After Anatevka follows Sholom Aleichem’s timeless character, Tevye the milkman, as he moves his family from Russia to a kibbutz in Palestine. Tevye, the wisecracking, Bible-quoting man of God, tells the story against the backdrop of the battle between Jews and Arabs in the Holy Land prior to the establishment of Israel. Tevye must adjust to the secular lifestyle on the kibbutz and struggle with the conflict between the kibbutzniks’ “religion” of labor and his own Jewish beliefs. The clash between tradition and life in Palestine also manifests itself in Tevye’s relationship with his daughters, who become assimilated into the kibbutz culture. For Tevye’s wife, Golde, the most important thing in life remains keeping the family together, even as circumstances force them apart. Millions of people are familiar with Fiddler on the Roof, which was an amalgamation of stories about Tevye and his family. Sholom Aleichem wrote other stories involving Tevye, however, that were not in Fiddler. After Anatevka is inspired by one of those stories, “Tevye Goes To Palestine.”
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