When the restored Tevye was re-released in1979-1980, critics felt they had found the screen Tevye in Maurice Schwartz, thegreat Yiddish actor-director. Tevye the Dairyman is a kind of Jewish Everyman,struggling to hold on to that which defines him against the winds of change. Thefilm, adapted from a stage play written by Sholem Aleichem based on his famousstories, focuses on two crises in Tevye's life: the conversion of his daughterKhave (Miriam Riselle) to Christianity in order to marry a Russian intellectual,and the expulsion of the Jews from the small Russian town that was Tevye'sbirthplace. Critic Rob Baker wrote, "Tevye is a pastoral gem comparable tomuch of the best of Pagnol (and) Renoir°. Filmed in Long Island, the film'saccuracy in capturing the cultural patina of the day-to-day life of Russian Jewsis striking."