Opening Spring Session - Prof. Wisse guides us through Tevye the Dairyman by Sholem Aleichem.

Today's opening spring session of the WLG, coordinated by Gladys Mooallem and hosted by Sandra Koukou, introduced us to a major work of the literary giant, Sholem Aleichem. In this eight-week series, world-renowned intellectual, Professor Ruth Wisse , originally from Montreal, guides us through Tevye the Dairyman.
The film and Broadway version of this story revamps the subject so that Tevye becomes your typical Jewish shtetl dweller. However, Sholem Aleichem's Tevye is anything but your typical villager. He is very much an individual, whose mind and heart are perpetually in motion. As such he is an independent and moral individual whose closest relationship is with his Creator.
The ongoing inner dialogue Tevye entertains us with reveals struggles with life and with God and is riddled with irony that lends enormous depth to the man. In the Jewish European tradition, ironic humour abounds. The humour reveals both the absurdities in life and helps those involved cope with those absurdities that are often accompanied by pain and hardships. As is obvious then, the written work is far more complex thematically than the play/fim version.
With WLG's longtime and esteemed coordinator, Gladys Mooallem, and with host, Sandra Koukou, WLG attendees are in for a treasured adventure as we enter the life of Tevye the Dairyman.
Gigi Bitton for the WLG
May 15, 2024