Lamed Shapiro
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Levi Yehoshua Shapiro (
Yiddish Yiddish, historically Judeo-German, is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated in 9th-century Central Europe, and provided the nascent Ashkenazi community with a vernacular based on High German fused with ...
: xx, yi, ל. שאַפּיראָ: March 10, 1878 – 1948), known as "''Lamed'' Shapiro", (''
lamed Lamedh or lamed is the twelfth letter of the Semitic abjads, including Hebrew ''lāmeḏ'' , Aramaic ''lāmaḏ'' 𐡋, Syriac ''lāmaḏ'' ܠ, Arabic ''lām'' , and Phoenician ''lāmd'' 𐤋. Its sound value is . It is also related to the Anc ...
'' is the Yiddish name of the letter ל), was a Ukrainian-born American Yiddish author. His stories are best known for such themes as
murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification (jurisprudence), justification or valid excuse (legal), excuse committed with the necessary Intention (criminal law), intention as defined by the law in a specific jurisd ...
,
rape Rape is a type of sexual assault involving sexual intercourse, or other forms of sexual penetration, carried out against a person without consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority, or against a person ...
and
cannibalism Cannibalism is the act of consuming another individual of the same species as food. Cannibalism is a common ecological interaction in the animal kingdom and has been recorded in more than 1,500 species. Human cannibalism is also well document ...
.


Biography

He was born on March 10, 1878, in Rzhyshchiv. In 1896, he traveled to
Warsaw Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...
, struggled to work for two years, then returned to Ukraine. He experienced a
pogrom A pogrom is a violent riot incited with the aim of Massacre, massacring or expelling an ethnic or religious group, particularly Jews. The term entered the English language from Russian to describe late 19th- and early 20th-century Anti-Jewis ...
, fell in love and attempted suicide, and was later
conscripted Conscription, also known as the draft in the United States and Israel, is the practice in which the compulsory enlistment in a national service, mainly a military service, is enforced by law. Conscription dates back to antiquity and it contin ...
into the
Imperial Russian Army The Imperial Russian Army () was the army of the Russian Empire, active from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was organized into a standing army and a state militia. The standing army consisted of Regular army, regular troops and ...
. These experiences would influence much of his rather dark, fictional themes. Shapiro returned to Warsaw in 1903, and I. L. Peretz helped him publish his first literary works: ''Di Fligl'' ("The Wings"); and, the next year, a longer story called ''Itsikl Mamzer'' ("Little Isaac the Bastard"), published in a journal edited by Avrom Reyzen. To Peretz he would dedicate one of his works, ''Smoke'', a tale of the
Old World The "Old World" () is a term for Afro-Eurasia coined by Europeans after 1493, when they became aware of the existence of the Americas. It is used to contrast the continents of Africa, Europe, and Asia in the Eastern Hemisphere, previously ...
(Peretz would serve as an early benefactor of another famous Yiddish writer,
Der Nister Der Nister (, "the Hidden One"; 1 November 1884 – 4 June 1950 in the Abez camp of Gulag) was the pseudonym of Pinchus Kahanovich (), a Yiddish author, philosopher, translator, and critic. Early years Kahanovich was born in Berdychiv, Ukrai ...
). Shapiro left for America in 1905. He stayed for a year in London, where he befriended the Hebrew writer
Yosef Haim Brenner Joseph Chaim Brenner (; 11 September 1881 – 2 May 1921) was a Hebrew-language author from the Russian Empire, and one of the pioneers of modern Hebrew literature, a thinker, publicist, and public leader. In addition to his literary innovations ...
. After arriving in New York in 1906, and working for ''
The Forward ''The Forward'' (), formerly known as ''The Jewish Daily Forward'', is an American news media organization for a Jewish American audience. Founded in 1897 as a Yiddish-language daily socialist newspaper, ''The New York Times'' reported that Set ...
'', he began publishing his gruesome pogrom tales: "The Kiss" (1907); "Pour Out Thy Wrath" (1908); "The Cross" (1909); "In The Dead Town" (1910). Shapiro's work marks a break from that of the three classic Yiddish writers in its foregrounding of violence and psychological realism, rather than satirical commentary. Shapiro subsequently returned to Warsaw for a year, then returned permanently to the United States in 1911. By 1919, Shapiro had written what are considered his two greatest pogrom stories: "White Challah" and "The Jewish Government.""Lamed Shapiro" (2001), in ''Norton Anthology'', p. 154-155. The two stories "remain some of the most aesthetically nuanced and psychologically complex treatments of the pogrom theme in modern Jewish literature." Shapiro and his family moved to
Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...
in 1921. His wife, Freydl, died there in 1927, and he then returned to New York. Back in New York yet again, Shapiro worked at several literary periodicals, was active in the Communist Party, and was employed by the
Federal Writers' Project The Federal Writers' Project (FWP) was a federal government project in the United States created to provide jobs for out-of-work writers and to develop a history and overview of the United States, by state, cities and other jurisdictions. It was ...
in 1937. Shapiro returned to LA in 1939, where he lived at 544 Heliotrope Drive in East Hollywood.


Death

Shapiro died in
Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...
in 1948, aged 69 or 70, while living in a friend's garage. He died an
alcoholic Alcoholism is the continued drinking of alcohol despite it causing problems. Some definitions require evidence of dependence and withdrawal. Problematic use of alcohol has been mentioned in the earliest historical records. The World Hea ...
and poor. He was buried at the Mount Zion Cemetery in
East Los Angeles East Los Angeles (), or East L.A., is an unincorporated community and census designated place (CDP) situated within Los Angeles County, California, United States. According to the United States Census Bureau, East Los Angeles is designated as ...
next to his wife and his tombstone was inscribed with the words: "Lamed Levi Shapiro, Author of the Yiddishe Melukhe".


Works

*''Afn yam'' (At the Sea), 1910 *''Novelen'' (Novellas), 1910 *''Di yidishe melukhe un andere zakhn'' (The Jewish Government and Other Things), 1919 *''Nyu-yorkish un andere zakhn'' (New York and Other Things), 1931 *''Fun korbn minkhe'' (From the Afternoon Offering), 1941 *''Der shrayber geyt in kheyder'' (The Writer Goes to School), 1945 *''Der Amerikaner Shed'' (The American Demon), an unfinished novel *''Ksuvim'' (Works), 1949 In English translation * ''The Cross and Other Jewish Stories''. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2007. Edited and with an introduction by Leah Garrett. *''The Jewish Government and Other Stories'', edited and translated by Curt Leviant, 1971


Critical discourse

Curt Leviant, noted translator of Yiddish literature and a novelist in his own right, wrote his MA thesis on Shapiro: “Lamed Shapiro: Master Craftsman of the Yiddish Short Stories”, Columbia University, 1957. David G. Roskies, professor of Yiddish literature at
Jewish Theological Seminary of America The Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS) is a Conservative Jewish education organization in New York City, New York. It is one of the academic and spiritual centers of Conservative Judaism as well as a hub for academic scholarship in Jewish studies ...
, has done critical work on Lamed Shapiro, and places him in the context of
World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
-era Jewish writers like
Isaac Babel Isaac Emmanuilovich Babel ( – 27 January 1940) was a Soviet writer, journalist, playwright, and literary translator. He is best known as the author of ''Red Cavalry'' and ''Odessa Stories'', and has been acclaimed as "the greatest prose write ...
.


Notes


References

* * Review of Lamed Shapiro, ''The Cross and Other Jewish Stories''. * Hoffman, Matthew (2002). "Shapiro, (Levi Joshua) Lamed." In: Sorrel Kerbel, et al. (Eds.),
Jewish Writers of the Twentieth Century
'. New York: Fitzroy Dearborn. pp. 984–987. . * "Lamed Shapiro" uthor biography(2001). In: Jules Chametzky, et al. (Eds.).
Jewish American Literature: A Norton Anthology
'. New York: Norton. pp. 154–155.


Further reading

* ''The Cross and Other Jewish Stories''. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2007. Edited and with an introduction by Leah Garrett. , "Introduction" by Leah Garrett, an extensive biographical sketch in pp. ix-xxii {{DEFAULTSORT:Shapiro, Lamed 1878 births 1948 deaths People from Rzhyshchiv People from Kiev Governorate Yiddish-language writers Jewish American short story writers Jewish American novelists Jewish American non-fiction writers American people of Ukrainian-Jewish descent Ukrainian Jews Emigrants from the Russian Empire to the United States