Sholem Aleichem

Sholem Aleichem

Infobox Writer
name = Sholem Naumovich Rabinovich



imagesize = 240px
caption = Sholem Aleichem's stories in Yiddish, with the author's portrait and signature
pseudonym = Sholem Aleichem ( _yi. שלום־עליכם)
birthdate = OldStyleDate|March 2|1859|February 18
birthplace = Pereyaslav (in present Ukraine), Russian Empire
deathdate = death date and age|1916|5|13|1859|2|18
deathplace = New York City, United States
occupation = writer
nationality =
period =
genre = novels, short stories, plays
subject =
movement = Yiddish revival
influences =
influenced =


website =

Sholem Aleichem ( _yi. שלום־עליכם, _ru. Шолом-Алейхем; OldStyleDate|March 2|1859|February 18 – May 13, 1916) was the pen name of Sholem Naumovich Rabinovich, the 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.

His work has been widely translated. The 1964 musical "Fiddler on the Roof", loosely based on Sholem Aleichem's stories about his character Tevye the Milkman, was the first commercially successful English-language play about Eastern European Jewish life.

Early life

He was born as "Sholem Naumovich Rabinovich" (alternatively: Sholom, Shulem, Rabinovitz, Rabinovitsh, etc.) ( _ru. Шо́лем Нау́мович Рабино́вич) to a poor Jewish family of Menachem-Nukhem and Khaye-Ester Rabinovitsh in the Pereyaslav (Poltava region, east of Kiev), Imperial Russia in 1859. 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.

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 wrote the novel, "Up the Down Staircase", which was made into a successful film.

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 nearly all literate East European Jews.

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.

Emigration

After 1891, Sholem Aleichem lived in Odessa, and later Kiev. In August 1904, Sholem Aleichem edited "Hilf: a Zaml-Bukh fir Literatur un Kunst" ("Help: An Anthology for Literature and Art"; Warsaw, 1904) and himself translated three stories submitted by Tolstoy ("Esarhaddon, King of Assyria"; "Work, Death and Sickness"; "") as well as contributions by other prominent Russian writers, including Chekhov, in aid of the victims of the Kishinev pogrom. 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] .cite news |first=Chaim |last=Potok |authorlink=Chaim Potok |coauthors= |title=The Human Comedy Of Pereyaslav |url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D03EFDE1738F937A25754C0A963948260 |quote=Approaching his 50th birthday, the Yiddish writer Sholom Aleichem (born Sholom Rabinowitz in the Ukraine in 1859) collapsed in Russia while on a reading tour. He was diagnosed as suffering from tuberculosis. As he put it later, 'I had the privilege of meeting his majesty, the Angel of Death, face to face.' |publisher=New York Times |date=July 14, 1985 |accessdate=2008-06-16 ] 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. [ [http://www.ibiblio.org/yiddish/Tshernovits/fridh.html First Yiddish Language Conference. Two roads to Yiddishism (Nathan Birnbaum and Sholem Aleichem)] by Louis Fridhandler] 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.

In 1914, most of Sholem Aleichem's family immigrated 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.

Death

Sholem Aleichem died in New York in 1916, aged 57, while still working on his last novel, "Motl the Cantor's son", and was laid to rest at Mount Carmel cemetery in Queens. [ [http://www.mountcarmelcemetery.com/page.asp?id=aboutus Mount Carmel cemetery] ] At the time, his funeral was one of the largest in New York City history, with an estimated 100,000 mourners. [cite news |first= |last= |authorlink= |coauthors= |title=Vast Crowds Honor Sholem Aleichem; Funeral Cortege Of Yiddish Author Greeted By Throngs In Three Boroughs. Many Deliver Eulogies Services At Educational Alliance Include Reading Of Writer's Will And His Epitaph. |url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9500E4DA113FE233A25755C1A9639C946796D6CF |quote=A hundred thousand people of the east side, with sadness in their faces, lined the sidewalks yesterday when the funeral procession of Sholem Aleichem, (peace be with you,) the famous Yiddish humorist, whose real name was Solomon Rabinowitz, passed down Second Avenue and through East Houston. Eldridge, and Canal Streets, to the Educational Alliance, where services were held before the body was carried over the Williamsburg Bridge to ... |publisher=New York Times |date=May 16, 1916, Tuesday |accessdate=2008-04-20 ] [cite news |first= |last= |authorlink= |coauthors= |title=2,500 Jews Mourn Sholem Aleichem; "Plain People" Honor Memory Of "Jewish Mark Twain" In Carnegie Hall. Some Of His Stories Read Audience Laughs Through Tears, Just As The Author Had Said He Hoped Friends Would Do. |url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=940CE3DF123DEF3ABC4052DFB066838D609EDE |quote=More than 2,500 Jews paid honor to the memory of Sholem Aleichem, the "Mark Twain, who depicted in a style almost epic" the spirit of his race, at a "mourning evening" in Carnegie Hall last night. |publisher=New York Times |date=May 18, 1916 |accessdate=2008-04-20 ] The next day, his will was printed in the "New York Times" and was read into the Congressional Record of the United States.

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 "yartzheit". 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.

Commemoration

In 1997, a monument dedicated to Sholem Aleichem was erected in Kiev; another was erected in 2001 in Moscow. In 1996, a stretch of East 33rd Street in New York City between Park and Madison Avenue was renamed "Sholem Aleichem Place." Many streets in Israel are named after him. An impact crater on the planet Mercury also bears his name. [ [http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/gallery/sciencePhotos/image.php?page=2&gallery_id=2&image_id=122 MESSENGER: MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging ] ]

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 ["Oyf vos badarfn Yidn a land", (" [http://www.sholom-aleichem.org/why_jews_need2.htm Why Do the Jews Need a Land of Their Own?] "), translated by Joseph Leftwich and Mordecai S. Chertoff, Cornwall Books, 1984, ISBN 0-8453-4774-8] 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.

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 was considered the "American Sholem Aleichem."

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.
*Rather the bite of a friend than the kiss of an enemy.

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.
*"Selected Works of Sholem-Aleykhem", edited by Marvin Zuckerman & Marion Herbst (Volume II of "The Three Great Classic Writers of Modern Yiddish Literature"), Joseph Simon Pangloss Press, 1994, ISBN 0-934710-24-4.

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.

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"
* "Wandering Star"

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.

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 milkhiker", ("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

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

External links

* [http://www.sholom-aleichem.org/ The Sholom Aleichem Network]
* [http://tal.forum2.org/bloody The Bloody Hoax] (a book review)
* [http://www.peoples.ru/family/children/kaufman/ Interview with Bell Kaufman] - in Russian
* [http://www.archive.org/details/jewish_children_ap_librivox/ Jewish Children by Sholom Aleichem] MP3 recording from LibriVox.org.


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужно решить контрольную?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Sholem Aleichem — Cholem Aleikhem Contes de Cholem Aleikhem avec portrait de l auteur et signature Cholem Aleikhem (en yiddish et hébreu: שלום עליכם, en russe: Шолом Алейхем) nom de plume de Cholem Naumovich Rabinovich ; (1859 – 1916) est un humoriste et… …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Sholem Aleichem — orig. Sholem Yakov Rabinowitz born Feb. 18, 1859, Pereyaslav, Russia died May 13, 1916, New York, N.Y., U.S. Russian writer. Drawn to writing as a youth, he became a private tutor at age 17 and later served as a government rabbi. Beginning in… …   Universalium

  • Sholem Aleichem (crater) — Mercury crater data caption=MESSENGER photo of Sholem Aleichem latitude=51 N or S=N longitude=56.5 E or W=W diameter=190 km eponym=Sholom AleichemSholem Aleichem is a crater on Mercury, named after the Yiddish writer [… …   Wikipedia

  • Sholem Aleichem — Scholem Alejchem, Foto und Unterschrift in einem Band (Tewje der Milchiger) der New Yorker Werkausgabe Scholem Alejchem (auch: Scholem Alechem / Schalom Alechem / Shalom Aleichem / Schulem Aleichem usw. = hebräisch Friede sei mit euch,… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Sholem Aleichem — orig. Sholem Yakov Rabinowitz (18 feb. 1859, Pereyaslav, Rusia–13 may. 1916, Nueva York, N.Y., EE.UU.). Escritor ruso. Comenzó a escribir cuando niño y a los 17 años se transformó en tutor privado. Posteriormente se desempeñó como rabino del… …   Enciclopedia Universal

  • Sholem Aleichem — (1859 1916, born Solomon Rabinowitz) Russian born Yiddish humorist, writer of novels plays and short stories (some of which formed the basis for the musical Fiddler on the Roof ) …   English contemporary dictionary

  • Filmworks XX: Sholem Aleichem — Album par John Zorn Sortie Septembre 2008 Enregistrement Mai 2008 Durée 44:18 Compositeur John Zorn Producteur …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Sholem Aleichem (Rabinovitz, Solomon) — (1859 1916)    Ukrainian Yiddish author. He was born in Pereyaslav, and began writing novels, poems and plays at an early age. In 1888 9 he published the literary annual Die yidishe folksbiblyotek. He subse quently created the character of Tevye… …   Dictionary of Jewish Biography

  • Sholem Aleikhem — Cholem Aleikhem Contes de Cholem Aleikhem avec portrait de l auteur et signature Cholem Aleikhem (en yiddish et hébreu: שלום עליכם, en russe: Шолом Алейхем) nom de plume de Cholem Naumovich Rabinovich ; (1859 – 1916) est un humoriste et… …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Sholem — (as used in expressions) Asch Sholem Sholem Aleichem Sholem Yakov Rabinowitz Sholem Yankev Abramovitsh * * * …   Universalium

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”