The classic of Yiddish literature, Sholom-Aleichem, is a prominent writer of the past whose works stood the test of time and belong to the treasure house of the world culture.
"Sholom Aleichem" stands for "Peace to you!" This was the greeting echoing in every heart that over a hundred years ago Solomon Rabinovich, who soon became the most popular and the most favorite writer Sholom-Aleichem, gave to the Jewish people.
He was a prominent publicist, a writer, and a public figure.
Main themes of the Museum's display are Sholom-Aleichem and Kyiv, Sholom-Aleichem and Ukraine. This is entirely logical, since Kyiv played an important role in the writer's life: this is where he was shaped and developed, both as an individual and as a writer. This is where he longed to be as a young man and as a well-known writer living outside of the borders of the Russian Empire, this is where he expressed the will to be buried, next to his father, as he lay sick in New York.
"Kyiv is my city. Staying away from it makes me sad."
Sholom-Aleichem's response to a greetings telegram from Kyiv on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of his literary work. Italy, 1908.
Sholom-Aleichem used to say about himself that he is the chronicler of Jewish life. "Why writing novels when life itself is a novel?" - reads an epigraph to his autobiographic novel "From the Fair." Life of a Jewish shtettl became the spring-well that nourished the writer's talent and inspiration. Our museum not only provides an account of life and work of the prominent writer. It also gives our visitor a chance to learn about the spiritual and material culture of the Jewish people.
Sholom-Aleichem was born on March 2, 1859, in an old town of Pereyaslav to the family of a not too rich, not too poor merchant Nachum Rabinovich. The writer spent his childhood in Pereyaslav and in a small town of Voronkiv in Poltava Gubernia. It is Voronkiv that is often mentioned in Sholom-Aleichem's works under the invented name of Kasrilovka.
