Shloyml Boyml and His Purim Adventure by Yale Strom, with illustrations by Emil Singer-Fuer and translations to Yiddish by Nikolaj Olniansky; Hoor, Sweden: Olniansky Tekst Farlag publisher © 2023; ISBN 9789198-721980; 44 pages in English; 44 pages in Yiddish; $16 plus shipping via this website.
SAN DIEGO – Yale Strom, San Diego’s own klezmer musician, documentary film maker, and ethnomusicologist, has recently written a charming story for youngsters about a klezmer band in Bessarabia (today Moldova and a piece of Ukraine).
Shloyml Boyml and his band receive an invitation from a rebbe from some distance away to play at his Purim party. The rebbe requests that the band compose and play on the violin a special Purim melody. Shloyml is both ecstatic and worried by the invitation. It’s a great honor to play for the rebbe. But his band does not have a violinist.
He and his bandmates put up posters announcing auditions for a violinist, but members of a jealous klezmer band take them down before many people can read them. As the day of the event got closer, Shloyml heard a beautiful violin melody coming from a Romani home. Drawn by the fabulous playing, he knocks at the door and introduces himself to Barbu, the fiddler.
Although they are of different religions, Shloymi and Barbu immediately become friends. Music has a way of bringing people together. Barbu agrees to join the band and play for the rebbe.
In the excitement of trying to find a violinist and then traveling a long distance to the rebbe’s home, Shloyml forgot that he was supposed to compose a new Purim song. He only remembered when the rebbe called on the band to play it.
How it all turns out can be read in English in the left-to-right version, or you can flip the book over and read it in Yiddish in the right-to-left version of the story.
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Donald H. Harrison is publisher and editor of San Diego Jewish World. He may be contacted via sdheritage@cox.net
If you like this Jewish tale then read my book “Shloyml Boyml and His Lucky Dreydl.” This story was also based upon my ethnographic research in Romania and Moldova. This fictional story is based upon real history. For all ages.