Sholem Aleichem’s Tevye the Dairyman

Professor Ruth Wisse introduces us to Sholem Aleichem and his greatest creation, Tevye the Dairyman.

By introducing the character of Menachem Mendl into Tevye’s world, Sholem Aleichem prompts us to ponder everything from the nature of modern capitalism to the defiant optimism of the Jews.

In this third story, we begin the famous tales of Tevye’s daughters and explore the challenges they pose to traditional Jewish life.

Published as imperial Russia began to feel the first pangs of revolution, “Hodl” explores the tragedy of those Jews who put their faith to the side in the name of Marxist idealism.

In this fifth episode, Sholem Aleichem tackles the challenges of intermarriage, assimilation, and conversion and finally makes clear the line that Tevye will not cross.

The wealthy Jews of this sixth installment are very different than those we met in the first Tevye story. And when Tevye and his daughter encounter them, the results are unimaginably tragic.

After Sholem Aleichem became disillusioned with the promise of America, he wrote a story in which Tevye learns that getting what he always wanted might not be the blessing he expected.

As Sholem Aleichem came to understand that Jews had no future in Russia, he wrote of Tevye’s expulsion from his village. But this tragic ending is not without hope.