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World Jewish News
Celebrating Sholom Aleichem's 150th Birthday
04.03.2009
Ukraine is celebrating the 150th anniversary of Sholom Aleichem's birth on a governmental level. On March 2, a museum of Sholom Aleichem was opened in Kiev, on Velyka Vasylkivska Street. The opening ceremony was attended by the Vice-President of Kiev city administration Vitaly Zhuravsky.
"Sholom Aleichem spent most of his life in Ukraine, which is why Kiev state city administration has decided to open this museum as part of Kiev History museum," said Zhuravsky in his speech.
According to him, around two million UAH were allocated by the city budget into repairs and creation of the museum exposition.
"Nowadays, under such difficult financial and economic conditions, we would like to thank everybody who joined the creation of the museum and provided help. I hope that this museum will become one of the important centers for ethnic identity, development of a harmonic personality and spiritually mature nation," Zhuravsky stressed.
A solemn literary and artistic event took place at the I. Frank National theater.
The President of Ukraine Victor Yushchenko sent an address to the organizers, participants and guests of this event.
"Today we are celebrating the 150th anniversary of birth of a prominent figure of Ukrainian and Jewish culture, world-famous writer Sholom Aleichem," reads the address published on the official website of the Ukrainian President. "Writing the truth deep from the heart, with heart's blood, but for joy – this credo of the genius master made his works close and clear for everybody. They have been translated into dozens of languages and have become the heritage of the whole humanity.
Ukraine is proud of its great son, and keeps the memory of him," emphasized the Head of the State.
It should be mentioned that in February this year, a building of the ХІХ century was demolished in Kiev. The building in which Sholom Aleichem had lived will be replaced with a hotel for EURO-2012, as reported by mass media.
The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine established a literary prize in honor of Sholom Aleichem. This was stated in the Decree №147 of February 25. The prize will be awarded once in three years on Sholom Aleichem's birthday, March 2, by the Committee which includes the representatives of the Ministry of Culture, National Academy of Sciences, National Writers Association and other public creative unions.
A documentary exhibition called "Sholom Aleichem and Ukraine" was opened in two halls of the National Literature museum in Kiev.
The National Bank of Ukraine presented a commemorative coin dedicated to the famous writer. The nominal value of the coin is 5 UAH. The representatives of artistic circles were invited to the presentation ceremony.
The Jewish writer's birthday was also commemorated in Moldova. The I.Manger cultural center and library held a meeting of Yiddish club to celebrate this important date. Sholom Aleichem’s admirers and experts in "Mame Loshn" gathered to listen to the rare recordings of Sholom’s voice and to watch the excerpts from theater performances by prominent Soviet and foreign actors.
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Sholom Aleichem (true name – Rabinovich Sholem Nahumovich) is a prominent Jewish writer. His works were mostly written in Yiddish. He was born in Pereyaslav (now Pereyaslav-Khmelnitsky in Kiev region) to the family of a petty trader. His literary activity began in the late 1870s and resulted in 10 novels, 20 plays, hundreds of short stories, a lot of articles.
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