Shabbat Gathering: The Yiddish Sherlock Holmes.

Gud Shabbos Khaveyrim, as is our custom, we will gather tonight at 5.45p ct to welcome Shabbat. These are the coordinates:

Zoom
Meeting ID: 883 8469 4181
Password: 822665
Phone: +1 312 626 6799

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Here we go.

Sometime last year, I read a notice from the Yiddish Book Center that it had published a book called Adventures of Max Spitzkopf: The Yiddish Sherlock Holmes. As a fan of Yiddish literature (and of Sherlock Holmes) I was all in on the book. I’ve read most of the stories in the collection as well as the “back story” on how it came to be.

The stories were penned by Jonas Kreppel (1874 - 1940) and published as pamphlets throughout Europe. Isaac Bashevis Singer was a big fan of the series of 15 stories as were readers far and wide. Mikhl Yashinsky translated the tales into English. Spitzkopf became known as “king of detectives, the Viennese Sherlock Holmes.” He was also proudly Jewish and frequently took cases where he frequently fought on behalf of Jews who were being persecuted.

Kreppel’s stories were published as inexpensive pamphlets that Jews eagerly snapped up. Kreppel had a “day job” as a press officer for Austrian Foreign Ministery until 1938 when he was imprisoned in Dachau and Buchenwald, where he was killed.

Singer writes…

In my eyes, these detective stories were high art. They simply enchanted me. A sentence from one of the booklets remains with me to this very day. It was the caption to an illustration that depicted Mas Spitzkopf and his assistant Fuchs surprising a bandit, revolvers in hand. And the detective is calling out, “Halt, you scoundrel! The game is up!”

Spitzkopf is a master of disguise and, of course, a detective without parallel. Frequently, his trusty, yet hapless, assistant, Fuchs, must be rescued and Spitzkopf always shows up the bumbling police also on the case.

I’ve enjoyed the tales and recommend them to anyone interested in pulp detective stories that center Jewish characters and Jewish life.

And may it be for all of us a blessing.

See you tonight!
Mit vareme grusn,
(With warm regards,)

All my love,
brian.

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