Marie Waife, the last surviving child of Sholom Aleichem died Saturday at the Jewish Home for the Aged. She was 94 years old. Waife, who sometimes used the name Marie Waife-Goldberg after her marriage to B.Z. Goldberg, the Yiddish journalist who died in 1974, was the author of “My Father, Sholom Aleichem” in 1968.
As the last of Aleichem’s six children, she faithfully carried out the request in his will that his descendants assemble with friends on the anniversary of his death, to read his stories and to conclude the gathering by serving tea and cookies.
The sessions in Waife’s West Side apartment became an institution attended by those who had gained recognition in arts and letters, Yiddish and English. Aleichem’s descendants will continue this tradition in New York. Sholom Aleichem, whose real name was Solomon Rabinowitz, died in New York City in 1916.
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