Sholem Aleichem (redirected from Sholem Yakov Rabinowitz)

Sholem Aleichem: see Aleichem, Sholem.

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Sholem Aleichem

 orig. Sholem Yakov Rabinowitz

(born Feb. 18, 1859, Pereyaslav, Russia—died May 13, 1916, New York, N.Y., U.S.) Russian writer. Drawn to writing as a youth, he became a private tutor at age 17 and later served as a government rabbi. Beginning in 1883 he published more than 40 widely translated volumes of novels, stories, and plays in Yiddish. English translations from his 14-volume collected works include Jewish Children and The Old Country. His best-known character, Tevye the dairyman, was the subject of a volume of short stories that later was the basis for the musical Fiddler on the Roof (1964).