Sholem Aleichem: Laughing in the Darkness

Documentarian Joseph Dorman surveys the life and work of Sholem Aleichem, born Solomon Rabinovich in Russia (now Ukraine) in 1859. Called “the Yiddish Mark Twain,” the description is apt but incomplete; Twain wrote in established English while Aleichem virtually single-handedly fostered a rich literature in Yiddish, a vernacular language then considered less “literary” than Russian or Hebrew. Best known today as author of the stories that inspired Fiddler on the Roof, Aleichem has a broader legacy than that, and Dorman covers it thoroughly in a swift, fascinating 93 minutes, spiced with selections from his writings and glossed by commentary from a variety of scholars, historians and writers (including reminiscences from Aleichem’s 100-year-old granddaughter Bel Kaufman, author of Up the Down Staircase).