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, Beilke, 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 (Beilke, 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.

The Tevye stories have been adapted for stage and film several times. Sholem Aleichem's own Yiddish stage adaptation was not produced during his lifetime; its first production, by Maurice Schwartz, was in 1919. (Schwartz did a film based on the play twenty years later.) Most famously, it was adapted as the Broadway musical and later film Fiddler on the Roof. The Broadway musical was based on a play written by Arnold Perl called Tevye and His Daughters. Tevye the Dairyman had three film adaptations: in Yiddish (1939), English (1971) and Russian (1991).

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