Mendele Mocher Sforim

Mendele Mocher Sforim (Yiddish: מענדעלע מוכר ספֿרים‎‎, Hebrew: מנדלי מוכר ספרים‎, also known as Moykher, Sfarim; lit. "Mendele the book peddler"; January 2, 1836, Kapyl – December 8, 1917 [N.S.], Odessa), born Sholem Yankev Abramovich (Yiddish: שלום יעקב אַבראַמאָװיטש‎‎, Russian: Соломон Моисеевич Абрамович – Solomon Moiseyevich Abramovich) or S. J. Abramowitch, was a Jewish author and one of the founders of modern Yiddish and Hebrew literature.

Mendele was born to a poor family in Kapyl in Minsk Governorate. His father, Chaim Moyshe Broyde, died shortly after Mendele became Bar Mitzvah. He studied in yeshiva in Slutsk and Vilna until he was 17; during this time he was a day-boarder under the system of Teg-Essen, barely scraping by, and often hungry.

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