THE TIME SHOLEM ALEICHEM ALMOST ENDED MY LIFE

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By Kurt F. Stone, D.D.

The first live theatre I recall attending was a performance of “The World of Sholem Aleichem,” nearly 65 years ago.  I was absolutely mesmerized by what was transpiring on stage, and fell in love with both his characters and the actors – especially Zero Mostel, Jack Gilford, Sam Levene and Lee Grant – who brought his “world” to life. I remember returning home and heading straight for our library, only to discover that -Eureka! – we actually had a copy of the book upon which the play was based.

Over the years, I read just about everything Sholem Aleichem (Solomon Rabinowitz) had written, and eventually began developing a one-man show in which I portrayed “the Jewish Mark Twain” to the best of my tragicomic ability.  Before too long, I found myself performing a couple of times a month, always tweaking and (hopefully) improving my one-man show.

By the early 1980s, I had appeared as Sholem Aleichem a couple of hundred times everywhere from California and Mississippi to Sydney, Tel Aviv and London.  Then, one day, shortly after relocating to South Florida, I appeared in Plantation.  After the show, an elegant, wonderfully turned-out woman of about 75 came up to me and told me how much she had enjoyed the performance.  I smiled, thanked her, and started to return to the green room.

“How long have you been performing as Sholem Aleichem?” she asked.

“Oh, about 12 or 13 years,” I answered.

“And how many performances would you say you’ve done in all that time?” she queried.

“Ah!” I thought, “perhaps she wants to hire me.”  I was about to hand her my agent’s card when she then asked, “And, on average, how much do you get for a performance – minus travel expenses?”

Doing a quick bit of mental math, I came up with a figure that even impressed me ever so slightly.  I awaited her next question, which I assumed would be about future availability.

Boy, was I ever wrong.  For what she said next almost caused me to drop dead on the spot from myocardial infarction:

“It seems to me that you owe me (and here she named a price well beyond my means) for use of the name and image of Sholem Aleichem.”  She looked serious. I felt a pounding in my chest.

“How is that possible?” I asked weakly.

“You never asked my permission!”

Then, it dawned on me: the women I was talking to had to be Sholem Aleichem’s sole surviving heir, the writer Bel Kaufman.  She must have read my mind and recognized when I figured out who she was, because at precisely that moment, she got an elfin twinkle in her eye.

“Ms. Kaufman, I presume?”

“Indeed!” she said.  “I really had you going, didn’t I?”

“You almost killed me,” I said.

“How would you like to help spend zayde’s gelt (Yiddish for “grandpa’s money”)?

“I thought he was broke when he died,” I responded.

“He was,” Bel said.  “But in the more than 60 years since his death, he’s become a millionaire due to royalties.  Would you like to join the advisory board of the Sholem Aleichem Foundation and help spend it?”

I couldn’t answer “Of Course!” quickly enough. Bel and I went out to lunch . . . then dinner . . . then lunch the next day.  And when she got back to New York, she had the Foundation stationary remade . . . it now included my name.

Bel died a mere three years ago . . . at age 103.  She was the last person who actually knew Sholem Aleichem in life . . . and saved me – her father’s imitator – from suffering a severe cardiac event.

Oh, how I miss Bel . . .

 

Kurt F. Stone, D.D.
An Evening with Sholem Aleichem: A One-Man Performance
Tuesday, January 16, 2018, 7 – 9 p.m.
To register, click here.

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One comment on “THE TIME SHOLEM ALEICHEM ALMOST ENDED MY LIFE
  1. Irene Ross says:

    Delightful story. Looking forward to hearing Dr. Stone this week.