Sholem Aleichem After Fifty Years

Abstract

The 50th anniversary of the death of Sholem Aleichem (he died on May 13, 1916) is being commemorated throughout the Jewish world, as was the 50th anniversary of the death of Y. L. Feretz, last year. Both these writers, each in his own way, transformed not only the Jewish literary scene in Eastern Europe, opening up a new era, but perpetuated and reflected in their works the life of Eastern European Jewry. That life is no more, but the works of these two great classics remain and have still significance and meaning for our own day.