Sholem Rabinovich

Image:Sholem Aleichem listens.jpg Sholem Aleichem listens
Pseudonym:	Sholem Aleichem (Yiddish: שלום־עליכם)
Born:	March 2 [O.S. February 18] 1859 Pereyaslav, Russian Empire
Died:	May 13, 1916 (aged 57) New York City, United States
Occupation:	writer
Genres:	novels, short stories, plays
Literary movement:	Yiddish revival

Sholem Aleichem Hebrew: שלום־עליכם‎, Russian: Шолом-Алейхем; March 2 [O.S. February 18] 1859 – May 13, 1916) was a popular humorist and Russian (geographically, Ukrainian) Jewish author of Yiddish literature, including novels, short stories, and plays. He did much to promote Yiddish writers, and was the first to pen children's literature in Yiddish. A pseudonym (Greek: , pseudo + -onym: false name) is an artificial, fictitious name, also known as an alias, used by an individual as an alternative to a persons legal name. ... Yiddish (Yid. ... is the 61st day of the year (62nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Old Style or O.S. is a designation indicating that a date conforms to the Julian calendar, formerly in use in many countries, rather than the Gregorian calendar, currently in use in most countries. ... Year 1859 (MDCCCLIX) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Thursday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar). ... Image File history File links Romanov_Flag. ... Pereyaslav is the former name of towns in Ukraine and Russia: Pereiaslav-Khmelnytskyi in Ukraine. ... The subject of this article was previously also known as Russia. ... is the 133rd day of the year (134th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1916 (MCMXVI) was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar). ... Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... New York, New York and NYC redirect here. ... For the album by the Kaiser Chiefs see Employment (album) Employment is a contract between two parties, one being the employer and the other being the employee. ... A literary genre is one of the divisions of literature into genres according to particular criteria such as literary technique, tone, or content. ... ... Yiddish literature encompasses all belles lettres written in Yiddish, the language of Ashkenazic Jewry which is related to Middle High German. ... “Hebrew” redirects here. ... is the 61st day of the year (62nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Old Style or O.S. is a designation indicating that a date conforms to the Julian calendar, formerly in use in many countries, rather than the Gregorian calendar, currently in use in most countries. ... Year 1859 (MDCCCLIX) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Thursday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar). ... is the 133rd day of the year (134th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1916 (MCMXVI) was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar). ... A humorist is an author who specializes in short, humorous articles or essays. ... For other uses, see Jew (disambiguation). ... Yiddish literature encompasses all belles lettres written in Yiddish, the language of Ashkenazic Jewry which is related to Middle High German. ... A novel (from French nouvelle Italian novella, new) is an extended, generally fictional narrative, typically in prose. ... This article is in need of attention. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Yiddish (Yid. ...

His work has been widely translated. The musical "Fiddler on the Roof" (1964), loosely based on Sholom Aleichem's stories about his character Tevye the Milkman, was the first commercially successful English-language play about Eastern European Jewish life. For the film, see Fiddler on the Roof (film) Fiddler on the Roof is a well-known Tony Award-winning musical with music by Jerry Bock, lyrics by Sheldon Harnick, and book by Joseph Stein, set in Tsarist Russia in 1905. ... Tevye is the protagonist of several of Sholom Aleichems stories, originally written in Yiddish and first published in 1894, most famously the fictional memoir Tevye and his Daughters, about a pious Jewish milkman in Tzarist Russia, and the troubles he has with his daughters (Tevye has six daughters — in... Pre-1989 division between the West (grey) and Eastern Bloc (orange) superimposed on current national boundaries: Russia (dark orange), other countries of the former USSR (medium orange),members of the Warsaw pact (light orange), and other former Communist regimes not aligned with Moscow (lightest orange). ...

Early life

Born Sholem Naumovich Rabinovich (alternatively: Sholom, Shulem, Solomon, Rabinovitz, Rabinovitsh, etc.) (Russian: Шо́лем Нау́мович Рабино́вич) to a poor Jewish family of Menachem-Nukhem and Khaye-Ester Rabinovitsh in Pereyaslav (Poltava region, east of Kiev), Imperial Russia. Sholem Aleichem's mother died when he was fifteen. His first writing was an alphabetical vocabulary of the epithets used by his stepmother. At the age of fifteen, inspired by Robinson Crusoe, he composed his own, Jewish version of the famous novel and decided to dedicate himself to writing. He adopted the comic pseudonym Sholem Aleichem, derived from a common greeting meaning "peace be with you", or colloquially, "hi, how are you." For this reason, he is never referred to simply as "Aleichem", either in literary discussion or in bibliographic references. Pereyaslav is the former name of towns in Ukraine and Russia: Pereiaslav-Khmelnytskyi in Ukraine. ... Location Map of Ukraine with Poltava highlighted. ... Map of Ukraine with Kiev highlighted Coordinates: , Country Ukraine Oblast Kiev City Municipality Raion Municipality Government  - Mayor Leonid Chernovetskyi Elevation 179 m (587 ft) Population (2006)  - City 4,450,968  - Density 3,299/km² (8,544. ... Imperial Russia is the term used to cover the period of history from the expansion of Russia under Peter the Great, through the expansion of the Russian Empire from the Baltic Sea to the Pacific Ocean, to the deposal of Nicholas II of Russia, the last tsar, at the start... An epithet (Greek - επιθετον and Latin - epitheton; literally meaning imposed) is a descriptive word or phrase. ... Robinson Crusoe is a novel by Daniel Defoe, first published in 1719 and sometimes regarded as the first novel in English. ... A pseudonym (Greek: , pseudo + -onym: false name) is an artificial, fictitious name, also known as an alias, used by an individual as an alternative to a persons legal name. ...

After completing Pereyaslav local school with excellent grades in 1876, he left home in search for work. For three years, Sholem Aleichem taught a wealthy landowner's daughter Olga (Golde) Loev. Against the wishes of her father, Olga became Sholem Aleichem's wife on May 12, 1883. Over the years, they had six children, including painter Norman Raeben—whose teaching Bob Dylan credits as an important influence on Blood on the Tracks—and Yiddish writer Lyalya (Lili) Kaufman. Lyalya's daughter Bel Kaufman is an American writer, author of the book Up the Down Staircase. is the 132nd day of the year (133rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Norman Raeben (born 1901) is an American painter. ... Bob Dylan (born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter, author, musician, and poet who has been a major figure in popular music for five decades. ... Blood on the Tracks is a 1975 album by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan. ... Bel Kaufman (born May 10, 1911, in Berlin, Germany) is a Russian-American professor and author. ... Up the Down Staircase is a humorous novel written by Bel Kaufman, and published in 1965. ...

Writer's career

At first, Sholem Aleichem wrote in Russian and Hebrew. From 1883 on, he produced over forty volumes in Yiddish, to become a central figure in Yiddish literature by 1890. Most writing for Russian Jews at the time was in Hebrew, the liturgical language used largely by learned Jews. Sholem Aleichem wrote in Yiddish, the vernacular language often derogatively called "jargon" [zhargon], but which was accessible to all literate Jews. “Hebrew” redirects here. ... A sacred language is a language, frequently a dead language, that is cultivated for religious reasons by people who speak another language in their daily life. ...

Sholom Aleichem's stories in Yiddish, with the author's portrait and signature

Besides his prodigious output of Yiddish literature, Sholem Aleichem also used his personal fortune to encourage other Yiddish writers. In 1888-1889, he put out two issues of an almanac, Di Yidishe Folksbibliotek ("The Yiddish Popular Library") which gave important exposure to many young Yiddish writers. In 1890, Sholem Aleichem lost his entire fortune in a stock speculation, and could not afford to print the almanac's third issue, which had been edited but was subsequently never printed. Over the next few years, while continuing to write in Yiddish, he also wrote in Russian for an Odessa newspaper and for Voskhod, the leading Russian Jewish publication of the time, as well as in Hebrew for Ha-melitz, and for an anthology edited by Y.H. Ravnitzky. It was during this period that Sholem Aleichem first contracted tuberculosis. Image File history File links Metadata No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links Metadata No higher resolution available. ... An almanac (also spelled almanack, especially in Commonwealth English) is an annual publication containing tabular information in a particular field or fields often arranged according to the calendar. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Voskhod (Russian: Восход, translated as Sunrise) is the name of: The Soviet Voskhod programme of human spaceflight The spacecraft used in that programme The rocket that was used to launch those spacecraft It is also: A brand of camera A brand of motorcycle This is... Tuberculosis (abbreviated as TB for tubercle bacillus) is a common and deadly infectious disease caused by mycobacteria, mainly Mycobacterium tuberculosis. ...

Emigration

After 1891, Sholem Aleichem lived in Odessa, and later Kiev. In 1905, he left Russia with some reluctance, forced by waves of pogroms that swept through southern Russia. Originally, Sholem Aleichem lived in New York City, but failed to establish himself in the Yiddish theatre world there. His family, meanwhile, set up house in Geneva, Switzerland. Sholem Aleichem soon discovered that his income was far too limited to sustain two households, and he left for Geneva. Despite his great popularity, many of Sholem Aleichem's works had not generated much revenue for the author, and he was forced to take up an exhausting schedule of travelling and touring in order to make money to support himself and his family. In July, 1908, while on a reading tour in Russia, he collapsed on a train going through Baranowicz. He was diagnosed with a relapse of acute hemorrhagic tuberculosis and spent two months convalescing in the town's hospital. Sholem Aleichem later described the incident as "meeting his majesty, the Angel of Death, face to face", and claimed it as the catalyst for writing his autobiography, Funem yarid [From the Fair] ^[1] During Sholem Aleichem's recovery, he missed the First Conference for the Yiddish Language, held in 1908 in Czernovitz; his colleague and fellow Yiddish activist Nathan Birnbaum went in his place.^[2] Sholem Aleichem spent the next four years living as a semi-invalid; only eventually becoming healthy enough to return to a regular writing schedule. During this period the family was largely supported by donations from friends and admirers. ODESSA (German: Organisation der ehemaligen SS-Angehörigen, Organization of Former SS Members) is the name commonly given to an international Nazi network alleged to have been set up towards the end of World War II by a group of SS officers. ... Map of Ukraine with Kiev highlighted Coordinates: , Country Ukraine Oblast Kiev City Municipality Raion Municipality Government  - Mayor Leonid Chernovetskyi Elevation 179 m (587 ft) Population (2006)  - City 4,450,968  - Density 3,299/km² (8,544. ... Pogrom (from Russian: ; from громить IPA: - to wreak havoc, to demolish violently) is a form of riot directed against a particular group, whether ethnic, religious or other, and characterized by destruction of their homes, businesses and religious centers. ... New York, New York and NYC redirect here. ... Geneva (pronunciation //; French: Genève //, German:   //, Italian: Ginevra //, Romansh: Genevra) is the second most populous city in Switzerland (after Zürich), and is the most populous city of Romandy (the French-speaking part of Switzerland). ... Baranovichi (Belarusian Баранавiчы | Baranavičy; Polish Baranowicze) is a city in the Brest voblast in western Belarus with a population of 173 000 (as of 1995). ... Map of Ukraine (blue) with Chernivtsi highlighted (red). ... Nathan Birnbaum Nathan Birnbaum (16 May 1864 – 2 April 1937), a. ...

In 1914, most of Sholem Aleichem's family emigrated to the United States, where they made their home in New York City. Sholem Aleichem's son Misha was ill with tuberculosis at the time and therefore inadmissible under United States immigration laws. Misha remained in Switzerland with his sister Emma, and died in 1915, an event which put Sholem Aleichem into a profound depression. New York, New York and NYC redirect here. ...

Death and commemoration

Sholem Aleichem died in New York in 1916 at the age of 57, while still working on his last novel, Motl the Cantor's son, and was laid to rest at Mount Carmel cemetery in Queens.^[3] At the time, his funeral was one of the largest in New York City history, with an estimated 100,000 mourners. The next day, his will was printed in the New York Times and was read into the congressional record. The will contained detailed instructions to his family and friends; both in regards to immediate burial arrangements as well as to how Sholem Aleichem wished to be commemorated and remembered on his annual yortsayt. He told his friends and family to gather, "read my will, and also select one of my stories, one of the very merry ones, and recite it in whatever language is most intelligible to you." "Let my name be recalled with laughter," he added, "or not at all." The gatherings continue to the present-day, and in recent years have become open to the public. Queens County, often referred to as simply Queens, is the largest in area of the five boroughs of New York City, USA. It is home to New York Citys two major airports (John F. Kennedy and LaGuardia), the New York Mets baseball team, the USTA National Tennis Center, Silvercup... The New York Times is an internationally known daily newspaper published in New York City and distributed in the United States and many other nations worldwide. ... Type Bicameral Houses Senate House of Representatives President of the Senate President pro tempore Dick Cheney, (R) since January 20, 2001 Robert C. Byrd, (D) since January 4, 2007 Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, (D) since January 4, 2007 Members 535 plus 4 Delegates and 1 Resident Commissioner Political... Bereavement in Judaism (אבלות aveilut; mourning) is a combination of minhag (traditional custom) and mitzvot (commandments) derived from Judaisms classical Torah and rabbinic texts. ...

In 1997, a monument dedicated to Sholem Aleichem was erected in Kiev; another was erected in 2001 in Moscow. Map of Ukraine with Kiev highlighted Coordinates: , Country Ukraine Oblast Kiev City Municipality Raion Municipality Government  - Mayor Leonid Chernovetskyi Elevation 179 m (587 ft) Population (2006)  - City 4,450,968  - Density 3,299/km² (8,544. ... Moscow (Moskva) (Russian: , romanised: Moskva, IPA: see also other names) is the capital of Russia and the countrys economic, financial, educational, and transportation centre. ...

In 1996, a stretch of East 33rd Street in New York City was renamed "Sholem Aleichem Place" between Park and Madison Avenue.

Beliefs and activism

Sholem Aleichem was an impassioned advocate of Yiddish as a national Jewish language, one which should be accorded the same status and respect as other modern European languages. He did not stop with what came to be called "Yiddishism", but devoted himself to the cause of Zionism as well. Many of his writings^[4] present the Zionist case. In 1888, he became a member of Hovevei Zion. In 1907, he served as an American delegate to the Eighth Zionist Congress held in the Hague. Zionism is a political movement that supports a homeland for the Jewish people in the Land of Israel, where Jewish nationhood is thought to have evolved somewhere between 1200 BCE and late Second Temple times,[1][2] and where Jewish kingdoms existed up to the 2nd century CE. Zionism is... Hovevei Zion (transliterated Hebrew, alternatively Hibbat Zion; English translation: Lovers of Zion) organizations are considered the forerunner and foundation of the modern Zionist movement. ... Arms of The Hague The Hague (with capital T; Dutch: Den Haag, or officially s-Gravenhage) is the administrative capital of the Netherlands, located in the west of the country, in the province South Holland of which it is also the capital. ...

Legacy

Sholem Aleichem was often referred to as the "Jewish Mark Twain" because of the two authors' similar writing styles and use of pen names. Both authors wrote for both adults and children, and lectured extensively in Europe and the United States. When the two finally met late in life, however, Twain retorted that he considered himself the "American Sholem Aleichem." Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910),[1] better known by the pen name Mark Twain, was an American humorist, satirist, lecturer and writer. ... A pen name or nom de plume is a pseudonym adopted by an author. ...

A short passage to illustrate Sholem Aleichem's style

"Pinhas Pincus is of less than normal height, with one small eye and one bigger eye. When he talks, it seems as if the eyes talk to each other; the smaller eye asks for and seeks approval from the bigger eye; and the bigger eye gives its approval of every plan or undertaking. When he first came to Nuremberg, there was no limit to his sufferings; he had to endure starvation, misery and personal insults from his German brethren. In Nuremberg he was protected from massacres, but was not protected from starvation."  —from An Early Passover, translated by George Zinberg

Quotes

A bachelor is a man who comes to work each morning from a different direction.

Gossip is nature's telephone.

Life is a dream for the wise, a game for the fool, a comedy for the rich, a tragedy for the poor.

No matter how bad things get, you got to go on living, even if it kills you.

The rich swell up with pride, the poor from hunger.

Works

English-language collections

• The Best of Sholom Aleichem, edited by R. Wisse, I. Howe (originally published 1979), Walker and Co., 1991, ISBN 0-8027-2645-3.
• Tevye the Dairyman and the Railroad Stories, translated by H. Halkin (originally published 1987), Schocken Books, 1996, ISBN 0-8052-1069-5.
• Nineteen to the Dozen: Monologues and Bits and Bobs of Other Things, translated by Ted Gorelick, Syracuse Univ Press, 1998, ISBN 0-8156-0477-7.
• A Treasury of Sholom Aleichem Children’s Stories, translated by Aliza Shevrin, Jason Aronson, 1996, ISBN 1-56821-926-1.
• Inside Kasrilovka, Three Stories, translated by I. Goldstick, Schocken Books, 1948 (variously reprinted)
• The Old Country, translated by Julius & Frances Butwin, J B H of Peconic, 1999, ISBN 1-929068-21-2.
• Stories and Satires, translated by Curt Leviant, Sholom Aleichem Family Publications, 1999, ISBN 1-929068-20-4.

Jason Aronson is a publisher of books of jewish interest, including titles covering Jewish life, history, theology, genealogy, folklore, holidays, and Hasidic thought. ... Curt Leviant (born ?) is a retired Jewish Studies Professor from Rutgers University, New Jersey. ...

Autobiography

• Funem yarid, written 1914-1916, translated as The Great Fair by Tamara Kahana, Noonday Press, 1955; translated by Curt Leviant as From the Fair, Viking, 1986, ISBN 0-14-008830-X.

Curt Leviant (born ?) is a retired Jewish Studies Professor from Rutgers University, New Jersey. ...

Novels

• Stempenyu, originally published in his Folksbibliotek, adapted 1905 for the play Jewish Daughters.
• Yossele Solovey (1889, published in his Folksbibliotek)
• Tevye's Daughters, translated by F. Butwin (originally published 1949), Crown, 1959, ISBN 0-517-50710-2.
• Mottel the Cantor's son Originally written in Yiddish. English version: Henry Schuman, Inc. New York 1953
• In The Storm

Tevye is the protagonist of several of Sholom Aleichems stories, originally written in Yiddish and first published in 1894, most famously the fictional memoir Tevye and his Daughters, about a pious Jewish milkman in Tzarist Russia, and the troubles he has with his daughters (Tevye has six daughters — in... Adventures of Mottel the Cantors Son was Sholom Aleichem’s last novel, and is regarded as one of his funniest. ...

Young adult literature

• Menahem-Mendl, translated as The Adventures of Menahem-Mendl, translated by Tamara Kahana, Sholom Aleichem Family Publications, 1969, ISBN 1-929068-02-6.
• Motl peysi dem khazns, translated as The Adventures of Mottel, the Cantor's Son (young adult literature), translated by Tamara Kahana, Sholom Aleichem Family Publications, 1999, ISBN 1-929068-00-X. Also appeared as Mottel the Cantor's son (Henry Schuman, Inc. New York 1953)
• The Bewitched Tailor, Sholom Aleichem Family Publications, 1999, ISBN 1-929068-19-0.

Young adult (YA) literature is literature written for, published for, or marketed to young adults. ... Adventures of Mottel the Cantors Son was Sholom Aleichem’s last novel, and is regarded as one of his funniest. ...

Plays

• The Doctor (1887), one-act comedy
• Der get (The Divorce, 1888), one-act comedy
• Di asifa (The Assembly, 1889), one-act comedy
• Yaknez (1894), a satire on brokers and speculators
• Tsezeyt un tseshpreyt (Scattered Far and Wide, 1903), comedy
• Agentn (Agents, 1905), one-act comedy
• Yidishe tekhter (Jewish Daughters, 1905) drama, adaptation of his early novel Stempenyu
• Di goldgreber (The Golddiggers, 1907), comedy
• Shver tsu zayn a yid (Hard to be a Jew, 1914)
• Dos groyse gevins (The Big Lottery / The Jackpot, 1916)
• Tevye der milkhiger, (Tevye the Milkman, 1917, performed posthumously)

Miscellany

• Jewish Children, translated by Hannah Berman, William Morrow & Co, 1987, ISBN 0-688-84120-1.
• numerous stories in Russian, published in Voshkod (1891-1892)

References

Rabbi Dr. Chaim Potok (February 17, 1929 - July 23, 2002) was an American author and rabbi. ... The New York Times is an internationally known daily newspaper published in New York City and distributed in the United States and many other nations worldwide. ...

Further reading

• My Father, Sholom Aleichem, by Marie Waife-Goldberg
• Liptzin, Sol, A History of Yiddish Literature, Jonathan David Publishers, Middle Village, NY, 1972, ISBN 0-8246-0124-6. 66 et. seq.
• A Bridge of Longing, by David G. Roskies

Middle Village is a neighborhood in western central Queens (in New York City), bounded to the north by Eliot Avenue, to the east by Woodhaven Boulevard, to the south by Cooper Avenue, and to the west by Lutheran Cemetery. ... Dr. David G. Roskies is the Sol and Evelyn Henkind Chair in Yiddish Literature and Culture and Professor of Jewish Literature at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America. ...

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Sholom Aleichem

• The Sholom Aleichem Network
• The Bloody Hoax (a book review)
• Interview with Bell Kaufman - in Russian
• Sholem Aleichem bobblehead doll