Description
This is a wonderful children’s book about my grandfather that he would have loved.
Bel Kaufman,
granddaughter of Shalom Aleichem
How did he become a writer?
Writer Erica Silverman, fascinated by the world of Shalom Aleichem’s stories since childhood, wrote a story for children about himself.
Shalom Aleichem knew the hard life and suffering of his people like no one else and yet in any situation he knew how to see the funny side.
The works of Shalom Aleichem usually take place in “shtetls” – small Jewish rural settlements in Russia and other regions of Eastern Europe of the XIX century.
The law forbade Russian Jews to live outside the impoverished territories that were part of the so-called “Pale of Settlement”, to settle in large cities, to own land, to become doctors and lawyers. Few Jewish children were allowed to study in Russian schools and universities.
Shalom Aleichem believed that laughter was the best medicine to help endure difficulties, and made readers laugh at themselves and their misfortunes.
In the late xix and early XX century, his stories were read aloud in Jewish homes around the world – he became a real hero of his people.
