Sholom Aleichem (translated from Hebrew as a greeting "Peace be with
you") was the pseudonym of Sholom Yakov Rabinovitz. He was born on
February 18, 1859, in Pereiaslav near Kyiv, Ukraine, in the Russian
Empire. His father was a religious scholar and the family was
trilingual. After his mother died of cholera, when he was only 12 years
of age, his father encouraged his writing, even through the hard times.
Young Sholom Aleichem attended a Russian secular high school, but never
attended university. He was drafted into the Russian Army and upon
being discharged became a rabineer for 3 years. Throughout his entire
lifetime, he was not wealthy. He had a humble, modest disposition, a
quiet voice, and was described by many as a man of great wisdom and
wit. It was the humbling experience of his life in Russia under the
Czars that led to his special style of "laughing through tears" humor.
Sholom Aleichem began serious writing in the 1880's. He was
instrumental in the foundation of "di Yidishe folks bibliotek" (the
popular Yiddish library) in 1888. At the same time during the 1880's
Jews in Russia came under attack (known as "pogrom"); they suffered
loss of property and of lives. In 1905 Sholom Aleichem fled from
Russia. He lived in several countries of Europe until WWI. Large
numbers of Jews were dislocated because their communities, known as
"shetls, were destroyed. With the suffering came an increased cultural
awakening of Jews, expressed in literature written in Yiddish. Yiddish
was the every day language of European Jews, derived from Hogh German
with enrichment from Hebrew, Russian, Polish, and English (among other
languages). Sholom Aleichem wrote in Yiddish, Hebrew, and Russian; he
was also fluent in Polish, Ukrainian and other languages.
From 1883 to 1916, Sholom Aleichem wrote about 40 volumes of stories,
novels, and plays ; he became the leading writer in Yiddish, and one of
the most prolific writers ever. He also wrote scholarly works in Hebrew
and secular works in Russian, the only acceptable language of official
publishers in the Russian Empire. His works about the life of Jews in
traditional communities were based on real life stories and were
published throughout Europe and in the United States. His best known
work is "Tevye the Milkman" ("Tevye der milkhiker" in Yiddish). It
describes the Russian Jewish milkman, who deals with the complex world
with humor, pain, optimism, and wisdom. It was adapted for stage
production as the play 'Fiddler on the Roof' which became a Broadway
success. The eponymous film, starring 'Haim Topol', won three Oscars. A
successful staging of the 'Fiddler on the Roof' was done at the Moscow
Lenkom Theatre by director Mark Zakharov,
starring Evgeniy Leonov and later
Vladimir Steklov in the title role.
The dangers of WWI forced Sholom Aleichem to emigrate to America. He
settled in the Bronx. The tragedy of separation from his son Misha, who
suffered from tuberculosis, was unbearable. After Misha's death in
1915, Sholom Aleichem followed him on May 13, 1916 in Bronx. His
funeral was attended by tens of thousands.
The great value of his works is in the meticulous literary preservation
of the traditional life of a shtetl, before it disappeared in the
tragic abyss of history. "You can take a Jew out of a shtetl, but you
cannot take a shtetl out of a Jew", wrote Sholom Aleichem.
