Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 2.djvu/89

 128. II. JULY -29, 1916.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

83

SHOLOUM ALEICHEM : HIS WILL AND EPITAPH.

THE will of Sholoum Rabinowitz, the Yiddish humorist and novelist, a native of Russia, who died last May in New York, aged 57, will unquestionably stand out as one of the most remarkable of the " tzahvo-ous " or wills extant among a people who have elevated will-making into a fine art and noble science. A brief statement of the contents of this extraordinary document, and a free translation I have made of the author's epitaph, may provide students with some measure of insight into the " roch- monus " (or benignity) and the idealistic aspirations of our representative men. I will take the epitaph first, as that enables one to grasp what I may call the undertone, and the general philosophy compressed so piously within the longer documents.

His EPITAPH.

A simple Israelite here lies ;

Wrote all his books ia Yiddish, mainly For working folk ; with Humour's eyes

He scanned their flaws, but ever sanely !

He laughed away his sickly years ;

Bound the World's torts he wove his laurel ; The World rewarded him with tears

And bitterness ; whence flows this moral !

When by their firesides, snug at home, He shed for folk his choicest treasure,

Nightly a-hungred he did roam ;

With God alone, to cheer his leisure !

This reminds one of the terrible life-stories of Villon, of Savage, of Verlaine, and many another.

Now to the business of the will and last testament of this, hapless " Sholoum Aleichem," drawn up in New York on Sept. 19, 1913, which was the next day after " the Atonement Day," as he points out in his exordium. The main body of the will is contained in ten paragraphs. Rabinowitz .states in a preface that in 1908 he drew up a special will. Owing to the death, in September, 1913, of his eldest son Michael, liis own health became thoroughly shattered, and this document was made useless. Ho r.-s lved, therefore, to lose no time in pre- paring a fresh one.

He directs (par. 1 ) that, no matter where he may die, lie is to be buried only among the. working people, so that his grave may both shed lustre on the sepulchres of the poor, and receive homage from theirs ; even as during the lifetime of the writer most of liis .'!*. >ry was drawn fiom popular sources of applause.

Par. 2 appoints the style of superscription on his tombstone : merely his " pen-name " (which means "Peace upon you all") in English on one side ; on the other the same title in Hebrew lettering ; nothing else.

In par. 3 he forestalls all controversy in New York among his countless friends and admirers, as to the manner of perpetuating his memory there. Deprecating all squabbles on that subject, he conjures them to seek the better way by getting his twenty volumes into general circulation, by means of trans- lations and otherwise. He hopes that the Hebrew Maecenas who has modestly con- cealed himself from winning immortality during the lifetime of the testator will now step forward and help his family to the attainment of a fair income from these hitherto unfruitful labours. He is confident that the Hebrew people will rise to the occasion.

We respect his boundless optimism, and pass on to par. 4, which is concerned with saying " Kaddish," and sundry other in- junctions of a like order. One feature of it calls, however, for notice. His family, if they fail to perform the religious offices aforesaid, may acquit themselves of their obligations by gathering together once a year, along with such friends of his as may care to attend the function, and reading this his last will and testament, and likewise one or more of his most humorous stories, in whatever language shall be'most conformable to their tastes and inclinations so that, he plaintively adds, " my name may be remem- bered with laughter rather than not at all."

Par. 5 is more extraordinary still for so rigidly orthodox a man. He grants to his descendants the privilege of entertaining " whatever religious convictions they choose " ; but allows them this full liberty in thought only, and threatens them that in the event of their abjuring Judaism they will " thereby haVe removed themselves from his family, and have no portion among their brethren."

Par. 6 declares that cash ("if such a thing as cash be found in his possession "), books, MSS., &c., all belong to his wife, and proceeds to detail the manner of their disposition after her demise.

Apart therefrom, in par. 7, he devises specific bequests from the profits which he calculates will accrue to his family from his plays and other writings ; and directs that, in the event of the net receipts per annum being un-lor .5,000 roubles, 5 per cent is to be deducted therefrom and remitted to fund in New Yvk or elsewhere (whenever such a