VIDEO: A humorous Yom Kippur tale about a shtetl cantor (with English subtitles)
The classic story by Yiddish writer Sholem Aleichem is performed here by actor Shane Baker.
Shane Baker Image by Congress for Jewish Culture
By Forverts Staff September 29, 2022
In Sholem Aleichem’s short story, “The Yom Kippur Cantor – Someone to Envy,” a pauper known as Meylekh the Cantor dies immediately after neilah, the last prayer on Yom Kippur. According to Jewish tradition, only a tsadik, a truly righteous person, has the merit of achieving this. So what are the townspeople to make of this?
In this clip, Yiddish actor and cultural activist Shane Baker makes the story come alive. The video is subtitled, enabling those people who don’t understand Yiddish to get a taste of why Sholem Aleichem has been so popular with readers for over a hundred years.
A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
