Known to most of the world as the hero of Fiddler on the Roof, Tevye the dairyman was created by the Yiddish writer Sholem Aleichem in a short story published in 1894. Five years later, he revived the character, and then continued writing stories about him sporadically over the next fifteen years, often responding to recent events affecting Russian Jewry. Ruth R. Wisse discusses these stories, which she sees as constituting a serial novel written “in real time,” and their uniquely Jewish message as well as their universality. (Interview by John J. Miller. Audio, 32 minutes.)
Read more on National Review: https://www.nationalreview.com/podcasts/the-great-books/episode-42-tevye-the-dairyman-by-sholem-aleichem/