp. 539-551.