With the present dangers confronting the Jewish people, we are desperately in need of more stories about Jewish heroism. For that reason, it is especially well-timed that the Yiddish Book Center has brought us this fabulous English translation of the Max Spitzkopf pulp detective mysteries. These 15 stories by Jonas Kreppel feature the “Yiddish Sherlock Holmes” who saves Jews from various plights within the Austro-Hungarian Empire during the early 20th century. They have been assembled into a splendid anthology with a translation by Mikhl Yashinksy. Even preserving the original cover drawings from each issue, the Yiddish Book Center’s imprint, White Goat Press, has released a truly enjoyable book.
If you have never heard of the Max Spitzkopf detective stories, you are not alone. I had not heard of them either until I recently saw that this new volume became available back in October. In my book, “The Armed Jew: The Case for Jewish Gun Ownership,” I have a section taking a deep dive into the fictional tales of Jewish gun savvy. Since there is not much to examine in that small subgenre, it is, admittedly, a short section. It was not until more recently that the Spitzkopf book was published, well after “The Armed Jew” went to print, that I learned about it. Had I been aware that it existed, I would have included some discussion of it in my book. Spitzkopf, which literally means “Pointy Head,” is not only a genius sleuth solving the most difficult cases but is also a good and fast marksman with his revolvers that he always carries with him.
According to Yashinsky’s informative introduction, the Jewish Nobel laureate author, Isaac Bashevis Singer, was a big fan of these Spitzkopf pulps in his youth. He used to run to the newsstand to acquire each new pamphlet as they came out. He would later read them in secret under the covers in bed at night so that his father would not find out that he was consuming what he regarded as modern, secular schlock. This schlock, Singer insisted, was actually “high art.” I am with Singer on this. Old pulps that were considered dreck in their day have great literary value today. These Spitzkopf tales deserve to be included as the uniquely Jewish superhero within a genre of classic pulp superheroes like The Shadow, Doc Savage, Zorro and Buck Rogers.
And, of course, Sherlock Holmes. Although those were not considered pulp, they do provide the formula Kreppel used in devising Spitzkopf’s cases. Spitzkopf is billed as “The Viennese Sherlock Holmes.” Like Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s eminent detective, Spitzkopf is a master of deduction and has a physical prowess to match that of his evil adversaries. Also, like Holmes, he has a sidekick. His Dr. Watson is Hermann Fuchs, a young assistant at his detective bureau who always finds his way into a jam.
But the Spitzkopf stories leave much less to the imagination than Sherlock Holmes mysteries do. Some of them are laced with gore and truly disturbing crimes that are explicitly described, such as pogroms, torture, human trafficking and murder of children. I would not advise that people buy this book for kids younger than 13. That said, I am a squeamish adult and was still able to handle the shocking nature of some of the plotlines and crime scene descriptions.
Antisemitism plays a pivotal role in Spitzkopf’s adventures. He gallantly rescues Jews from predicaments that are often motivated by the villain’s Jew-hatred. In many of these stories there are violent assaults and kidnappings, and in others there are schemes to swindle Jews out of their fortunes. The Jews’ marginalized lives in the shtetlach of Eastern Europe are central to the perils befalling the victims that Spitzkopf comes in to save.
Perhaps the standout story in the anthology is “The Blood Libel,” which is set in the Galician shtetl of Dorokhov while the Jews are cleaning their homes for Passover. Based on one of the most absurd tropes of antisemitism, a Catholic child goes missing, and naturally the local gentiles believe that the Jews killed her to get the blood to make their matzah. The Christians wage a pogrom against the Jews, which spirals throughout Galicia. The hero Spitzkopf comes in from Vienna to prove that no Jew had anything to do with the missing child.
Two other Spitzkopf stories involving Christian attempts to force Jews to convert are “Kidnapped for Conversion” and “The Missionary.” But although Christians are often the principal bad guys in these tales, we also see many of them as friends of the Jews helping Spitzkopf solve his cases. One story, “Lady Luckless” is entirely about a gentile victim, with no other Jewish character than Spitzkopf himself. He is a Jewish knight for the justice of all people, not just his people.
But it is still safe to say that what sets Spitzkopf apart from other rare occurrences of fictional Jewish heroes is his special emphasis on being a champion for Jews. In John Alfred (Jack) Webb’s 1950s hard-boiled detective books, the Sammy Golden character is a Jewish policeman safeguarding Catholics on American streets. While Sammy’s Jewishness is essential to the stories, he is the only Jewish character around. The same is true of Detective John Munch on “Law & Order” and “Homicide: Life on the Street.” Perhaps now with Salvador Litvak’s 2024 movie, “Guns & Moses,” about a Chabad rabbi who turns gunslinging detective to protect his community, there will be a new trend emerging in film and literature to showcase more Jewish heroism in this period of surging antisemitism.
It would be great to see the Max Spitzkopf stories inspire a whole generation of Jewish artists and storytellers to keep doing what Kreppel started.
It is also sad to know that there could have been even more Spitzkopf stories for us to enjoy had Kreppel lived longer to write them. But having been murdered at Buchenwald, he was never able to.
Adam L. Fuller, Ph.D., is Clayman Professor of Jewish Studies and Associate Professor of Political Science at Youngstown State University. He is the author of “The Armed Jew: The Case for Jewish Gun Ownership.”
