Sholom (Sholem) Aleichem (born Solomon Naumovich Rabinovich) was a renowned Jewish writer known for his Yiddish stories depicting life in Eastern European shtetls, including the Tevye tales that inspired Fiddler on the Roof. Below is a detailed chronology of his life.
| Year | Event |
|---|---|
| 1859 | Born on March 2 (Old Style: February 18) in Pereiaslav, Russian Empire (now Ukraine), and grew up in the nearby shtetl of Voronkiv in the Poltava Governorate. |
| 1870s | His father, Nokhem Rabinovich, a wealthy merchant, faced financial ruin from a failed business; his mother, Chaye-Esther, died in a cholera epidemic when he was 13, prompting the family to move back to Pereiaslav. |
| 1876 | Graduated from school in Pereiaslav and began working as a teacher. |
| 1877–1880 | Spent three years tutoring Olga (Hodel) Loev, the daughter of a wealthy landowner, in the village of Sofijka near Bohuslav. |
| 1880–1883 | Served as a crown rabbi in Lubny. |
| 1883 | Published his first Yiddish story, “Two Stones” (Tsvey Shteyner), adopting the pseudonym Sholem Aleichem; married Olga Loev on May 12 against her father’s wishes, later inheriting her family’s estate. |
| 1884 | First child, daughter Ernestina (Tissa), was born. |
| 1887 | Daughter Lyalya (Lili), who later became a Hebrew writer, was born. |
| 1888 | Daughter Emma was born; began writing in Hebrew and Russian alongside Yiddish. |
| 1888–1889 | Published two issues of the almanac Di Yidishe Folksbibliotek (The Yiddish Public Library) to promote emerging Yiddish writers. |
| 1889 | Son Elimelech (Misha) was born. |
| 1890 | Lost his fortune in stock speculation and fled creditors, halting the third issue of his almanac; emerged as a key figure in Yiddish literature with over 40 volumes; wrote in Russian for Odessa newspapers and Voskhod, and in Hebrew for Ha-melitz and an anthology by YH Ravnitzky; contracted tuberculosis. |
| 1892 | Daughter Marusi (Marie Waife-Goldberg) was born. |
| 1894 | First published Tevye the Dairyman (Tevye der Milchiker). |
| 1901 | Son Nochum (Numa, later Norman Raeben, a painter and art teacher) was born. |
| 1904 | Edited Hilf: a Zaml-Bukh fir Literatur un Kunst (Help: An Anthology for Literature and Art) in Warsaw, including translations of Tolstoy and Chekhov, to aid victims of the Kishinev pogrom. |
| 1905 | Witnessed pogroms in the southern Russian Empire, including in Kiev (which he fictionalized as Yehupetz in his works). |
| 1906 | Emigrated from Kiev to New York City. |
| 1907 | Served as the American delegate to the Eighth Zionist Congress in The Hague (he had joined Hovevei Zion in 1888). |
| 1908 | Family established a home in Geneva, Switzerland, where he joined them; suffered a relapse of acute hemorrhagic tuberculosis on a train in Baranowicze, convalescing for two months; described the event as a brush with the Angel of Death, inspiring his autobiography Funem yarid (From the Fair); missed the first Conference for the Yiddish Language in Czernovitz. |
| 1909 | Celebrated his 25th jubilee as a writer; friend Jacob Dinezon organized a committee to repurchase publishing rights to his works for a steady income. |
| 1914 | Moved back to New York City with his family, initially living in Harlem at 110 Lenox Avenue (at 116th Street), then relocating to 968 Kelly Street in the Bronx; son Misha, suffering from tuberculosis, stayed in Switzerland due to U.S. immigration restrictions. |
| 1914–1916 | Wrote his autobiography Funem yarid. |
| 1916 | Died on May 13 in New York City from tuberculosis and diabetes at age 57, while working on Motl, Peysi the Cantor’s Son; buried in Mount Carmel Cemetery in Queens, New York City. |