his old age Dick lived comfortably, and was one of the most respected and popular men in the community. He continued to live in Vilnius, and died there in 1893. In addition to that mentioned above, Dick wrote three Hebrew works: Maḥazeh Mul Maḥazeh, a Purim story (Warsaw, 1861); Siprono, a description of Jewish life in small cities (Vilnius, 1868); and Masseket 'Aniyyut (Tractate Poverty), considered one of the best Talmudical parodies ever written. But his fame rests on his Yiddish novels, a field in which he was the first professional and the founder of a school. As he himself asserted many times, he wrote only for the purpose of spreading knowledge and morality among his readers, and in many cases he permitted this purpose to overshadow the story. Most of the modern critics condemn his style; his constant use of High-German words, explained, often wrongly, in parenthesis; his quotations from the Talmud and Midrashim with his own commentaries, retarding the flow of the narrative; and his pausing at a dialogue or other interesting point to insert a long sermon on the moral lesson to be drawn from incidents described in the story. But in spite of all verbosity and deviation, Dick was an excellent story-teller, having a power of description, an insight into human character, and a sympathetic humor which are given to few. His longer works are chiefly translations, and are the least worthy of his writings; but among the shorter ones are many original stories, some of which, if divested of superfluous matter, could well bear an English translation. Der Yiddischer Posliannik (The Jewish Ambassador), Vilnius, 1880; Note Ganaf (Life of Nathan the Thief), Vilnius 1887; and Die Schöne Minka, Vilnius 1886, have considerable merit; while some of his characters, such as "Shemaya Gut Yom-Ṭob Bitter" (the holiday visitor), "Chaitzikel Allein," or "Der Moiziter Bachur," rank among the best efforts of the present Yiddish writers. Jewish Encyclopedia bibliography Obituaries in Ha-Asif and Aḥiasaf, Warsaw, 1894; Wiener, History of Yiddish Literature, pp. 169–172, New York, 1899; Zolotkoff, in Stadt-Anzeiger, Oct. 15, 1893; Ha-Shaḥar, v. 349 et seq.; Hausfreund, 1894, vol. iii.; Winter and Wünsche, Die Jüdische Litteratur, pp. 585–603.H. R. P. Wi. References Sources 1807 births 1893 deaths Writers from Vilnius 19th-century Lithuanian Jews Yiddish-language satirists Russian Hebraists Jewish educators