He was friend, confidante, and majordomo to some of the giants of modern Yiddish literature, including Sholem
Aleichem, S.
It is based on the book Tevye and his Daughters and other tales by Sholem
Aleichem.
Santa Monica, CA, June 04, 2019 --(PR.com)-- Santa Monica Playhouse presents the World Premiere of
Aleichem Sholom!
Ted Merwin's Pastrami on Rye: An Overstuffed History of the Jewish Deli illustrates this moment in history with a quote from a Sholem
Aleichem novel, written in Yiddish in 1916: "Maybe you've heard of Hibru Neshnel Delikatesn.
Yet, the beloved musical "Fiddler on the Roof," by composer Jerry Bock and lyricist Sheldon Harnick, adapted from Yiddish writer Sholom
Aleichem's stories, reveals the Jewish patriarch to be more progressive than he realizes.
The participants consisted of James Philip Domens, 11 years old, Pasig City; Charles Cedrick Lajom, 12, Mandaluyong City; Nazer Merendad, 11, Mandaluyong City; Tadashi Rysuei Omiya, 11, Montalban, Rizal; Angelane Joy Ortega, 12, San Carlos City; Elijah Raj Pabalete, 11, San Carlos City; Caitlin Clare Panilan, 10, Quezon City; Roy Panunciar Jr., 11, San Carlos City; Michaella Ann Tolones, 12, Zamboanga City; Winceyette Louise
Aleichem Tumala, 12, San Carlos City; Zhaira Gail Velasco, 12, San Carlos City; and Joeny Yap, 11, Batangas City.
His parents, Julius and Frances Butwin, were early translators of Sholem
Aleichem (The Old Country, 1946; Tevye's Daughters, 1949).
He told me how he still loves that song, how he still cries when he hears "Shalom
Aleichem."
Encompassing not only the expected topics (Sholem
Aleichem's stories, Jerome Robbins's feud with Zero Mostel, the casting for the film) but also subjects that have never before been considered vis-a-vis their relationship to Fiddler (Hebrew theater in the forties, black-Jewish relations in the sixties, Fiddlers impact on contemporary Jewish rituals), this is cultural history at its finest.
The author explores 18 classics of Jewish literature to illustrate Jewish thought and experience over a period of 2,500 years: the books of Deuteronomy and Esther, The Exposition of Laws by Philo of Alexandria, The Jewish War by Flavius Josephus, Pirkei Avot, the Itinerary of Benjamin of Tudela, the Kuzari by Yehuda Halevi, The Guide of the Perplexed by Moses Maimonides, the Zohar, the Tsenerene and the Memoirs of GlEckel of Hameln, Theological-Political Treatise by Baruch Spinoza, the Autobiography of Solomon Maimon, Jerusalem by Moses Mendelssohn, the Tales of Nachman of Bratslav, The Jewish State and Old New Land by Theodor Herzl, and Tevye the Dairyman by Sholem
Aleichem. He describes what they contain, how and why they were written, and what they reveal about Judaism and Jewishness.