Sholem Aleichem

Sholem Aleichem (also: Sholem Aleichem / Shalom Aleichem / Shalom Aleichem / SCHOOL Aleichem etc. = Hebrew Peace be with you, pseudonym of Shalom Yakov Rabinovich / Shalom ben Menachem Nachum Rabbinowicz / Shalom Rabinovitz, etc.; * 18 Februarjul / 2. . March 1859greg in Perejaslav in Kiev, † May 13, 1916 in New York ) was one of the most important Yiddish writer and is next to Mendele and Perez as the third classic of Yiddish literature. He was also called the Jewish Mark Twain.

Life, meaning

Sholem Aleichem, humorist and satirist, described among other things, the lives of Jewish emigrants to the United States, also wrote children's books and brought to American audiences the daily life of Jews in Eastern Europe at the turn of the century detail. His first works were published in Russian or Hebrew, the language of the learned Jewish upper class. But he chose to write in Yiddish, which was the language of millions of Eastern European Jews, in which there rarely been was a well-established literature. Like his idol Mendele he also preferred the portrayal of the Jewish people as a group, in the representation of individual characters, he was less talented, unlike Perez. In contrast however to Mendele looks Sholem Aleichem not to his fellow Jews that would have to be educated, down from above, but makes himself a part of the world, he describes a world of transition, in which nothing is true without being asked, all falter unit.

Shalom Rabbinowicz was born the son of a Gutspächters who dealt in wood and grain, and had a license for mailing. The boy received a strict Jewish education in the cheder, showed as a child special skills and occurred early emerged as resourceful jester. With non-Jewish literature but he worked until his fifteenth year, neglected about not his Talmud studies, which he continued with unabated zeal. In 1876 he graduated from the Russian school, from 1877 to 1880 he was tutor to a wealthy landowner.

His writing began Sholem Aleichem in 1877 with novels, dramas, songs, reports and articles for the two then the largest Hebrew daily newspapers HaZefirah and HaMeliz; after he became a contributor to the cedar tree Jewish people sheet.

In 1883 he married Olga Loyev and decided to write from now on in Yiddish.

In 1888 he went to Kiev, where he inherited a few hundred thousand rubles of his rich father, and began to speculate on the stock market, but without neglecting his literary work. In particular, he succeeded here, the Jewish Public Library to establish a series of epoch-making critical -literary annuals in Yiddish (see below).

1890 Sholem Aleichem made ​​bankrupt and had to flee abroad temporarily from its creditors. His debts were paid later by his mother, he returned, and the family settled in Odessa, where he has spent his most difficult years of life. 1893 Sholem Aleichem returned to Kiev and was a dedicated employee at Spektors family friend.

In the late nineties, Sholem Aleichem closed - increasingly disillusioned with socialism - the Zionist movement and wrote for her some agitation brochures and the Zionist novel Moshiach Tzaitn ( "The days of the Messiah "). From 1899 to the Zionist Yiddish weekly Der Yid appeared, later he also wrote for other Yiddish periodicals ( Freind, Tug, path, etc.).

Because of pogroms, he emigrated in 1905 from Odessa, and a long walking time with many different stations ( The Hague, Berlin, longer lecture tours through Russia, a temporary stay in Denmark etc. ) started, first he went to Lviv, visited various cities in Galicia and Bukovina, then in Switzerland, England, in the United States, 1907 disappointing return to Europe in 1914 again. in the U.S., where he ( intermittently ) lived until his death in Jewish dominated New York

Shalom Aleichem died on 13 May 1916. On the day of his funeral, all Jewish shops in New York were closed, hundreds of thousands accompanied him on his last journey. The popularity of his works rose even more. Through the model translation into Hebrew by his son Isaac Dow Berkowitz and the translations into most European and other languages ​​, his works were known many people (including non-Jewish ) readers and some of his literary characters world famous. Hebrew and Yiddish theater led after his death to his pieces and in particular the dramatic version of Tevye narrative sequence.

3000 x Broadway listed; ; During the sixties of the twentieth century, the famous musical Fiddler on the Roof (premiered 1964 from Tevye then played on stages around the world on Broadway in New York, German performance as Fiddler in February 1968 in Hamburg, Walter Felsenstein brought the musical to Berlin in 1970 -East).

Sholem Aleichem wrote countless letters during his decades-long creative period. Of these, about 500, scattered in various media publications published.

In 1964, a Sholem Aleichem - Museum was built in Tel Aviv, which is dedicated to the memory of the writer and the care of Yiddish culture.

Sholem Aleichem had six children. His daughter Lala ( Lela ) Kaufman ( 1887-1964 ) was also active as a writer and as a journalist.

Works (selection)

Known appearance or emergence time

• Natasha, 1884 (novel)
• Di Yiddish Folk Library, Kiev 1888 ff ( Yiddish annual publication )
• Stempenju, 1888 (novel)
• Reb Sender Blank in san much appreciated Family, 1888
• Yosele Solovei, 1889
• Shimele, 1889
• Menachem Mendel letters, created 1892-1913
• Tevye the Milky ( " Tevye the Milkman " ), created 1894-1916 ( from later in 1964: Fiddler on the Roof Fiddler on the Roof or )
• Moshiach Tzaitn, 1898 ff ( Zionist novel)
• The Yid, 1899 ff ( Zionist weekly newspaper )
• Zeseht un zischpret, 1905
• Motl Peyse the Khazns, created 1907-1915
• Blondzhende Star, 1911 ( " Wandering Stars " novel about Jewish artists )
• Funem Jarid ( "From the Fair " ), autobiographical novel (written 1913-1916 )
• Heavy tsu saijn a Yid, 1914

Works without year or not determined

• A Chussen a Dokter ( satirical game )
• Agents ( Drama )
• When Dokter ( monologue )
• When Prisiv ( monologue )
• The Gymnasium ( monologue )
• The office business (early drama)
• The panorama
• The accident
• The Bewitched Schneider
• The prudent Schluri
• The progress in Kasrilewke
• Tue gold Greber (or: The Ojtser = "The Treasure " )
• The violin ( children's story )
• The world tour (early satire)
• Dos Bintl flowers
• Dos groijse Gewins ( "Grand Prix ", Comedy )
• Dos Messerl ( children's story )
• A novel without love
• Railway Stories
• Poems without rhymes
• History vun der jargon literature
• Children's game
• Small mensché Lech ( humorous descriptions )
• Mazel tov ( Drama )
• Rabtschik ( dog story )
• Novel without novel
• Male ski Soroker ( Drama )
• Transmitter Blank and his household (novel)
• Sweet dreams
• Tzwei Schteiner
• Varbitene jozros ( Drama )
• Scattered sprinkles and listed in February 1909 in Jaffa to the "Association of Lovers of the Hebrew Stage "
• " Dictionary of Yiddish curses "

Film compositions (selection)

• The blitiger fun
• The Mabel
• Jewish Glicken
• Moliere Pesse the Chasens

Total expenditure

• Warsaw 1909-1919 ( 15 volumes )
• Folk rear Ojsgabe, New York 1917-1925 (28 volumes)

Selection of German-language editions

• From the Middle East, 1914
• The story Tewjes the dairyman, German 1914
• The first Jewish Republic, 1919
• Menachem Mendel, 1921
• Stempeniu, German 1922
• A wedding without Musicians, 1961
• The son of the cantor, 1965 ( = Mottl ... )
• Tevye the milkman, illustrated by Anatoli Kaplan, Dresden 1967
• The prudent Schluri Yiddish 1968
• The Bewitched cutter with 26 color lithographs by Anatoli Kaplan, Berlin 1969
• The progress in Kasrilewke and other ancient stories in modern times with 26 lithographs by Anatoli Kaplan, Berlin 1990
• Railway Stories Übers Gernot Jonas, Jewish publishing house, Frankfurt 1995
• An omelet than for the rich. Monologues and dialogues Übers Gernot Jonas Edition Dodo, Berlin 2003
• The daughter of the Rebbe. Children's stories Übers Gernot Jonas Edition Dodo, Berlin 2010