Sholem Aleichem's Response to Tucker Carlson More than 160 Years Before the Fox News Mamzer Opened His Big Fat Moyl

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For the past couple of weeks, in addition to all my other tasks, I have been preparing for my one-man show on the greatest of all Yiddish writers, Sholem Aleichem. I will be performing it this coming Tuesday, March 22 at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, beginning at 3:00. If you are interested in attending, just show up at FAU’s Friedberg Hall at about 2:30 at sign up. Or, you can call 561-297-3185.)

I’ve been appearing as the man born in 1859 as Shlomo Nohumovich Rabinovich (1859-1916) for nearly a half century now, and each time I do, I try to make “his” performance a bit different from the last time we trod the boards. The Jewish equivalent of Mark Twain, the Russian-born Rabinovich (whose penname, Sholem Aleichem, is the most common Yiddish/Hebrew greeting, meaning, roughly “How’re ya doin’?) wrote hundreds of short stories, essays, novels and plays capturing the essence of a world which no longer exists. And yet, he is terribly universal: think of Fiddler on the Roof, which, adapted from many of his stories about a Jewish dairyman named Tevye, is one of the most popular, beloved and successful musicals/movies in the history of entertainment. Oy, if only the terminally impoverished writer could have lived a bit longer, he would have become as rich as Rothschild . . .

Sholem Aleichem (Rabinovich) was born in Pereyaslav, a small city with a large Jewish population in the Poltava Governate of the Russian Government . . . that is to say, the Ukraine . . . in early March, 1859. His father, a prosperous merchant named Nohum Rabinovich, gave his favorite son (Nahum had 12 children), in addition to a rigidly Orthodox Jewish education, a first-class secular education in which he read everyone from Shakespeare and Dickens to Gogul and Cervantes, as well as learning math and science. At age 18, he became tutor to Olga Loyev, the daughter of one of the wealthiest Jews in Czarist Russia. Upon Elimelech Loyev’s death, Shlomo inherited his vast estate, liquidated it and moved to Kiev (the Yiddish pronunciation of what we today call "Kiiv,” and became a stock broker on the "bourse.” Within a few years, Rabinovich (who had already adopted the penname ‘Sholem Aleichem’ so that his colleagues wouldn’t know what he was doing after hours), lost all his money. By this time he and Olga (whose Yiddish name was "Hudel,” which would become famous years later) and their growing family, had to move from Kiev and begin a trek which would eventually see them and their 6 children (which he always referred to as his "Republic,” resettle in such cities as Odessa, Nurmi, Copenhagen, Paris, London and twice, NYC. Olga, by the way, in order to help support the family while her husband wrote, went on to became a dentist - the first Russian woman to do so.

Before Sholem Aleichem began publishing stories, novels and essays in Yiddish, Hebrew was the only literary language taken seriously by Jewish readers; Yiddish, the daily lingua franca of European Jews, was, from a literary point of view, only for women. In matter of fact, all of his earliest works (including a Jewish Robinson Crusoe), were written in classical Hebrew. His idea of writing Yiddish pieces for the masses was indeed, revolutionary.

Sholem Aleichem’s Funeral Procession May 14, 1916

No matter what his financial troubles - and they were many - he continued to write . . . and write and write. No matter where he lived and what the state of his health (he suffered from Tuberculosis, prostate disease and diabetes) he managed to publish an essay or chapter each and every week :”starring” such favorites as Tevya, Menachem Mendel and Motl, Pesya, the Cantor’s Son. His characters moved form the shetlach (small villages of the Russian/Polish “Pale of Settlement”) to New York’s Lower East Side, Paris and Johannesburg, South Africa, provided an essential link to a world which was ever-changing. Ironically, in his distinct cultured household, the language his "republic” spoke was Russian; none of his children were able to read their father’s works in the original.

Always living hand-to-mouth despite his universal readership in the Jewish communities around the world, he died in poverty in New York City in May 1916, and was mourned by hundreds of thousands. (At the time, it was widely reported that upwards of 300,000 people followed his funeral march from 165 Kelly Street in the Bronx to his final resting place at the Mt. Carmel Cemetery in Brooklyn. It may well have been the largest funeral procession in the history of New York City. His ethical will was a moving work of brilliance . . . so much so that it was reprinted on the front page of the New York Times and read into the Congressional Record by New York City Representative William Stiles Bennet.

So what in the world has all this to do with Tucker Carlson, his coterie of bahndit’n (that’s Yiddish for “gangsters”) and the ongoing dismemberment of Ukraine? Just the other day, Carlson, who has been accused of being “one of the biggest cheerleaders for Russia” during the now more than four-week conflict, asked viewers on his top-rated Fox News show a series of questions about whether Putin had promoted “racial discrimination” in schools, made fentanyl, attempted “to snuff out Christianity” or eaten dogs . . . all of which he suggested the Ukrainians were engaged in. Carlson’s central question was “Why in the Hell should we be concerned with Ukraine?”

Two quips - one humorous, one filled with anger - coming from the mouth of Sholem Aleichem’s beloved dairyman Tevye, provide the answer:

"Why should I break my head about the outside world? Let the outside world break its own head." and
"Get off my land. This is still my home, my land. Get off my land."

As things turned out, of course, more than 2 million Jewish men, women and children fled the Pale of Settlement, the vast majority of whom made the perilous trek to the United States of America where, freed of the shackles of Czarist oppression and anti-Semitism, went from being pushcart peddlers and pants pressers on New York’s Lower East Side to creating the motion picture industry, the great department stores like Saks, Macys, Sears and Gimbels, sending their children to colleges and universities and living long enough to see them win Nobel Prizes in medicine, physics, chemistry and literature, as well as Pulitzers and Oscars. In short, Ukraine’s - and Russia’s - loss was the world’s gain. At the same time, Sholem Aleichem was deeply aware that at some point in time, there would arise a new era of pogroms (organized massacres of particular ethnic groups . . . most notably Jews) that would once again bring about mass exoduses and unspeakable destruction. And though he knew that he would not be alive at that future time (he always believed that he would die before turning 60 . . . just like his father), he urged that his children and grandchildren be at the forefront of creating peace where there would be war, and love and humanity where there was senseless bigotry and hatred.

In his last will and testament, he urged that at the time of his yarzheit (the anniversary of his death) his children, grandchildren, friends and readers gather together and recite kaddish (the mourner’s prayer written mostly in Aramaic) in whatever language they best understood and rather than shed tears, “. . . select one of my stories, one of the really joyous ones and read it aloud in whatever language they understand best, and let my name be mentioned by them with laughter than not mentioned at all.”

Sholem Aleichem died at his home at 165 Kelly Street, the Bronx, on May 13, 1916 - the 10th of Iyar, 5676 on the Jewish calendar. This year, the 10th of Iyar, 5782, falls on Wednesday, May 11 on the Gregorian calendar. I for one will be heeding Reb Sholem’s request by gathering with as many of his fans as possible via “Zoom” for the reading of one of his most humorous stories . . . in English and yet to be selected. In that way, not only will we be honoring his last request, but answer the bandit’n und m’shuga’im (gangsters and lunatics) who side with the heirs of the Czars.

Anyone who would like to participate in the Zoom gathering, please email me through this blog or at kfstone@kurtfstone.com Title your email “Sholem Aleichem Zoom” and do provide your name and email address. The Zoom gathering will begin at 7:30 EDT on Wednesday May 11 and last about 45 minutes. A link will be sent to you on the morning of May 11.

Sholem Aleichem!