A taste of the incredible photos from "The Original Fiddler- Sholem Aleichem's Theater."
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www.ojwww.ojA taste of the incredible photos from "The Original Fiddler- Sholem Aleichem's Theater."
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Photographs from the Yiddish Theater of New York
Sholem Aleichem (1859-1916) is regarded as the most popular and beloved of Yiddish writers. He composed stories, novels and plays that captured life in the shtetl, the traditional Jewish village in Eastern Europe.
The writer, born Solomon Rabinovitz, grew up in the Ukrainian town of Pereyaslavl. Although he studied Hebrew, the sacred and literary language of Jews, in school, he spoke Yiddish at home. Sholem Aleichem was a penname.
Sholem Aleichem’s plays, unlike his stories and novels, were largely unsuccessful during his lifetime. While living in Europe, the author traveled to New York in 1907 for the American premieres of two of his plays. Although the American press called him, “the Jewish Mark Twain,” the productions failed. Sholem Aleichem returned to Europe disillusioned and bitterly disappointed.
At the outbreak of World War I, Sholem Aleichem escaped with his family to Copenhagen and then to the United States. He died in 1916. His funeral procession brought 150,000 mourners onto the streets of New York City. It took another three years for the first successful production of his work, a performance of Tevye der Milhiker (Tevye the Milkman), the story later made into Fiddler on the Roof.
These theatrical photographs, in the collection of the Oregon Jewish Museum, show scenes from productions staged between 1920-1940, until the destruction of Yiddish-speaking communities in Europe and the supplanting of Yiddish by English, especially in the United States.
Sholem Aleichem’s legacy serves as a powerful icon of folk language, culture and spirit.
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August 25-30, 2009
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