Stempenyu: A Jewish Novel

Stempenyu: A Jewish Novel (Yiddish: סטעמפּעניו אַ ייִדישער ראָמאַן Stempenyu, A Yidisher Roman) is an 1888 Yiddish language novel by Sholem Aleichem based loosely on the life of klezmer violinist Stempenyu. It his first novel and remained one of his most popular; it was reprinted multiple times and adapted into various stage and film versions, including a play with music composed by Joseph Achron and one adapted by Sholem Aleichem himself for Boris Thomashefsky's theatre. The novel says that name of the title character comes from nickname of his father, Stempener, after the village of Stempeni "not far from Mazepevke", from which his father Berl hailed. The novel is dedicated to Mendele Mocher Sforim to whom the author wrote a letter with the dedication, addressing to Mendele "dear grandfather". The novel was adapted in 1905 as the play Jewish Daughters (Yidishe Tekhter). Although the play had been performed in England before, its first-ever English-language production (as opposed to Yiddish) didn't take place until March 2025, which was a student production in the ADC theatre in the University of Cambridge. It is one of the three Sholem Aleichem's novels about artists, the other two being Yosele Solovey and Wandering Stars.