The Best of Sholom Aleichem

Plot

For Irving Howe Sholom Aleichem is the writer whose work best embodies and pervades Yiddish culture as a whole. In this selection of the best of Sholom Aleichem he and Ruth Wisse give the English - language reader an opportunity to sample the best of Sholom Aleichem. However the reader should note that he is a kind of poetic and ironic writer whose work can only be most deeply appreciated in its native language. This language has the irony idiom and nuance which is in a sense untranslatable. Howe wrote of Sholom Aleichem's work as containing a love of humanity rich in irony.
One can taste that from this collection but the true and full meal is available only to those who know Yiddish in a deep way.