Tuvia the Milkman In 1967, Chaim Topol was cast in the role of Tuvia the Milkman in the play Fiddler on the Roof, which was staged at her Majesty’s Theatre in London. By 2009, Topol had appeared in that role about 3,500 times in different productions around the world. Photograph: Joan Marcus
Must Know
Tuvia the Milkman was written by Sholem Aleichem. It was published in Yiddish in 1894 and translated to hebrew by his son-in-law, Isaac Dov Berkowitz, in 1950. The novel served as a basis for plays, musicals, and films. The protagonist of the novel is Tuvia the milkman, a poor and hard-working Jew, living with his family and seven daughters in a typical Russian town in the 19th century, in a period of pogroms and deportations, that led to the emigration of Jews to Europe and America. he has difficulties dealing with the generation gaps and the troubles of his older daughters which causes him a dilemma: whether marrying them off to well-established or intelligent students through matchmaking or letting them to get married to their own choice. Tuvia spices up his stories with verses from the Torah, the Talmud, the Mishnah, the Midrash, and the Aggadah, filling them with new meaning that entertains and adapting them to the message he wants to express. Despite all the troubles he encounters – financially, familywise, and existentially – Tuvia is full of humor and optimism thanks to his faith in God.
