Tevye the Dairyman, also translated as Tevye the Milkman is the fictional narrator and protagonist of a series of short stories by Sholem Aleichem, and their various adaptations, the most famous being the 1964 stage musical Fiddler on the Roof and its 1971 film adaptation. Tevye is a pious Jewish dairyman living in the Russian Empire, the patriarch of a family including several troublesome daughters. The village of Boyberik, where the stories are set, is based on the town of Boyarka, Ukraine, then part of the Russian Empire. Boyberik is a suburb of Yehupetz, where most of Tevye's customers live.
Fiddler on the Roof is a musical with music by Jerry Bock, lyrics by Sheldon Harnick, and book by Joseph Stein, set in the Pale of Settlement of Imperial Russia in or around 1905. It is based on Tevye and his Daughters and other tales by Sholem Aleichem. The story centers on Tevye, a milkman in the village of Anatevka, who attempts to maintain his Jewish religious and cultural traditions as outside influences encroach upon his family's lives. He must cope with the strong-willed actions of his three older daughters who wish to marry for love; their choices of husbands are successively less palatable for Tevye. An edict of the tsar eventually evicts the Jews from their village.
Solomon Naumovich Rabinovich, better known under his pen name Sholem Aleichem, was a Yiddish author and playwright who lived in the Russian Empire and in the United States. The 1964 musical Fiddler on the Roof, based on Aleichem's stories about Tevye the Dairyman, was the first commercially successful English-language stage production about Jewish life in Eastern Europe.
"If I Were a Rich Man" is a song in the 1964 musical Fiddler on the Roof, written by Sheldon Harnick and Jerry Bock. It is sung by the main character, Tevye, and reflects his aspirations. Its title was inspired by a 1902 monologue by Sholem Aleichem in Yiddish, Ven ikh bin Rothschild, a reference to the wealth of the Rothschild family, although the content is different, and its words come partly from passages in Aleichem's 1899 short tale The Bubble Bursts. Monologue and tale both appeared in English in a 1949 collection of stories called Tevye's Daughters.
Motl, Peysi the Cantor's Son, subtitled The Writings of an Orphan Boy, is the last novel by the Yiddish author Sholem Aleichem, and unfinished at the time of his death. It was published in two separate volumes. The first was headed From Home to America, relating the protagonist's experiences in Europe, and appearing in 1907. The second was headed In America, chronicling his life in New York City, and written in 1916. They were printed on numerous occasions in various formats and with differing orthographic conventions. A critical edition of the Yiddish text was published in 1997.
Tevya is a 1939 American Yiddish film, based on author Sholem Aleichem's stock character Tevye the Dairyman, also the subject of the 1964 musical Fiddler on the Roof. It was the first non-English language picture selected for preservation by the National Film Registry.
Fiddler on the Roof is a 1971 American period musical film produced and directed by Norman Jewison from a screenplay written by Joseph Stein, based on the 1964 stage musical of the same name by Stein, Jerry Bock, and Sheldon Harnick. Set in early 20th-century Imperial Russia, the film centers on Tevye, played by Topol, a poor Jewish milkman who is faced with the challenge of marrying off his five daughters amidst the growing tension in his shtetl. The cast also features Norma Crane, Leonard Frey, Molly Picon, Paul Mann, Rosalind Harris, Michèle Marsh, Neva Small and Paul Michael Glaser. The musical score, composed by Bock with lyrics by Harnick, was adapted and conducted by John Williams.
Tevye and His Seven Daughters is a 1968 Israeli drama film directed by Menahem Golan. Based on stories by Sholem Aleichem, which were also the basis for the stage musical and 1971 film, both titled Fiddler on the Roof.
Arnold Perl was an American playwright, screenwriter, television producer and television writer of Jewish origin.
Ken Frieden is the B.G. Rudolph Professor of Judaic Studies— and a full professor in the Departments of English, Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics, and Religion — at Syracuse University. He writes about, edits, and promotes Hebrew, Yiddish, and other Jewish literature.
Shmuel Rodensky was a Russian-born Israeli actor whose stage, film, and television career in Israel and West Germany spanned six decades. He immigrated to Mandatory Palestine in 1924 and studied drama at the Eretz Israel Theatre in Tel Aviv. After performing with several theatre companies between 1928 and 1948, he joined Habima Theatre in 1949 and became one of its principal players. He was known as "the Israeli Laurence Olivier". In 1968 Rodensky traveled to Hamburg to join the German-language production of Fiddler on the Roof, playing the lead role of Tevye the Dairyman. He performed this role more than 1,400 times throughout West Germany and Switzerland. His notable film roles include the lead in the 1968 Israeli film Tevye and His Seven Daughters, Simon Wiesenthal in the 1974 Anglo-German film The Odessa File, and Jethro in the 1974 BBC television miniseries Moses the Lawgiver. He was the recipient of numerous honors in both Israel and West Germany, including the Federal Service Cross from the Federal Republic of Germany and the Israel Prize.
Marie Waife was an American writer best known for writing the 1968 biography, My Father, Sholem Aleichem, about the brilliant Yiddish author and playwright.
Green Violinist is a 1923–24 painting by artist Marc Chagall that is now in the permanent collection of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York City. The work depicts a fiddler as the central figure who appears to be floating or dancing above the much smaller rooftops of the misty gray village below. This work is often considered to be the inspiration for the title of the 1964 musical Fiddler on the Roof.
Broken Barriers, also known as Khava is a 1919 American Yiddish silent film, based on author Sholem Aleichem's stock character Tevye the Dairyman.
Sholem Aleichem College is an Independent Jewish co-educational early learning and primary day school located in the Melbourne suburb of Elsternwick, Victoria, Australia. Established in 1947, the school caters to the religious and general education needs of approximately 300 students, ranging from early learning, to Kindergarten and through to Year 6.
Vladimir Lert is a Latvian filmmaker, screenwriter, and producer.
Fiddler: A Miracle of Miracles is a 2019 American documentary film about the creation and significance of the 1964 musical Fiddler on the Roof. Directed by Max Lewkowicz, it features interviews with Fiddler creators such as Jerry Bock, Sheldon Harnick, Joseph Stein, and Harold Prince, as well as scholars, actors, and other musical theatre figures such as Stephen Sondheim and Lin-Manuel Miranda. The documentary includes rarely-seen footage of the original Broadway cast as well as interviews with creators, actors, theatrical figures, and scholars.
Kasrilevka or Kasrilevke is a fictional shtetl introduced by Yiddish author Sholem Aleichem. Located "exactly in the middle of that blessed Pale", it is an idealized town of "little Jews", who met their misfortunes with humor and the ultimate belief in justice. It has become an archetype shtetl. Other famous imaginary places of Sholem Aleichem are Yehupetz and Boiberik.
Menahem-Mendl is a series of stories and in Yiddish by Sholem Aleichem about hilarious exploits of an optimistic shlemiel Menahem-Mendl, who dreams of getting rich. They are presented as an exchange of letters between him and his ever-scolding wife Sheyne-Shendl, and later published as epistolary novels.
Yehupetz is a semifictional city in the Russian Empire, a portrayal of Kyiv (Ukraine) in Sholem Aleichem stories. It can be viewed as a transitional place between the classical shtetl and a modern city.
