author
David Pinski
1872–1959
Best known as a major Yiddish playwright, he brought modern Jewish life onto the stage with unusual boldness and sympathy. His work ranged from labor struggles to intimate moral questions, helping shape Yiddish literature across Europe, America, and Israel.
1 Audiobook
Temptations
by David Pinski
About the author
Born in Mogilev in 1872, David Pinski grew up in the Russian Empire and became part of the lively Yiddish literary world of Warsaw, where he was connected with the writer I. L. Peretz. He went on to live in several European cities before settling in the United States, and later spent his final years in Israel.
Pinski wrote widely, but he is especially remembered for his plays in Yiddish. Scholars and reference works describe him as one of the notable Yiddish dramatists of his era, and as an early writer to bring urban Jewish workers and modern social conflict to the stage. Along with drama, he published short stories, novels, essays, and journalism.
His long career linked several centers of Jewish cultural life, and his papers are preserved in major Jewish research archives. He died in Haifa in 1959, leaving behind a body of work that still stands as an important part of modern Yiddish literature.