18 May
Arts & Culture, Culture, History, Latest

Remembering Sholom Aleichem

by Kara A. Kaufman It’s not every day that you see your own photograph in a newspaper, much less a Russian publication printed halfway around the globe. But one afternoon when I was a young girl (age “six and two-thirds,” as I told the reporter), I found myself gazing into the grayscale eyes of my own face. The newspaper article centered around the Yiddish author Sholom Aleichem, perhaps best known for his “Tevye the Dairyman” stories which are the basis for the musical Fiddler on the Roof. The reporter had snapped my photograph because Sholom Aleichem is my great-great-grandfather. My family has hosted an annual yahrzeit in honor of his memory for 95 years; this Sunday will mark our 96th. My family holds these yahrzeits out of our collective desire to remember my great-great-grandfather, and also to...

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03 Feb
Arts & Culture, History, Latest

Kiev Celebrates Sholom Aleichem, then Destroys his House

By Jeremy Gillick Following celebrations in Kiev in honor of the 150th anniversary of Sholom Aleichem's birth, developers destroyed his house. The great Yiddish writer would not have been surprised. Many of his stories dealt with misfortune, luck and the arbitrariness of life. He himself fell victim to risk and a volatile economy. As Dara Horn writes in an essay at jbooks.com, "Right on the Money," Aleichem "lost his entire fortune on the Kiev stock exchange, and spent the rest of his life evading his creditors." On another note, for the first time in a long time, Sholom Aleichem has a new book out in English, Wandering Stars, also in honor of his 150th birthday (the Forward has an excerpt). Thankfully, it doesn't directly relate to Madoff or any other contemporary scandal, crisis, election or war;...

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30 Dec
Culture, Latest, topics

Laughter Through Tears

By Jeremy Gillick Sholom Aleichem, the revered 19th century writer whose earnest, incredulous and good-natured humor came to define a century of Jewish jokes, is back. Not resurrected--Aleichem was never much of a believer, though he undoubtedly would have welcomed the Messiah into the world like an old friend into his home--but reincarnated in the body and voice of Theodore Bikel. At 84, the man who made Fiddler on the Roof into an American story--Bikel has played Tevye the Dairyman upwards of 2000 times--has brought back to life the man whose writings shaped his long and illustrious career. "Laughter Through Tears," which recently premiered at the DCJCC's Theater J and which, following it's strong reception, was extended to run through January 18th, is a one-man tribute to Sholom Aleichem. Written, acted and sung by Bikel himself, the...

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