Sholem Aleichem
Tevye's literary creator
Sholem Aleichem is a Yiddish phrase meaning "peace be upon you," used as a greeting.
It is also the pen name of Solomon Rabinovich (1859–1916), the Ukrainian-born writer whose humorous stories of Jewish life in the shtetl became the basis for *Fiddler on the Roof*.
The greeting reverses to *aleichem sholem* in response.
- Fiddler on the RoofBroadway show about tradition
- Jewish diasporaScattered population from Israel
- Jewish folkloreTraditional Hebrew cultural narratives
- Eastern EuropeContinental region, former Soviet sphere
- matchmakerArranger of romantic pairings
tears · mamaloshen · wit · Broadway · immigrant · Chagall · pogrom · mensch · Russian Empire · New York · Jewish · musical · poverty · humor · Russia · milkman · Yiddish · village
- Fiddler on the Rooffiddler, milkman, Mendel, wedding canopy, matchmaking
- Jewish Literaturemidrash, Elie Wiesel, Holocaust memoir
- Jewish WritersSaul Bellow, Philip Roth, Elie Wiesel, Anne Frank, Baal Shem Tov
- Eastern European Jewsshtetl, shtetls, Yiddish, Pale of Settlement, Ashkenazi
- Shtetlrabbi, rebbe, shul, matchmaker, tailor
- Yiddish LiteratureYiddish theater, folktales, literary journals
tone and worldview
Sholem AleichemFranz Kafka
Elie Wiesel · existential despair · Holocaust literature · nihilism · bleakness
narrative tone and treatment of hardship
Sholem AleichemÉmile Zola