Thanks in part to the popularity of Fiddler on the Roof, Sholem Aleichem is best known today as an author of short stories, and especially for his series of stories about Tevye the Dairyman. But he also wrote novels, the last of which, Moshkele the Thief, was long forgotten—and will soon be published in English for the first time. Curt Leviant, the translator, writes:
The mystery of this novel’s disappearance goes back to the creation of the classic 28‑volume Complete Works of Sholem Aleichem, a project that was begun after Sholem Aleichem’s death in New York City. Moshkeleh the Thief was left out of this endeavor. We can only speculate that perhaps the family thought that a work by Sholem Aleichem that deals with thieves and the Jewish underworld was not . . . fitting, or not representative of his work.
And yet Sholem Aleichem himself regarded the story of Moshkeleh as a great achievement. His view that Moshkeleh Ganev (the original Yiddish title) was important is reflected in two letters he wrote in 1903. In one, the author predicts that Moshkeleh Ganev will have the same success as his popular second novel, Stempenyu (1889). In another letter he states: “I now feel as if I’ve been born anew, with new—brand new—strength. I can almost say that now I’ve really begun to write. [Sholem Aleichem’s emphasis.] Until now I’ve only been fooling around.”
Yiddish literature had long maintained a tradition of edelkeyt, refinement. Yiddish and Hebrew authors eschewed violence, the darker side of life, and people on the fringes of respectability. But Moshkeleh Ganev signals Sholem Aleichem’s literary thrust away from this almost self-imposed silence. With this novel he enters a Jewish arena that had not hitherto been explored in Yiddish fiction. . . . By taking horse thieves as his subject and focusing on a man who is rejected by society, Sholem Aleichem enters uncharted literary territory.
In this sense, the novel anticipated the works of the next generation of Yiddish writers—such as Moshe Kulbak, Oyzer Varshavksi, and I.J. Singer—who would find their voices after the First World War.
Read more on Jewish Book Council: https://www.jewishbookcouncil.org/pb-daily/sholom-aleichems-long-lost-novel