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David Labkovski brought Yiddish author Sholem Aleichem’s stories to life through his art. Aleichem’s stories shed light on the everyday life of the Eastern European Jewish community. Reading and illustrating these tales brough Labkovski closer to the people and stories of his childhood. In commemorating the “world that was,” Labkovski recalled how Jewish people lived, instead of focusing on how they died.
Sholem Aleichem literally means “peace be upon you,” or colloquially, “how do you do.” It was the pen name chosen by Solomon Rabinovich. Rabinovich chose to write for the Jewish common-man, in Yiddish, their mother tongue. He took the pen name because he did not want to disappoint his father, who would have preferred his son write in the more formal languages of Russian or Hebrew.
Sholem Aleichem writes for and about the Jewish community, his community— their struggles, tribulations, and challenges. The stories are often tragic but told with the resiliency of humor. Sholem Aleichem touches the very heart of life for the Jewish community at the turn of the century; a people dealing with emigration, assimilation, antisemitism, and financial hardships, but also their endurance in the face of adversity, their ways of coping with the changing world. Their tales tell of a time and place, but their resilience in the face of adversity, their ways of coping with the changing world make them universal and timeless.
Labkovski thought the characters so true-to-life that he portrays them suffering the same fate as the Jewish community of Vilna under the Nazis and their local collaborators. He places them in the Vilna Ghetto with the Nazi-enforced star on their clothing.
What kind of stories make you reflect on the events of today? How can you use your creativity to change the narrative of how we reflect on the history, to create a better future?
