Sholem aleichem biography of abraham
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“Where I am coming from?” a tall, lanky, bearded man, with a plush hat accosts me.
He had just finished praying and was putting away the folded prayer shawl and his phylacteries.
Where I am coming from? Alas and alack! I am coming from the draft board, am I. This fellow who is stretched out on the bench is actually a son of mine. I am just coming from Yehupetz with him. We were over to some lawyers and get some advice and at the same time visited some professors to see what they would say. Some draft was wished on me! Presented ourselves four times, and the end is not yet. And just think of it, an only son; that is, unique in the family, a true first born, pure and simple. Why do you look at me? Do I annoy you? You may just listen won't you.
The history of the tale is a matter like this: I myself am a Mezeretcher, from Mezeretch. A native — that is I was born, so to speak, in Mazepevkeh; I was registered, that is recorded in the books of Vorotilivkeh; that is, at one time I
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Sholem Aleichem, 1859-1916
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Dates
- Existence: 1859-02-18 - 1916-05-13
Found in 17 Collections and/or Records:
Abraham Sutzkever-Szmerke Kaczerginski Historical Collection
Collection
Identifier: RG 223.2
The Abraham Sutzkever-Szmerke Kaczerginski Historical Collection contains letters, manuscripts, and historical documents which were saved by the Yiddish poets Avraham Sutzkever and Szmerke Kaczerginski in the Vilna Ghetto. Sutzkever, Kaczerginski, and other members of the Paper Brigade, conscripted Jewish workers who were forced to work under the Einsatzstab Rosenberg, saved thousands of books, manuscripts and documents at great risk to their lives by hiding them in various places in the Vilna Ghetto. After the war the surviving members recovered many of the hidden items. Sutzkever sent many of these rescued materials to the YIVO Institute in New York from the period 1947 to 1956. The collection consists of 8 series and
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Shalom Aleichem
Shalom Aleichem (Shalom Rabinowitz) was born in Pereyaslav, Ukraine, and moved with his family as a child to Voronkov, a neighboring small town that later served as the model for the fictitious town of Kasrilevke described in his works.
Shalom Aleichem received his early education in a traditional heder in Voronkov. His father, a wealthy merchant, was interested in the Haskalah (Enlightenment) and modern Hebrew literature. A failed business affair caused the family to move igen. Days of poverty and want followed, and in 1872, his mother died of cholera. In 1873, at the age of fourteen, he entered a Russian gymnasium, from which he graduated in 1876.
Though he began writing in Hebrew, his first “serious work” – a dictionary of the curses employed by stepmothers – was written in Yiddish. Later, he wrote Hebrew biblical “romances” similar in style to those of Abraham Mapu, of whom his father was particularly fond. In 1879, he began publishing. For about three year