An important place in the 3rd hall of Museum “Jewish Memory and Holocaust in Ukraine” belongs to the creative heritage of the talented Jewish writer. As part of the 165th anniversary of his birth, we remember a famous figure in the history of Jewish literature.

Solomon Naumovych Rabinovych (real name) (1859–1916) is an outstanding writer, playwright and educator, one of the founders of Yiddish-language literature, originally from Pereyaslav (now Kyiv region).

It is known that the young writer, inspired by the story of Robinson Crusoe, wrote his own Jewish version of this story and adopted the pseudonym Sholom Aleichem, which means “Peace be with you” and is a traditional Jewish greeting.

In his later works, the author in a unique style, with sparkling humor, and sometimes with bitter irony, tells, first of all, non-fictional stories about the difficult life of ordinary Jews: about undisguised poverty, hard work, hopes for a better future and pure love.

The success of Sholom Aleichem's famous story “Tevye the Milkman” and its numerous popular adaptations, productions and musicals led to the fact that in the mass consciousness the heroes of “Tevye the Milkman” began to be associated with the Jews of Eastern Europe at the beginning of the 20th century.

Another famous story of the writer is “The Motl Boy” – an unpretentious and exciting story. Through the mouth of the orphan Motl, the son of a Pacey cantor, the writer tells about the life of Jewish immigrants in the USA.

One of the books presented in the Museum, “Khlopchik Motl” (Russian: “Мальчик Мотл”) was printed by the Soviet publishing house “Der Emes”, which specialized mainly in Yiddish-language fiction, as well as translations from Yiddish into Russian. The copy is dated 1948 – the last year of the publishing house's operation. At the beginning of February 1949, Stalin issued a decree on the dissolution of all associations of Jewish Soviet writers, according to which, in particular, the publishing house “Der Emes” was closed. Also for the attention of visitors is the multi-volume Sholom Aleichem, which was published in Yiddish in New York in 1937.

The creative legacy and extraordinary biography of the famous writer inspired artists to perpetuate the image of Sholom Aleichem in their works. The exhibition of the Museum presents lithographs and graphics by Z. Tolkachov, one of the founders of Ukrainian Soviet fine art, and D. Labkovsky, a Jewish artist and a member of the “Moloda Vilna” group of artists.

Among other exhibits dedicated to creative heritage are a jubilee coin for the 150th anniversary of the birth of Sholom Aleichem, presented by Zelig Brez, director of the Jewish community of Dnipro; a poster presented to the Museum by People's Artist of Ukraine, former artistic director of the Dnipro Academic Theater of Drama and Comedy Zhan Melnykov, on which the actor is depicted as Tevye the milkman.

Liudmyla Sandul