Title Page 1961

Anatoli Kaplan created this title page lithograph for an edition of Sholem Aleichem's "Tevye the Milkman" between 1957 and 1961. Kaplan's illustrations for "Tevye" became a life-long project. Aleichem's stories are set within the Jewish Pale of Settlement, a region of the Russian Empire where Jews were historically permitted to reside. These images are therefore freighted with meaning in relation to Russian history, Jewish culture, and the complex and often fraught relationship between the two. The portraits surrounding the title are likely those of Jewish inhabitants of the Pale, their expressions somber and dignified. Kaplan's choice of lithography is also important: its accessibility as a medium meant it could be used to disseminate images widely, both celebrating and memorializing Jewish culture in the Soviet Union. To fully understand the image, we might research the history of Jewish life in the Pale of Settlement, the role of Yiddish literature, and the institutional politics of art production in the Soviet Union at this time.