Jewish Children

Jewish Children is a collection of stories written about children in a shtetl, but it is a book for adult or young adult readers, telling about life through the eyes and experiences of children. Community life in the shtetl was structured around the rabbi, the Cheder (the school for learning Torah and Talmud), the holidays, and Shabbat. Sholem Aleichem opens a door for us into that life. As a reader, you will laugh at times and be sad at times, as he narrates these stories that are gems of everyday life. Sholem Aleichem is one of the founding figures of the Yiddish literature movement. He was born in 1859, and he began writing as a teen-ager. In his mid-20's he published his first work in Yiddish, adopting the name Sholem Aleichem, a variation on the Hebrew greeting, shalom aleichem, which means "peace be with you." Yiddish was not consideration a proper language for literature in many circles, but it was the colloquial language for most East European Jews, which was his audience. He published more than forty books and had a wide international following. The book that was to have the broadest influence was Tevye the Dairyman, published in 1894. Although the original work had been read by thousands of people, when it was adapted for stage and screen as Fiddler on the Roof, it became one of the most popular productions of all time.