Sholom Aleichem is the pseudonym of the Jewish writer Sholom Rabinovich. "Sholom Aleichem" translates from Hebrew as "Peace be with you". This is how Jews greeted each other, wishing each other peace. With these words of greeting, the writer seems to enter the home of every ordinary person.
The future writer was born on 2 March 1859 in the town of Pereyaslavl, Poltava province (Ukraine). The boy received a traditional Jewish religious education, studying the Bible and the Talmud in the cheder and at home until he was almost 15. From 1873 to 1876 he studied at the Russian Gymnasium in Pereyaslavl, from which he graduated as a private teacher of Russian. In 1877-1879, while working as a home tutor in the house of a wealthy Jewish merchant, he fell in love with his young pupil Olga Loyeva. For three years the girl's parents were happy with the teacher, but when they learned of the young man's feelings, they expelled him. From that moment on, the young man's wanderings in search of a job began.
First he went to Kiev, but when he did not find a job, he settled in Lubno, where for two and a half years he worked as a state rabbi, i.e. as an official representing the Jewish community in state institutions. In Lubno, he began writing in Russian and Hebrew. In 1883, Sholom Aleichem returned to Kiev and met Olga Loyeva. The young couple married and settled near Kiev. In 1880 he decided to write in Yiddish. His first short story "Two Stones" was published in the magazine "Idisher Foxblatt".
Later, the novels "The Best Year", "The Knife" and the play "The Doctor" appeared under the pseudonym Sholom Aleichem. After the death of his father-in-law in 1885, Sholom Aleichem receives a large inheritance and engages in commercial activities, but after a while goes bankrupt. While he was still rich, he managed to publish two large volumes of the "Jewish People's Library", in which he published not only his own works but also those of other (Yiddish) writers. With this publication, he increased the role of Yiddish language and literature in Jewish culture. Penniless, the writer continued his literary work and activities. The prototypes of all his works are the people he met in Ukrainian towns and cities, whose work was a struggle for their daily bread, but who never lost their sense of humour and their faith in a brighter day.
The events of the First Russian Revolution, the anti-Jewish attacks he witnesses in Kiev, force his entire family to leave Russia in 1905, and the wanderings of the world at large begin. In the autumn of 1906, the writer arrives in New York. In every city in the USA, he is warmly welcomed by the Jewish community. In 1908, Sholom Aleichem begins his tour of Russian and Polish cities. The beloved writer is greeted with joy everywhere, but during the journey he falls ill with tuberculosis. After two months of severe illness, he leaves for an Italian spa resort. In October 1908, the anniversary of the writer's literary activity is celebrated. In the same year, a collection of multi-thousand short stories was published in Warsaw, which included almost all of Sholom Aleichem's works published before the First World War. In 1909, the publishing house "Modern Problems" published a collection of Sholom Aleichem's works in Russian. The book was warmly received by readers. In 1908-1914, while he was in Italy, Switzerland, Austria and Germany, Sholom Aleichem kept up his social activities, followed social, political and literary news, and in 1912 he wrote a novel entitled "Bloody Laughter".
After the outbreak of the First World War, the writer and his family moved with his family from Germany to Denmark, and at the end of 1914 - to the United States. On 28 May 1916, he dies in New York before the war is over.
Sholom Aleichem's works have been translated into many languages, and for readers of other languages, each of his books becomes a "calling card" for Jewish literature. The writer was able to portray from the inside the multifaceted life of Jews in Russia at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries, their everyday life and the perception of the world of the inhabitants of the town. The writer created character types that have become classics: the patient and understanding Tevye the moneylender, the "man of the air", Menachem the Mendel, crushed by reality, the childless, sincere and sensitive boy Motl, and the many others so recognisable and beloved to this day.
