workshop
YIVO Learning and Media Center Archival Box Lesson - In-person Program
YIVO is opening the doors to its new Learning and Media Center (YLMC), a publicly accessible space for visitors to come and explore Jewish history and the YIVO Collections.
This workshop will feature YLMC Educator Susannah Trubman leading a guided lesson utilizing the YLMC’s Archival Box Lessons. The program will begin with a brief lecture on the history of the Yiddish theater in Eastern Europe and one of its early pioneers, Esther Rokhl Kaminska. This will be followed by an exploration of primary source materials relating to the life of Esther Rokhl Kaminska, and a group discussion.
Space is limited! Sign up today to be among the first to see the YLMC. All registrants will receive a YIVO mug of their choice.
Ticket Info: Free; registration is required.
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workshop
Community Read: The Yiddish Sherlock Holmes - In-person Program
Meet Max Spitzkopf: legendary private eye, undefeated foe of villains, and passionate defender of the Jewish people. No matter how hopeless or dangerous the case, when “the investigatory profession’s greatest artist” is summoned, justice is assured. Aided by his trusty assistant, Fuchs, super-sleuth Spitzkopf deploys equal parts physical bravery and intellectual ingenuity—not to mention a knack for stealthy disguise—to unpick evil conspiracies, outwit the canniest of criminals, and restore moral order to the world. Giving a unique twist to a beloved literary genre, Spitzkopf’s mysteries are a vibrant testament to Jewish life, in all its variety, during the last years of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
Join us for a beshutfesdike leyenung, or a “Community Read.” Led by translator Mikhl Yashinsky, attendees will read selections of the original Yiddish text from Adventures of Max Spitzkopf: The Yiddish Sherlock Holmes by Jonas Kreppel.
Read a selection of the text in Yiddish, transliteration, and English translation.
About the Speaker
Mikhl Yashinsky is a writer, singer-actor, and teacher in Manhattan. He was born in Detroit and graduated with a degree in modern European history and literature from Harvard. His “Di psure loyt khaim” (The Gospel According to Chaim), put on by New Yiddish Rep in 2024, was hailed as the first new full-length Yiddish-language drama produced professionally in the United States, outside of the Hasidic world, for many decades and “jolted the repertoire with a work that is both traditional and delightfully subversive” (Forward). His Yiddish-language erotic one-act “Vos flist durkhn oder” (Blessing of the New Moon) premiered at 2022’s Lower East Side Play Festival. With National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene, he has performed in “Fidler afn dakh” (Fiddler on the Roof) directed by Joel Grey, “Tsvishn falndike vent” (Amid Falling Walls) and “Di kishef-makherin” (The Sorceress), in which Mikhl brought a “keen, if malevolent, psychology” to the title role (New York Times). In 2023, Yashinsky made his Carnegie Hall début, singing the anthem of the Vilna Partisans in the Holocaust memorial concert “We Are Here.” He has taught Yiddish at Columbia, University of Michigan, Tel Aviv University, UMass Amherst, the Yiddish Book Center, YIVO, and The Workers Circle, and co-authored the award-winning textbook In eynem. His translations of the memoirs of Ester-Rokhl Kaminska, the “Mama of Yiddish Theatre,” and the detective stories of Max Spitzkopf, the “Yiddish Sherlock Holmes,” were published in 2025 by Bloomsbury and the Yiddish Book Center, respectively. More information on his website: www.yashinsky.com
Ticket Info: Free; registration is required.
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