Sholem Aleichem

This year was 150th anniversary since the birth of the greatest Yiddish writer Sholem Aleichem. Sholem Aleichem became something for Jews in Soviet Union that help them to identify themselves as a Jews. If you were a Jew you were reading his books, in Russian translation, but still Sholem Aleichem’s books, trying to catch rarely coming out movies as Tavie the Milkman or Wandering Stars. Something what really made you a Jew in former USSR , no it is not a fifth line in your passport, it is a collection of Sholem Aleichem’s work in five volumes which came out in USSR in 1959 to commemorate 100th birthday of great Yiddish writer. If you would visit somebody’s home in former Soviet Union, and would see these books on a bookshelf you could say for sure that this is a Jewish home. The irony of faith – that the last film which was produced in Soviet Union was - Sholem Aleichem’s Wondering Stars, which came out in a late 1991, just before USSR fell apart.