Tevye

Tevye the Dairyman ([ˈtɛvjə], Yiddish: טבֿיה דער מילכיקער Tevye der milkhiker, Hebrew: טוביה החולב) is the fictional narrator and protagonist of a series of short stories by Sholem Aleichem, originally written in Yiddish, and first published in 1894. The character is best known from the fictional memoir Tevye and his Daughters (also called Tevye's Daughters, Tevye the Milkman or Tevye the Dairyman) as a pious Jewish milkman in Tsarist Russia with six troublesome daughters: Tzeitel, Hodel, Chava, Shprintze, Bielke, and Teibel. He is also known from the musical dramatic adaptation of Tevye and His Daughters, Fiddler on the Roof. The Village of Boyberik, where the stories are set, is based on the town of Boyarka in Ukraine (then part of the Russian Empire).

Tevye begins his literary life in 1894 with seven daughters. Over time, as Tevye "tells" Aleichem the tales of his family life, six of his seven daughters (Bielke, Chava, Hodel, Shprintze, Taybele, and Tzeitel) are named, and of these five play leading roles in Tevye's stories. The Tevye stories tell of his business dealings; the romantic dealings and marriages of several of his daughters; and the expulsion of the Jews from their village by the Russian government.

Tevya (film)

Tevya is a 1939 American Yiddish film, based on author Sholem Aleichem's stock character Tevye the Dairyman. It was the first non-English picture selected for preservation by the National Film Registry.

Cast

Production

The script was adapted by Marcy Klauber and Schwartz from the Sholem Aleichem play based on his own book. Schwartz also directed the film. The movie was based on two prior works by Schwartz from two decades before: the 1919 silent movie called Khavah (or Broken Barriers) and the 1919 stage production of Tevye.

The production was filmed at Biograph Studios in New York City and on a farm in Jericho, Long Island, New York. Midway through the shooting of the film, on August 23, 1939, Hitler seized Danzig and a Nazi invasion of Poland was imminent. These and other events in Europe impacted on the actors, many of whom had family in Poland. The filming was completed nevertheless.