Shalom Aleichem (1859-1916)

Sholom Rabinovich, the man who later write under the pseudonym Shalom Aleichem, was born near Kiev. While traditionally educated, he was not a Talmudic scholar like Yitzak Peretz. He attended a Russian secular school and became well-read and versed in Russian society.

Writing was Rabinovich's life - he was one of the most prolific authors of ANY world literature. Rabinovich wrote constantly - if he wasn't writing fiction, he was writing for newspapers. His collected works comprise a full 28 volumes, and he used his writing in all aspects of his life - even marriage! After falling in love with the daughter of a patron who forbade him to marry her, Rabinovitch wrote a tragic story about their love that was so heartbreaking that it persuaded him to allow the marriage.

Always proloific, Rabinovitch was seldom profitable. His financial security was always in doubt, and even when he received an inheritance from his father-in-law he lost it gambling.

In 1888 he attempted to start The Jewish People's Literary Magazine, published by Mendele Mocher Sforim, which failed after three issues. The magazine, however, served two important purposes:

1. It provided the first real attempt at standardization of Yiddish orthography.

2. It gave the writers it featured their start, including Yitzak Peretz.

Although he disliked America, Rabinovich was forced to move here after the first World War. Always labeled "The Yiddish Mark Twain," he finally got to meet Samuel L. Clemens. The American writer is said to told him how humorous he found that, because people had always referred to him as "The American Shalom Aleichem."

Rabinovich eventually died of a nervous breakdown brought on by the exhaustion of his constant writing. He died in the Bronx at only 59, and his funeral, shown below, was attended by tens of thousands.

Although an educated man, Shalom Aleichem tended to write stories of the old-world shtetl life, with simple-minded characters dealing with often-complex problems. He is most famous for his stories of Tevye, the Russian Jewish milkman popularized in the musical and movie Fiddler on the Roof. Some of Shalom Aleichem's themes include such still-relevant issues as intermarriage, assimilation, the balance of secular and religious aspects of Jewish life, and the struggle of Jews to walk the line between keeping their identity and adapting to the non-Jewish world around them.