Although written from a child’s perspective, this is not a kids book but a series of funny, poignant, and sometimes disturbing stories about life in a late 19th-century Russian-Jewish village — the world of my grandparents. Sholem Rabinovich (1859-1916) was born in Pereiaslav, Ukraine and later immigrated to New York. His short stories about Tevye and his daughters were freely adapted into the musical FIDDLER ON THE ROOF. Rabinovich’s will contained the following injunction: “Let my name be recalled with laughter or not at all.” His translator, Hannah Berman, was Irish of Lithuanian descent.

Some of these stories may be too intense for younger children.

This recording is in Hebrew.

Stories included:
רבי דב (Rabbi Dov)
שני תרנגולים (Two Cocks)
פסח שנשבת (Pesach Celebration Spoiled)
יוסל הגנן (Yosel the Gardener)
ספר הכפרות (Book of Atonement)
חברבר החצרוני (The Dog Havarbar)
שימלה (Shimele)
פסח מוקדם (Early Pesach)
הפילוסוף (The Philosopher)
האשכנזי (The German Jew)
האוצר (The Treasure)
בשביל צנון אחד (For One Radish)
עלילת דם (Blood Libel)

Sholem Aleichem was the pen name of Solomon Naumovich Rabinovich, a leading Yiddish author and playwright. Sholem Aleichem was born into a Hasidic family in Pereyaslav and grew up in the nearby shtetl of Voronko, in...