Sholom Aleichem

Sholem Aleichem (Yiddish: שלום־עליכם, Russian: Шолом-Алейхем, Ukrainian: Шолом-Алейхем; March 2 [O.S. February 18] 1859 – May 13, 1916) was the pen name of Sholem Naumovich Rabinovich, the popular humorist and 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 Fiddle... more

Sholem Aleichem (Yiddish: שלום־עליכם, Russian: Шолом-Алейхем, Ukrainian: Шолом-Алейхем; March 2 [O.S. February 18] 1859 – May 13, 1916) was the pen name of Sholem Naumovich Rabinovich, the popular humorist and 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. He was born as "Sholem Naumovich Rabinovich" (alternatively: Sholom Nochem Vevik's) (Russian: Шолем Наумович Рабинович, Ukrainian: Шолом Наумович Рабинович) to the poor Jewish family of Menachem-Nukhem and Khaye-Ester Rabinovitch in the village of Voronko, near Pereyaslav, Kiev Governorate), Imperial Russia in 1859. Sholem Aleichem's mother died when he... less