Sholem Aleichem: The Making of a Comic Master

How did Solomon Rabinovitch turn himself into the first—and greatest—master of Jewish comedy? How did he become a beloved companion named Sholem Aleichem, How-Do-You-Do, welcomed into every Jewish newspaper and every Jewish home? How did he invent a Yiddish-speaking childhood, breathe new life into the cycle of Jewish holidays, create a gallery of unforgettable characters, the little Jews from the imaginary town of Kasrilevke, and manage to write so many stories that never properly ended? This three-part series will take us back to the turn of the twentieth century, when Sholem Aleichem brought forth a universal Jewish Comedy.