Lecture | The Yiddish Sherlock Holmes, Newly Translated

The debut of a new English translation of Yiddish novels starring the fictional Viennese detective Max Spitzkopf.

In early 1900s pulp fiction, the Viennese detective Max Spitzkopf was an undefeated foe of villains and passionate defender of the Jewish people. When he is summoned, no matter how dangerous or seemingly hopeless the case, justice is assured. The super-sleuth deploys physical bravery, intellectual ingenuity, and stealthy disguises to outwit criminals and restore moral order to the world. For the Yiddish Book Center's White Goat Press, Mikhl Yashinsky has translated the complete series of 15 Spitzkopf mysteries into English for the first time. Yashinsky will lecture on how these volumes were written, disseminated, lauded by 20th-century literary figures including Isaac Bashevis Singer, and recovered for contemporary readers.

New York-based Mikhl Yashinsky, a translator, playwright-lyricist, singer-actor, and teacher, has taught Yiddish at Columbia, the University of Michigan, and Tel Aviv University. He co-authored an award-winning Yid­dish language textbook, In eynem (White Goat Press), and his translation of Ester-Rokhl Kaminska’s memoirs, The Mother of Yiddish Theatre, is forthcoming from Bloomsbury.

Mikhl Yashinsky's translation of the Spitzkopf stories will be available for sale and signing at the event.

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