The Worlds of Sholem Aleichem: The Remarkable Life and Afterlife of the Man Who Created Tevye

Tuesday, November 12, 2013
2:00 PM at the West Bloomfield JCC
7:30 PM at the Oak Park JCC

Please join JGSMI as we co-sponsor Jeremy Dauber, author of The Worlds of Sholem Aleichem: The Remarkable Life and Afterlife of the Man Who Created Tevye at the 62nd Annual Jewish Book Fair. This event is free.

Sholem Rabinovitch was 15 years old when he wrote his first book, a Jewish version of Robinson Crusoe. He became one of the founders of modern Yiddish literature, the man behind “Tevye” and the author of some of the most memorable stories about life in the shtetl.

Sholem Aleichem was the son of a successful merchant who lost all his money, leaving the family destitute. Sholem found work as a tutor – then wed his student. He became a writer who found tremendous success in both Europe and the U.S. When he died in 1916, more than 150,000 attended his funeral.

Jeremy Dauber is a professor of Yiddish literature at Columbia University, where he also serves as director of its Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies. He received his undergraduate degree from Harvard and his doctorate from the University of Oxford, which he attended as a Rhodes Scholar.

“Dauber brings to his task a comprehensive knowledge not only of Sholem Aleichem’s life but also of the contexts – historical and literary – in which he wrote and thrived. His prose is swift, clean, and clear, and the portrait that emerges is sharply focused.” – Kirkus Reviews (starred)

Co-sponsored by Jewish Genealogical Society of Michigan, The David-Horodoker Organization, IRP (Institute for Retired Professionals), Jewish Parents Institute, Jewish Senior Life, Workmen’s Circle/Arbeter Ring