The Historical Dictionary of the American Theater

PINSKI, DAVID

(1872-1959)
Born in Poland, David Pinski began his playwriting life in Warsaw before immigrating to the United States in 1899, where he wrote most of his 38 plays forYiddish theatrecompanies. He demonstrated impressive versatility in style for works including the realistic tragedyIsaac Sheftl(1896) and two symbolic treatments of Jewish history,The Tsvi Family(1904) andThe Eternal Jew(1906). HisYankl the Smith(1906), a drama about love and jealousy, was made into a 1938 motion picture,The Singing Blacksmith. Pins-ki's greatest success,The Treasure(1910), was first directed by Max Reinhardt in German, then in Yiddish, after which it was produced in English in 1920 by the Theatre Guild with a cast includingCelia Adler, Dudley Digges, and Henry Travers. A comedy about the role poverty plays in human greed,The Treasureis Pinski's most enduring work. TheProvincetown Playersstaged Pinski'sThe Final Balancein 1928 at their New York theatre, but it ran for only 28 performances.

  1. pinski, david—American Yiddish dramatist and novelist. He was born in Mohilev on the Dnieper and lived in Warsaw. In he emigrated to the US where he wrote for the Yiddish stage. His e...Dictionary of Jewish Biography