Among the outstanding writers of the past, whose work has stood the test of time and entered the treasury of world culture, the classic of Jewish literature Sholom Aleichem (Rabinovich Solomon Naumovich) occupies an honorable place. In March 2009, in honor of the 150th anniversary of the writer’s birth, his museum was opened, which the Jewish community had been trying to create since 1956, but received refusal after refusal from the Soviet authorities. One of the main themes of the exhibition of the Sholom Aleichem Museum, a branch of Kyiv History Museum – Sholom Aleichem and Kyiv, Sholem Aleichem and Ukraine. Kyiv played a huge role in the writer’s life: here he was formed as a person and as a writer. “Kyiv is my city… The fact that I can’t be in Kyiv makes me sad.” This was the response of Sholom Aleichem from Italy in 1908 to a congratulatory telegram from Kyiv on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of his literary activity.
The exhibition of the Sholom Aleichem Museum is a story about the life and work of an outstanding writer, as well as an opportunity to become familiar with the spiritual and material culture of the Jewish people. Some ritual Jewish objects and items of traditional Jewish life are on display here. On the monitors installed in the hall, you can see fragments of films and performances based on the works of Sholom Aleichem, Jewish architecture and the unique art of Jewish stone workers – Jewish tombstone steles (matzevas), ancient Jewish books and manuscripts, copies of Jewish calligraphy, learn more about ” The Beilis Case” (a trial of an alleged ritual murder that attracted the attention of not only the Russian but also the European public at the beginning of the 20th century) and much more.
Sholem Aleichem lived in an apartment on Bolshaya Vasilkovskaya from 1896 to mid-1903 (he left this house between April and August 1903). This was the best time of his writing life. Here he wrote “Menachem Mendel”, “In the Small World of Little People”, “New Kasrilivka” (“All Berdichev”), and some short stories from “Tevye the Milkman”. In addition to the main exhibition hall, the museum has a hall for changing exhibitions, in which new exhibitions of works by artists whose work reflects Jewish themes are opened almost every month. There is also a lecture program “Pages of Jewish History and Culture”, concerts, seminars, conferences, meetings with outstanding figures of culture, science, and art are held here.
Where is the Sholom Aleichem Museum?
Bolshaya Vasylkivska Street, 5A
(044) 235 17 34
Tue-Sun: 10:00 – 17:00, closed on Monday and last Thursday of the month