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Sholem Aleichem

Jewish writer and playwright of Yiddish, who worked in Russian Empire, Switzerland, Germany and the United States (1859-1916) · United States · Writers · Died at 57

Sholem Aleichem is read about 524 times a day, in 50 languages.

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The pen name means "peace be upon you" - and the Yiddish stories he signed with it gave the world Tevye the Dairyman, the milkman whose daughters and dreams became Fiddler on the Roof, the first big English-language stage hit about Jewish life in the shtetl.

WritersWriter / AuthorTheatreLiterature19th Century

A life in dates

1916Died13 May 19161888“The fiddle weeps, sinking to the lower strings”In their words"My First Jewish Novel, Stempenyu" (1888)

“No doubt everyone has worries - a Jew does not need to go looking for trouble.”In their words"My First Jewish Novel, Stempenyu" (1888)

“The heart itself, and particularly the Jewish heart, is a violin: you pluck the strings, teasing out various, generally sad and gloomy songs”In their words"My First Jewish Novel, Stempenyu" (1888)

“He would grab his fiddle and with one pass of his bow, just one mind you, the fiddle would begin to speak. What do I mean by “speak”?”In their words"My First Jewish Novel, Stempenyu" (1888)

1859Born2 March 1859

Also in Deutsch

Photos 8

SholemAleichemSholemAleichemBust of Sholem Aleichem at El RosedalBust of Sholem Aleichem at El RosedalCoin of Ukraine Schalom aCoin of Ukraine Schalom aCoin of Ukraine Schalom rCoin of Ukraine Schalom rHamlet Daytshmerish WriterHamlet Daytshmerish WriterMotl. Cartoon by Samuel Cahan. 1916Motl. Cartoon by Samuel Cahan. 1916Rachel Szalit-Marcus Mentshelekh un stsenes 010Rachel Szalit-Marcus Mentshelekh un stsenes 010Sholem Aleichem hammering YiddishSholem Aleichem hammering Yiddish

In their own words 7

,
Sholem Aleichem
,
7 statements, newest first

  1. The fiddle weeps, sinking to the lower strings

    1888, "My First Jewish Novel, Stempenyu" (1888), Own words

  2. No doubt everyone has worries - a Jew does not need to go looking for trouble.

    1888, "My First Jewish Novel, Stempenyu" (1888), Own words

  3. The heart itself, and particularly the Jewish heart, is a violin: you pluck the strings, teasing out various, generally sad and gloomy songs

    1888, "My First Jewish Novel, Stempenyu" (1888), Own words

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About this person

Solomon Naumovich Rabinovich was born March 2, 1859, in the Russian Empire and wrote under a pen name borrowed from a traditional greeting. He became a playwright and author working in Yiddish, chronicling a world most of his future audience would never see firsthand. His Tevye stories - about a dairyman, his daughters, tradition bending under pressure - stayed in print long after he died in the United States on May 13, 1916. Nearly fifty years later, in 1964, Fiddler on the Roof opened and became the first commercially successful English-language production to bring Eastern European Jewish life to Broadway. The pen name outlasted the man; the dairyman outlasted them both.

Country
United States
Category
Writers
Type
Writer / Author
Status
deceased
Dates
Lived 1859 to 1916 · aged 57

Writers from the United States 6

Ralph Nader57.4Maria von Trapp57.3Thornton Wilder57.4Zora Neale Hurston57.3Sandra Cisneros57.4Gary Gygax57.3

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