Three Passover Tales

Sholem Aleichem—that iconic, versatile Yiddish writer—explores Passover themes in these three short stories, newly translated into English: "An Early Passover" is a satiric tale of a Hasidic refugee from Eastern Europe who suddenly finds himself living among middle-class Reform Jews in 1908 Germany, and must find a way to earn a living there. "A Village Passover" explores the idyllic friendship between a little Jewish boy and a little Christian boy in the Ukrainian countryside, amid conflicts between their parents during Passover and Easter. It touches on themes of Jewish survival and on questions about what it means to be a Jew. "The Lovebirds" is a genre unto itself: a Passover horror fantasy involving food, death, and kidnapping. The book concludes with excerpts from the author's own Passover letters to family members, expressing his longing to have "everyone, absolutely everyone, together at the Seder."