Picture from Wikipedia article on the man.
Sholom Aleichem In Hebrew
Sholom Aleichem was his pen name. It means peace be with you in Hebrew and Yiddish. Sholom, like salaam in Arabic, means peace. The capital city of Jerusalem also contains the word salem. The consonants are s, l, and m. The vowels change with time and place.
The Moustache Fashion
I like to see the portrait of the man which shows the moustache which was the fashion of the day. Then clean water was not so abundant and people were poorer and could not necessarily afford to visit the barber and did not have electric razors.
The clean shaven look came in during WWI. Then soldiers had short hair and not beards nor moustaches because they had to wear helmets or gas masks in the army.
Later beards and moustaches became the bohemian, artistic look. Writers, songwriters, musicians, singers. Then in the nineteen sixties, the hippy look.
Later still associated with primitives. On the one hand, this can be associated with good, simple, healthy and virtuous and honest, or uncultured. It could be associated with orthodox, traditional religious - or violent, aggressive terrorists. But in his era, it evokes a look which is artistic and romantic.
Now let's look at the text. It is Cyrillic. Best known to most people outside Europe as Russian, which is almost the same as the lettering used in Bulgaria, I discovered on holiday in Bulgaria.
Unlike the earlier language of Hebrew, Cyrillic, named after Cyril, a priest, combines Greek and Hebrew letters.
What looks like a W is the sound for Sh in Sholom.
Once you recognize the Sh, it is easy to see the letters Sh-M A-L is his name, Sholom and Aleichem.
The L looks a bit like you are starting to write a lower case l, in cursive or italic with an upward curve. Then you come down as if about to write a capital L, but you can't be bothered to finish it with the line across the bottom as you already have a line across the top, and Hebrew and Cyrillic have lots of letters which seem to be upside down or back to front or left to right. (Of course, our writing came later, so we are the ones who changed it.)
The X is the sound like clearing your throat, like the Scottish ch in loch as in Loch Lomond.
I am a teacher of English and other languages, which I am always learning when I travel.
Tel Aviv
Whilst I am on the subject of language, the word Tel Aviv means hill of spring, or springtime. You will see the word Tel on modern maps of the middle east. Aviv or Aviva is a girl's name. Like the word April, for the month, and the girl's name, April, for girls born in the month of April. Tel Aviv has the old city up on the hill, and the suburbs spread along the sandy beach. The city was founded in 1909.
Tel Aviv's Art Deco
Architecturally, many modern buildings, now historic, are from the nineteen thirties, which to me looks like art deco (deco short for decorative), but which is strictly speaking called Bauhaus. Haus is German for house.
Netanya
Netanya is north of Tel Aviv. It is named after Nathan, the co-owner of Macys department store. Nathan's brother died on the Titanic.
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