From the roots of the Jewish diaspora, to the emergence of the Yiddish language in the early Middle Ages, the themes of suffering and survival have been associated with Judaism. Though an examination of Alechim’s book “Tevye, the Dairyman” published in 1894, we trace how his stories, adapted into the classic musical, Fiddler on the Roof, set the stage for the thematic universality of a myriad of world cultures.