The Committee for Yiddish Presents a Special Virtual Talk IN YIDDISH with Renowned Author
MICHAEL WEX
The Fiction of Lamed Shapiro
די װערק פֿון לאַמעד שאַפּיראָ
Recorded live on Zoom, Sunday, October 19, 2025
There are no more harrowing stories in Yiddish than the tales of pogroms and sexual violence published by Lamed Shapiro in the first decades of the twentieth century, but Shapiro’s influence and achievement extend far beyond pogroms. A pioneering modernist, Shapiro was arguably the greatest Yiddish prose stylist of the century and the author of some of the greatest short stories in the language.
In this Yiddish-language talk, renowned writer, teacher, and translator Michael Wex leads us through Shapiro’s better-known work as well as some of the later, less violent, and occasionally humorous work of the writer whom novelist Isaiah Spiegel once called “the Yiddish Kafka.”
אַ קורצער אַרײַנפֿיר אין די װערק פֿונעם גרױסן און צו־אָפֿט פֿאַרזעענעם שרײַבער. בײַ גלײַך מיט זײַנע באַקאַנטע פּאָגראָם־דערצײלונגען, װעלן מיר אויך אַ קוק טאָן אויף זײַנע שפּעטערדיקע, צו־מאָלס הומאָריסטיש- און סאַטירישע אַמעריקאַנער כּתבֿים.
Author of four books on Yiddish and Yiddish culture, including the bestselling Born to Kvetch, Michael Wex has taught the language at the University of Toronto and the University of Michigan and is a mainstay of the contemporary Yiddish scene. A native-speaker whose Yiddish songs have been recorded by such bands as the Grammy-winning Klezmatics, Wex has translated material ranging from classical Yiddish literature to testimony for war crimes trials. He has also translated The Threepenny Opera from German into Yiddish and appeared as Estragon in a production of Shane Baker’s Yiddish translation of Waiting for Godot at the Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm. His most recent major project Baym Kabaret Yitesh, an all-Yiddish cabaret show, which he wrote and directed, premiered at the 2019 edition of Yiddish Summer Weimar.
מיכאל װעקס איז דער אויטאָר פֿון פֿיר ענגליש־שפּראַכיקע ביכער װעגן ייִדישער שּפּראַך און קולטור. ער האָט אויך געשריבן אָריגינעלע ייִדישע לידער װאָס עס האָבן רעקאָרדירט אַזױנע זינגער און קאַפּעליעס װי די קלעזמאַטיקס. זײַן איבערזעצונג פֿון רחל אויערבאַכס דער ייִדישער אויפֿשטאַנד, װאַרשע 1943 איז אַרױס מאַי 2025. זײַן נײַסטע יִידשע פּיעסע, די לעצטע נאַכט בײַם ייִתּוש, עפֿנט זיך דעצעמבער 2025 אין שטאָקהאָלם.