Set in the little village of Anatevka, the story centers on Tevye, a poor milkman, and his five daughters. With the help of a colorful and tight-knit Jewish community, Tevye tries to protect his daughters and instill them with traditional values in the face of changing social mores and the growing anti-Semitism of Czarist Russia. Rich in historical and ethnic detail, Fiddler on the Roof‘s universal theme of tradition cuts across barriers of race, class, nationality and religion, leaving audiences crying tears of laughter, joy and sadness.

Fiddler on the Roof is based on a series of short stories written by Sholem Aleichem, a Yiddish writer. The original stories featured Tevye the Dairyman and his daughters and were set between 1894 and 1914. Aleichem based the tales on his own childhood near what is now Kyiv.

After annexing parts of what would become Poland in the late 18th century, the Russian Empire created the Pale of Settlement as a permanent settlement region for Jews. The Pale included all of modern-day Belarus and Moldova, and much of Lithuania, Ukraine, and Poland.

In spite of–or perhaps because of–the poverty and oppression they experienced, Jewish culture developed and thrived in the shtetls (small towns) of the Pale. Most children received a Jewish education in the heder and yeshivah. Yiddish was the predominant language. Outside of the Pale of Settlement, most Jews were afforded little to no freedom of movement.

The actions you see play out on stage during this performance of Fiddler on the Roof is indicative of the pogroms that occurred from 1880 to 1920. Much like Hitler’s oppression, scapegoating, and violence toward Jews during World War II, the Russian Empire incited violence against the Jews of the Pale of Settlement as a way to place blame elsewhere. The pogroms were violent ordeals, often with accompanying destruction, looting, assault, and murder.

World War I and the fall of the Russian Empire destroyed the foundations of the deep-rooted Jewish culture and traditions of this region, and it was ultimately annihilated during the Holocaust.

For more information about this and other aspects of Jewish culture or history, check out these resources:

• Jewish Virtual Library: JewishVirtualLibrary.org
• Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum: auschwitz.org/en/
• Yad Vashem – the World Holocaust Remembrance Center: yadvashem.org
• United States Holocaust Memoriam Museum: ushmm.org
• Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh: hcofpgh.org