SHOW NOTES

You may not know who Sholem Aleichem is. Or you may just assume he’s a fusty old Yiddish author. But if you’ve ever laughed at an episode of Seinfeld or Curb Your Enthusiasm, you should know about Sholem Aleichem. If you’ve ever enjoyed a movie by Mel Brooks or Woody Allen, you should know about Sholem Aleichem. If you’ve ever appreciated a book by Philip Roth or Jonathan Safran Foer, you should know about Sholem Aleichem. If you’ve ever chuckled at a self-deprecating joke told by Rodney Dangerfield or Joan Rivers or Jon Stewart, you should know about Sholem Aleichem.

For this second episode in our informal series leading up to an episode about Fiddler on the Roof, we’ll learn about Yiddish author Sholem Aleichem, whose tragicoming writing has been called the “anchoring work of the modern Jewish canon.”

SOURCES

Alisa Solomon, Wonder of Wonders: A Cultural History of Fiddler on the Roof (https://a.co/d/f9zpnBO)

https://encyclopedia.yivo.org/article/1142

https://blogs.loc.gov/catbird/2020/05/sholem-aleichem-the-yiddish-mark-twain/

https://tikvah.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Tikvah_StudyGuide_Wisse_v3.pdf

https://www.yiddishbookcenter.org/discover/yiddish-literature/sholem-aleichem-conversation-ruth-wisse-and-david

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0VouWU91olA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMhLaVUb4oc