The "comedy" in Fiddler is of the if-I-didn't-laugh-I'd-cry variety, like when Tevye complains to God that his horse is lame, to the effect of, "I know I'm a sinner and deserve punishment, but what did the horse ever do to You?"
I'm sorry, who thinks Fiddler on the Roof is quaint and fun? I mean, there's a lot of humor in the first act, but it is deeply depressing and existential, while still hopeful. It's one of the movies guaranteed to make me cry.
Well, there's also individual context. My mom loves musicals, and this was a big one, so I am reminded of quality time with my mom. I also liked watching war films with my dad, but I don't believe either one of us was ever a warhawk.
I thought the same thing. I figured everyone knew it was actually a sad story. Although for a long time I thought Sound Of Music was a dumb musical until I actually sat down and saw it. Had no idea it was about WWII. At the end when Captain Von Trapp sang Edelweiss, a song I’d always written off as a pretty but vapid tune, it brought me to tears.
@@mariecarie1 Edelweiss is a touching song. Two of my grandparents were children in German/Austria. They came to the US with their parents just after WW1. As a young lady I lived in Indonesia and their flower is Melati. As romantic girls do I dreamed of having twin girls and them Edelweiss and Melati after the 2 beautiful flowers in my young life.
The music of that movie is insane. I think "To Life" the song in the tavern when Tevya and Lazer Wolf announce the wedding for Tevyes daughter is one of the most impactful intense music in Cinematic history. It starts with a Jewish melody and dance, goes into a Russian folk sound and dance where the towns folk actually invite the Jewish members of the community to join them, goes back to the Jewish and then comes together with both styles playing at once complimenting each other despite their differences. The sound, the energy, the chaos, yet harmony is so incredible. It takes my breath away.
One of the most eye opening things I’ve discovered about Fiddler on the Roof is how I relate to it now vs how I related to it when I first saw it as a 13 year old. Back then, the independent, more modern daughters who eschewed tradition were the characters I resonated with. Now I’m in my 50s and I’m increasingly lamenting the loss of heritage and tradition in a society that no longer cares for it.
I could have written your comment word for word. I was also 13 when I watched in the theatre. I remember trying very hard not to let my parents know the movie made me cry. It was the first movie I ever cried at, I was so troubled that the girls had such a small pool of choices for husbands, none of them fit. But today the thing that makes me cry is how reckless we are with our roots and history. It’s worth fighting for. We aren’t Jewish, but we don’t need to be; the components of the experience are Human ones. Fiddler on the Roof is a masterpiece.
Even as a 25 year old this resonates with me. By rejecting our traditions and heritage in the west we have lost something of out souls modern technology is great but we lost something important
A dangerous observation. It means that you have swung to the right as you age. In truth, your youth wished to improve the world and the lot of people, now, not so much. Worth some deeper thought.
Rest In Peace Chaim Topol (1935-2023) Incredible actor. He WAS Tevye, having played the role on over 3000 times on stage. And his performance is forever immortalized in the film.
I got to play Hodel in a few hundred of those and it was the most extraordinary experience. You're right- each and every night he was Tevye. And he utterly broke your heart.
❤ Thank you, Nancy, I'm so glad you said this. I think the film makes the clash with tradition obvious, as is the constant threat of violence, and its materialisation at the wedding. Of course it was all heavily sanitised, as you'd expect from an American production, but still makes its points so clearly (as you'd expect from an American production).
@@lesleyvivien2876 Yes, we live in times where histories are forgotten, compassion has declined and division is on the rise. All of which are reasons for the rise of antisemitism, racism and tribalism. This video has an international multicultural, multigenerational platform. For a specific set of people, Fidler needs no explanation, but there is an audience which needs to be introduced to Fidler so they can relate and not see it just as an “old Jewish musical” but an archetypal story which every generation moves through.
@@AyurvedaWithChitra True - and well argued. There will be an audience that says "well it's only Jews, innit" but they may be the same people who think that an endless barrage of rockets into Israel from surrounding countries is acceptable, because it's only Jews, innit. Is there any hope for these people?
Read the original story, it shows the three eldest daughters and their tragic lives, the first becomes poor(poverty is as death), the second ends up in Siberia and dies, the third converts and is dead to her parents. Very tragic story.
I think the third gets divorced. Ironically, only the daughter who obeys her father and marries his choice, not hers, ultimately ends up happy. She is the fifth oldest as I recall.
That is much more tragic. Maybe the musical was made more ‘Hollywood’ to appeal to comfortable gentiles like me. Though it didn’t go so Hollywood as to give us an artificial happy ending.
As a Catholic, I ❤ this musical. I watched it as a 5 year old- enjoyed the music and grasped the sad historical and moral meaning perfectly. I remember feeling disgusted at the persecution and concerned at the loss of tradition and found the fiddler enigmatic, symbolic, and melancholic. As a child, I completely got it and the story made a big impression in my consciousness. 45 years later, I had my daughter watch it. Such great actors! The makers of this musical and movie greatly contributed to society. It should be watched in schools. Tevye was right in that some things can change but others should never change. There are limits
As someone who grew up calling myself a Jew, having studied the Bible for myself for a few years, I realize that we Jews and Catholics suffer our respective Vaticans ( the Pharisaical rabbinical movement for ‘Jews’). We both suffer indoctrination with many man made narcissistic doctrines and depend on charlatans for our understanding of Yahweh and Yahshua. Just start studying the Bible as an individual with no label and you will see what I mean in time. Shalom!
I saw it as a “hopeful tragedy,” that in spite of the coming tragedies that WE know will befall Europe with two world wars and a Holocaust, we also know that many Jewish immigrants who came to American cities would face dramatic and irreversible changes.
@crispindry2815 Your comment is rude and ill-informed, at best. Is that how sad your world is, that this type of vitriol is the only way you feel valid?
I don’t expect many people to understand this, but as an Acadian who knows the story of his own people and their ethnic cleansing from land they literally pulled out of the sea for themselves, and whose ancestor survived the massacre at St-Anne’s when they were a 12 year old boy, the song “Anatevka” always hits home for me. There are more than a few parallels between the Jewish story and our own.
Reading the comments is frequently said to be a bad thing, but I find all kinds of items of interest. Thanks to this comment I went to Google and Wikipedia to find information on Acadia as a real place and what the Massacre was and where. I appreciate this.
I didn’t know about Acadia until I read novel about baby girls who got swapped so the sick French one could see the English doctor. The day before the massacre. So the English baby went to (I think!) New Orleans with her new family. Such a sad novel, but happier ending. That was SO unfair, what happened to the Acadians. I certainly saw the similarities to Fiddler.
I married into a family of Russian Jews that came over after the collapse of the USSR. Fiddler on the Roof always makes me think of them and how the soviets brutally pressed all their traditions out of them. They're completely secular atheists now, lost all connection to Judaism, the Yiddish language, etc. My mother-in-law sometimes talks about how her grandmother--the last generation of her family born in a shtetl--sometimes tried to teach her grandkids little prayers and what not in their cramped little Moscow apartment, but she never got very far. She was afraid of being overheard by one of the other tenants and reported. Fiddler on the Roof isn't just about tradition yielding to modernity, but the inherent violence of that process. Even when it happens peacefully as with the marriage of Tevye's daughters, it can be this awful, traumatic struggle. What a nightmare it is when that change comes at the barrel of a gun.
@@suzanneja710 This is true, but it's worth emphasizing that the persecution was not equal across all religious groups. Christians were able to enjoy periods of relative tolerance while for observant Jews, it was pretty much just all crackdown all the time. As bad as the Soviet Union was for Russians, it was much worse for all its ethnic minorities. It's such a tragedy because one of the great promises of the Bolsheviks was to bring justice to the marginalized peoples being crushed by the Russian Empire; instead, they just put their feet in the czar's boots.
@@suzanneja710 the evil is not communism as an economic idea. After all, every Catholic religious community thrives in a communist cooperative...difference is everyone is doing it for God, and everyone is on the same page. And nobody needs to be better than anyone else. What happens when the system is bigger than a small religious community, then the needs of the individual is trampled and someone always rises to power to dictate to the rest. There is the evil.
As a Christian and a Gentile, this movie stirs up the deep love and respect I have for the Jewish people. I'm reminded of God's promise to Abraham, "I will bless those who bless you and I will curse those who curse you"!
I thought it is one of the saddest movies I've ever seen. Tevye loses almost all his children in one way or another, loses his business, eventually loses his whole way of life. Perhaps it was physically easier in America afterward, but the whole life was destroyed.
Ahh - but not really. Their life transitioned, as it must. Remember the "Season" dialogue in Ecclesiastes. The whole book is a mournful tome, but that part still holds hope. Your comment also parallels the story of Job, (which is a much maligned text that's been argued for centuries.)
He did not lose his first daughter at all. She married Motel, the man she loved, and she moved with her parents to America. Motel and his sewing machine became an accomplished tailor in New York.
@@dovbarleib3256 Right. Interestingly, depending on how one looks at it, it's a hopeful story for his family, because as you pointed out, he kept relations with his first daughter and her husband. For that matter, his other daughters did marry, and he escaped the Holocaust by coming to America. Tevye talks about his trials, and has a bit of a glum type of humor about them, but the way the Bible treats them is that the Lord brings the person through the trials. I think that if the movie was about the Holocaust, it would be harder to have this same kind of hopeful positivity. But as it is, one can see positives in small things.
My favorite movie. I am a Jew who was born and raised in almost the same shtetl (in Soviet Belarus), I was raised by my grandparents who spoke Yiddish, they had a wooden house. Anatevka. Right on the border of the Gomel region and the Kyiv region, where Shalom Aleichem lived.... Yiddishland that no longer exists. Millions were destroyed in the Shoah
And now these are separate countries, the Empire that was the Soviet Union and still is Russia is beginning to fall apart, and Ukraine has Jewish president!
-When a poor man eats a chicken, one of them is sick. I swear, this is one of the best one-liners from the first act. That and: -For a man with a slow tongue, he spoke a lot. Tevye gets so delightfully salted, when his knowledge is questioned.
How does anyone not realize how tragedy walks hand in hand with joy in Fiddler? This seems obvious to me. The first time you, as a kid, hear the song Anatevka you realize the jokes are there to hide and manage the pain.
Good point. Life is change. Life is pain. But life can also be great beauty! Finding the humor in life helps us smile through the pain as we search for beauty. Family! Tradition! But in the end... Family!
tragedy walking hand-in-hand with joy may be a very common perception in Jewish thinking, but it's not so common elsewhere. but perhaps it should be. after all, as the Good Book says, "Everything has an appointed season, and there is a time for every matter under heaven ... a time to weep and a time to laugh; a time of wailing and a time of dancing."
I was born in 1965, quite a bit before the movie musical. Back in those days we listened to records, and I listened to the musical score from the play Fiddler on the Roof, over and over again until I knew every word of every song. Even as a child I knew this story made me cry and yet also made me feel joy. It made me fear change and cling to what I knew; stability. For my entire life I have felt like the Fiddler, small correcting movements, nothing that could break my balance. But change comes to us all, just as the author was saying. Now I look at the world around me and I seek out the Fiddler for balance. I'm not even Jewish, though secretly I wanted to be Jewish as a child, because it seemed to me that the Jew could hold on to his balance, to hear the Fiddler more clearly, than my Christian family seemed to. I think now I understand that we all look to the Fiddler in our moments of confusion and change. No musical has ever touched me so deeply as this one and I will forever be grateful for the insight it has given me. Once again I feel hot tears on my cheek as I review the scenes and songs from this wonderful story. Nothing in this story leaves me untouched.
@@smwca123 I think what I meant by that was the Hollywood musical movie and not the theatrical performance. It was the soundtrack of the theatrical performance that I listened to as a child. I like that it came out 8 months before I was born. My mom must have been listening to it while she was pregnant with me.
My fifth grade teacher took us to see this at the cinema (late 60s) and it resonated so deeply for me being the grand daughter of a refugee from Smyrna when they were being chased out of their home, their way of life. Every aspect of this story had something my mother told me about my grandmother's plight. I will always be grateful to my teacher for giving me the chance to see this movie. It has shaped much of my worldview and I believe being a better person.
Thank you for this comment. The genocide and ethnic cleansing of Christians from western Anatolia, including the destruction of Smyrna in 1922, is often looked over in comparison to the much more high-profile Armenian genocide, not to mention the Holocaust; that is why it is so crucial to recognize these historical parallels. Over the course of the twentieth century, my family experienced pogroms in the Russian Empire, Stalinist repressions, the Holocaust, and Soviet institutional antisemitism. Needless to say, I understand and empathize with your ancestral trauma.
I'm 86, Christian, and a father, grandfather, and great-grandfather. When I saw Fiddler, and saw that regardless of ethnicity or religeon, that we're all basically the same: human... warts and all. Thank you for reminding me of that. More importantly, what's not to respect, honor and love?
Well said Robert. And Jewish music reflects that, being sad and tragic and then becoming full of joy because if you don't have any joy in a time of tragedy, you will never make it
I've watched this movie more than once in the passing of my life. The last time I watched it, I was overwhelmed with grief and cried uncontrollably. It still grieves me because this movie highlights man's inhumanity to man.
Omigosh, who can see Fiddler as a cheerful show? One of my favorites. My son played in it in a school production and I watched every show. Have seen numerous productions. I cry at the end every time. I'm crying now, just thinking about it.
People also don't realize that Les Mis is about police brutality (even though the villain is a police officer known for brutality) and usually think it takes place during the French Revolution, even though they literally say it doesn't and talk about the post-Revolution flag.
In 1971 I was 16 yo. I'm 69 now. There's something so special about this movie that I only watched once, along with both my parents, and I don't forget the emotions it generated in me. The deep sadness, the love for your parents (and love between your parents as a couple), the sense of safety and grounding that tradition makes you feel, and the possibilities that change brings, the music, the majestic scenes....what an impression it left on my mind that I still remember it after 53 yrs.... The Sound of Music....I've watched it so many times...but Fiddler on the Roof, only once and never forgotten!
I remember seeing the play on Broadway starring Zero Mostel, in the winter of 1971. I didn't really understand the story, but my grandparents did. Theodore Bikel, who played Captain Van Trapp in the Broadway play of "The Sound of Music" also played Tevye in the road version of "Fiddler," which I saw a few years after seeing original play on Broadway at the Valley Forge Music Fair in Valley Forge, PA. That was when I finally understood the story.
The Sound of Music drowned out the cries of pain. That movie was a huge distortion of the true story it claimed to be. Also, Plummer spent the evenings plying some of those kids with booze to seduce them. I got that from the actors themselves.
Same here. I even sang "Fiddler on the Roof" for my choir solo. ( We had to pick out a song and sing it for our grade.) That movie made quite an impression on me. I finally watched it again a few years ago. Wonderful movie!
@@fgoindarkg Yes, I know about the true story in a biography written by Agathe Van Trapp, the real name of the Captain's eldest daughter (it wasn't Liesl). Also, all of the children's names had been changed from the original to the play and the movie, thereby distorting the content of their story, especially the part about their escaping to Switzerland over the Austrian Alps as shown in the movie. As Agathe explained in her biography, the real story of that escape was that the family headed to a train station that was close to their estate outside Salzburg, and that was how they managed to get to Switzerland before the borders were closed. I didn't know about the thing you wrote about Plummer plying some of the kids w/booze, but I do know that he disparaged the movie by calling it "The Sound of Mucus".
I'm Native American and remember ''Fiddler'' and what we lost - land, religion and place. Those with the power and the gun get it all, until we stop them.
Our history certainly reflects a long tradition of might makes right. I think our modern world is struggling to establish a more humane way to navigate conflicts.
if the europeans hadn't come over here and grabbed the land when they did.....China or Russia certainly would have. There's no way that Native Americans could have ever fought off all the developed countries that would have clamored over here for the land. You can be angry and fight against it....or....you can go with what you have and work to make it better.
@@Emg2463What are you talking about? Russia gave up its rights to Alaska and Fort Ross. God Almighty, when are you clowns gonna stop trying to rewrite history?
As an immigrant from Soviet Union 36 years ago, I can say that tradition comes back. It is resilient. My grandparents adapted to changes and life in the communist country, my parents knew nothing about jewishness except antisemitism. My children are religious and follow the tradition.
@@thomaskalbfus2005 Right now the problem in the region is caused by the eastward expansion of NATO which is something the US and the the Western Europeans promised Russia it wouldn't do . The US is attempting to create Ukraine as a puppet state with nuclear weapons directly on the Russian border.(Remember the Cuban Missile Crisis .....same thing just in reverse. ) I would say Russia has every justification to do everything it is currently doing to defend itself and the Russian minority in eastern Ukraine. Stop drinking the Mainstream Media Kool-Aid and the lies from the military-industrial complex Eisenhower warned us about. koolaid
@@irinachulsky6222 Some is Masorah- Tradition. Most, not all, of those Traditions are actually Commandments in the Torah- for instance, the fringes on the corners of his 4 cornered garment that Tevya calls a Tradition are commanded in Numbers 15:38.
Being African-American, there is a parallel I can draw between Fiddler On The Roof and the life my grandparents. Being in a rural, agricultural living a hard life, being oppressed, it's something that resonates with me.
@SafetySpooon There are some things that both African Americans and Jewish people have been through. For Jewish people in Eastern European, it was pogroms and expulsions. For African Americans in the South and other parts of America, we went through alot of violent bigotry after the Civil War.
Tuvia reminds me of my father, he was a simple man, hassidic, i chosed a different path, and he allways bent the rules for me, because he was a loving father and a good man. And this was a struggle of him. He wanted the traditions and rules, but family was more important to him. This is so emotional for me to see again the story of fiddler on the roof even though I've seen it so many times, it touches the deepest human struggles and emotions , all while having so much love and compassion for humanity. This is why it's a timeless work of art. We have to take the spirit of the play and carry it into the real world. Look at others and remember their deepest struggles which are exactly like our own. And treat each other with compassion.
It's sad that religious beliefs affect people so. It's long past time that trying to bring children up in any religious/cult belief system was recognised for the ab*se that it is, and banned. It would have made your father a happier man.
@@pineapplepenumbra judaism is kind of a different though, its also a culture and historical story with rich traditions. So i actually think it wouldn't have made him happier, he got alot of meaning to his life from Judaism, and also gave it to us, im not religious, im an atheist, but the cultural aspect and the traditions are very very important to me, But i agree, it can be very very wrong . And abusive, but not allways, not every religious situation in the world is necessarily abusive, if religions were this bad, they wouldn't have survived for so long, we need something to hold on to. This is not inherently abusive.
@@The_Cat_Lady_ Without it, christianity wouldn't have evolved, and without the 2, their bastard child, islam, wouldn't exist. "not every religious situation in the world is necessarily abusive" No, of course, not, but on balance, these belief systems have caused more harm than good (and it used to surprise me that so many people were so ignorant about that). The world would have been a much better place without them, and, of course, animals wouldn't be subjected to the awful barbarity of kosher/halal slaughter. The thing about the latter is that muslims know, in truth, that it's wrong, but they cannot admit to it. When I ask them a certain question (one I'm not allowed to ask any more), they never answer.
@@The_Cat_Lady_ " if religions were this bad, they wouldn't have survived for so long," Religions/cults are like cancers, or memes. Part of their nature is that they are designed to continue. They are very manipulative, and rely on gaslighting and brainwashing to flourish. Firstly, far too people see aware of how awful, powerful and insidious brainwashing is. Secondly, if they make it hard to leave (expulsion from the community, physical violence, or even death for Apostates), then it's hardly surprising that they persist. Even yesterday and today I've had youtube replies from people afraid to come out as Atheist, as their "christian"* parents/community will chuck them out. Thirdly, they tend to breed a lot. However, as someone pointed out, now that the internet exists, far more people are leaving, as they discover just what nonsense these beliefs are. * There's no such thing.
I understand and respect your view. I once was there, but no longer. Here is a glimpse. Earlier in the Torah, God tells Abraham that he will walk to a place that God shows him. That section has a play on words. The key phrase is lech-lecha. This phrase corresponds with the homonym "go within". The Torah is about getting in touch with our deep inner self . Mitzrayim, the name for Egypt also means 'a narrow place'. The story of escaping Egypt is a story if escaping our own narrowness. Again the story is aboutlooking within and growing into a spiritual person @pineapplepenumbra
Got out of jail today!!!! I would play the musical in my head to stay sane, then this was at the top of my recommendations! Right now I'm really vibing with the theme of starting over with nothing but your spirit... Thank you for making this for me!❤
Marisa Tomei’s character in a film I’ve forgotten the title of has hit a low point in her story and sings, “Pick yourself up, brush yourself off, and start all over again . . .” Good luck on your journey! 😊
So, if you miss a moment playing the music in your head, you go right back to jail. Right? I think you may need to work on your stay out of jail plan a bit more than that. Run it by your parole officer.
I'm not Jewish, but Fiddler on the Roof meant so much to me as a kid and still holds a special place in my heart. This explanation is fantastic. Thank you for making it.
I'm a 57 year old living in Melb Australia, i am NOT Jewish. I saw this film when I was 8 or 9 and still remember being both sad and somehow inspired at same time, thank you for an in-depth look at the ideas and central themes that still run true for all of us.
Fiddler on the Roof is basically my family's story, specifically the daughter that married Perchik. Nothing good came out of it, except for generations of people hated for the Jewishness that they lost. No traditions, fractured, dying community. The luckiest of Tevye's daughters, in my view, ended up being the little ones who hopefully had a chance to grow up in their tradition and prosper. Thank you for a good analysis of the movie!
Many Jews who got to the US wanted to, indeed, give up their traditions and in exchange, prosper. But it's a false goal. They might prosper materially but after the 2nd generation a lot of them didn't know they were even Jews any more. And once you become just another American, in a culture that's hyper-individualistic, where it's easy to become destitute and hard to rise above destitution, well, there's a reason life expectancy in the US is the lowest of the OECD countries.
@alexcarter8807 lol, that's nice, most of my family got killed during the holocaust and Lenin's/Stalin's repressions. Pretty sure their life spans were shorter. I'll take the good old USA over the old country any day.
My grandparents were Ukrainian Jews who left Kyiv in 1904 when there was a pogrom. 90 years later I was reading "Nicholas and Alexandra," and found there indeed had been a pogrom in Kyiv in 1904. I felt so connected to the grandparents I never knew.
As a general music teacher in Philadelphia, I had the privilege of showing this movie to all my classes over a 22 year period. I never tired of it and always looked forward to showing it. How deeply significant; how wonderful in summarizing life's nature; how best in showing the sadness, joy and realities of life. (One small example: one of my students turned around and caught me with tears in my eyes when Tevye sang to Golda, "...do you love me?..." So full of richness and truth.
The music is amazing and singable. Maybe that's why people get confused. Even the cute melodies like "Matchmaker" have a seriously troubling message. Especially if you're a girl.
It's a troubling message in the modern era, not when you are in multigenerational subsistence agrarian lifestyle where a full belly is a higher priority to erotic love. There is wisdom in matchmaking because a marriage is not just the uniting of two people, it is the uniting of two families and the creation of a new family. The community has an interest in the marriage, it is not a bystander as we think of today.
I’m an orthadox jewish girl, 20, and as all my friends from my Jewish high school are getting married, I’m still trying to figure out whether it’s actually a bad thing to get married or a very good thing our society is lacking. Most of the girls from my high school are doing a mixture of college, other schooling, or work and are also dating or thinking of dating through a matchmaker. Now a days, there are so many options that having a matchmaker is really great and a very good way of dating. I’m not going to get into detail, but I don’t think a matchmaker is that bad. Still it’s hard to know since there aren’t many studies on it from people who actually are married with kids and we’re married from a young age in my community.
@@cookiediangelo8511 One of the most terrible things in Western culture right now is the devaluation and denigration of the family. The tradition of marriage and generation and continuation of the family and tradition through time is under attack. Such destructive ideas are not in fact modern---they come up every time a culture or civilization is in decline, and presage the literal destruction of the civilization by barbarians. The veneer of civilization is very thin, and marriage and the family is a bulwark and defense against chaos and disaster for human beings.
@@cookiediangelo8511 I guess we'll take your word that a girl named Cookie Diangelo is Jewish. Anyway, do get married, and soon. Not today or tomorrow but be married by your twenty-third birthday, and have children. Don't think so much. You will be happy.
The first time I saw this film, I agreed that tevya was mostly focused on money. But when I saw it more recently as an older adult, I was struck by his poverty and hard work.
Yes! I don’t think money was the most important thing to Tevya. I think he realizes that money would’ve made his life much easier. You can see he accepts his place in the world when he questions G-d, as he is working, about why He made so many poor people. I didn’t ever see it even as complaining. It was just acceptance with some questioning.
@@Kerryjotx if he were really so concerned with money, he’d put down that useless horse. A man in his position couldn’t really afford to keep and feed a land horse. That’s what a sensible dairyman would have done. But Tevya was too compassionate.
I was shocked by the assertion that money was the most important thing to Tevye. In the context of the real story of the movie, and Tevye's character, that smacked of antisemitism. That old trope of the "moneygrubbing Jew." I found that SO inappropriate and entirely against Tevye's character and way of living demonstrated in the whole movie. Even coming from an evident Jew it was jarring. I see many Jews echo ideas of Jew-hatred these days. I do not understand it at all.
When one is Young, parents protect us against poverty. Things were tough for my parents, but we ate every day, we had our parents and a roof over our heads. We went to school and could borrow books,still quite expensive then, from the library. One Christmas, all they had was a couple of books of Greenshield stamps, remember them, so we had two small gifts and a new picture bible, I still have it. We weren't poor. We had a better Christmas Day, in spite of mum's turkey, than many we've had since.
I'm not Jewish at all. But I remember my reaction when I first saw this movie as a member of the Irish diaspora. It's a very Jewish story, but it's also a very Irish story too. When you look back through our history, especially around the same time, you see many of the same themes.
Had a similar reaction from one of my neighbors. He was Armenian and by the end of the film he said “We Armenians and Jews aren’t that different, we shared the same pain.”
Fiddler in the Roof is perfect. I love the humor, the music, Tevye's relationship with God and his love for his faith and his family. I was lucky enough to play Hodel in Fiddler when I was in college. It will always hold a special place in my heart.
My mother's very Catholic family left Latvia in 1910 - they were Polish speakers but they were also ethnically Lithuanian. One of them tried to contact the family left in Europe in the 1920's and found that they couldn't find information about anyone left. So, it was happening to so many people in the Russian Empire. Most of the Jewish people I have known in my life came from the Russian Empire.
When the books were written I think it was about "Modernity vs Tradition", but by the time the play was staged in 1964 it had taken on a different meaning. With the scars still fresh "Fiddler" is a reminder that the Jews are never truly safe and that history is always cyclical. Whether it be Renaissance Spain and forced conversions, the Progroms of both Czarist and Communist Russia, or Berlin, Vienna, Prague and Warsaw of the 1930s and 40s to this very day. That's the true tragedy hiding behind the catchy songs and story of "Fiddler"
The second daughter and her new husband intend to move to Poland. Anyone who saw it when it came out knew that this young couple would die. It is heartbreaking.
@@jonathanhosh4459Israel withdraw no families. The arabs leader told the arabs to leave Israel so they could conquer and remove the jews. What about the Jews that were throw out of the arabs land the Jews had lived in for 2000+ years, and before Muhammad arrived
@@jonathanhosh4459 You mean the families who supported Arab imperialism and attempt to annihilate Jews returning to their homeland? Sure, we just saw what giving back land to Arab colonizers does, continuous rocket attacks for decades, suicide bombers - a literal pogrom! 1200 dead, 200+ kidnapped! Respectfully? F off with that mentality.
Currently, watching the movie in its entirety for the first time today. I am not Jewish. However, I've grown up with Eastern European Jewish culture all my life. This movie was always celebrated. as it represented a lot of. the stories of my friend's grandparents and the teachers I grew up with. However, I never stopped to think that the movie was not a movie of celebration, but of sorrow. It paints the picture. in a different shade of colors.
I saw this as a teenager 3 times. I felt the spirit of the daughters and their young loves, a spirit of freshness, new ideas, growth, and change. But now I’m old I see the many ideas young people of today bring with them same hope and enthusiasm, but…..life has taught me that not all ideas bring positive growth and goodness. I came to see that not all tradition is all bad and even has some wisdom for those who seek. Now I feel Tevya’s struggle deeply. I value tradition much more than before, but also understand the yearnings and hopes of each coming-of-age generation. Balance is in the struggle somewhere, but it’s never easy to find.
I was part of a production of the musical in high school, funnily enough right as the Ukraine war was starting up. One of the things that resonated most with me was how everyone reacted post Chava leaving. They all became completely miserable. Notably, Tevye curses his horse for being sick instead of joking about it. The story seems to be not about how far you can bend the tradition before it breaks, but how long you can resist bending before you break.
I watched only a few scenes of the movie called, "Shawshank Redemption" when realizing soon enough I couldn't finish watching it at the time without feeling wrecked for a week after too. I better finish watching it now. Later.
I first saw the film almost a decade after its debut while I was attending university. Having been raised in a Christian home and being well schooled in both Old and New Testaments, I immediately 'got' what the film was trying to get across to the audience. I think the constant breaking of the fourth wall by Tevye was a way to school people who were not familiar with Jewish traditions and with the culture and history of the time and place. It also provided some much needed comic relief to what is a very sad overall story. It instantly became one of my all-time favorite movies, partly because it shines a light on a period of history that was very dark. Its message is also timeless. May we never forget. May it never happen again.
When I explain our family history to my kids, I basically show them this movie and explain "that's why we came to America in the early 20th century." My grandmother's family came from Odessa, so a bigger city, but facing similar challenges. My other 3 grandparents came from small towns very much like the one in the show. We also explained my wife's mother's family coming to New York from Puerto Rico by showing them West Side Story. We haven't found an age appropriate movie on the Irish Potato Famine that explains my wife's father's side. There's a few, but the target audience is older.
I played the rabbi some years ago and Chaim who was in London and a good family friend came to visit. He said to me he'd heard I was playing the rabbi and asked me to go through the few lines with him. He then directed me word for word, emotion to emotion, gesture to gesture. At the next rehearsal I did exactly as he said and the director said - 'Don't do it like that, I preferred the way you did it before'! I do think that it is in essence a rather sad story though. We know what's coming to Europe in the decades ahead and as they walk out of the village at the end it symbolises to me the route to the holocaust.
When I was a young teenager I got to play Tevye twice. And I concur, though it has some comic relief, it is about a family coming to terms with a new world, and how that impacts them emotionally.
I think the one thing tTreva really wants when quoting the good book he really wants to spend time in the good book. Because when he is speaking in the rich man song is sweetest thing of all would spend 7 hours everyday reading the good book.
This was a well done review - especially as it relates to everyone... and maybe prepare people NOW for what's coming. What's coming might even be a worse fate than for The Fiddler.
I've only ever seen the movie. I've never seen Fiddler on stage. But one thing that always resonated with me about Tevye more so than his daughters is his willingness to bend tradition just a little bit because of the love I feel he has for his daughters. Of his contemporaries in Anatevka, I feel like he's the most open minded. He welcomed Perchek despite him being a radical who believes girls are people to. He accepted the overtures of the gentiles in the L'chaim scene when the other revelers were reticent. And he eventually bent a little bit at the end when Chava came to say goodbye. She wasn't totally dead to him and I think he could eventually come to like her husband even if he is a gentile.
@@davegreene8588 Tevye must have realized that Fyedka wasn't about to betray his wife's family the way the Constable had done. The Constable, the one Russian Tevye had always considered a friend, turned out to be almost totally unprincipled.
@@smwca123 not in the film. His character is one of the saddest, because he knows what he has to do is wrong. Early on, he warned Tevye that some mischief was coming (because he had been given orders to), he did the least possible harm once he followed orders, and then showed a guilty face ever since.
@oogabooga6346 Like anyone in the service of the Tsar, the Constable had no choice but to follow orders or be replaced, as the visiting superior made clear. However, like everyone, he ultimately must answer to his conscience for his (in)actions. That principle was clearly established at the Nürnberg war crimes trials of 1940s, along with the principle that merely following orders blindly is no excuse for atrocities.
Was he? the czars set up the pale of settlement in the 1600s to protect the Jews, and keep others away, it was good land, the best land, Ukrane, I'll look more into it.
@@awesomesurfer6358He supported the black 100s, he was a huge fan of "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion", I don't know, that screams, "Rabid anti-Semite" to me!
Overlooked in the commentary was Tevye's re-evaluation of his own 25-year arranged marriage, and his relationship with Golde, asking her "Do You Love Me?"
I’ll tell you a little story. I’m 70 years old. I come from a military family lots of moving around, lots of change. I hated it. Of course, in my lifetime I’d always heard the catchy tunes from the fiddler movie. About five years ago, the Jewish community center in my town, screened the fiddler with the lyrics at the bottom of the screen so that people could sing along. At the end of the movie, as the villagers are drifting from their home of many years, I found myself weeping openly i with snot running from my nose and looked around at the audience with the lights on now and I was the only one crying. So embarrassing but at the same time I couldn’t help but wonder, because I seemed to be the only one to grasp the inherent tragedy depicted in this movie. I was brokenhearted while all around me people smiled and chatted. and hummed tunes they had heard. Even now I am crying, and I am not Jewish or even religious. What we hold dear in our hearts is built on the foundation of our life‘s experiences.
I'm sure the rest of the audience had seen the film and listened to the soundtrack so many times--heck, many of their ancestors lived it! So if they didn't seem moved to tears, it's certainly not for a lack of sensitivity! It's just not a new story to them.
I remember a podcast episode where Mike Pesca remarks that Fiddler of the Roof is structured differently than any other musical. Most Musicals the issues expand in the first act leading to a breaking conflict at intermission, then resolved to a joyous conclusion at the end. Fiddler breaks for intermission at a wedding, and the finale is the destruction of the town
We did Fiddler when I was in high school, then again when I was in community college. My daughter was involved in a production when she was in high school. My mom struggled with the song "Sunrise, Sunset" and I never understood why. Then I had children of my own. I can no longer sing the song myself, and I try not to listen to it because it makes me cry. I totally understand why my mom struggled with hearing that song. I think I sympathize the most with Tevye in the sense of having changes thrust upon you with no choice in the matter. I am in my mid 60s and have seen a lot of changes in my life. Things that I accepted and that made perfect sense to me are no longer acceptable and are now considered bad and undesirable.
I hear ya, Turned 61 this year. Life has not allowed me children, and won't be now unless something really, really, strange happens, but even so, observing those whom it has reveals much. A bit of a tangent, it is sad to observe those who are so enmeshed in simply existing that they have no time or energy left for being.
This musical play and movie had a profound influence in my life. As a white 16-year old, I was cast as Motel the Tailor in our high school musical in Indiana. The themes in the story resonated with me. I never knew what a pogrom was until then. I never knew about the Holocaust until then. I began reading EXODUS by Leon Uris and ARMAGEDDON by James Michener. I wrote papers in my American literature class relating to tradition and change. In our speech team, I performed Tevye’s monologue in Humorous Interpretation. It left a mark on my soul and changed me forever.
As I see it, Tevye sees in each of his 3 sons-in-law certain signs of himself. Motel largely mirrors Tevye's own hard-working nature and poverty. Perchik tests Tevye's receptiveness to new ideas, which to his own surprise turns out to be greater than he expected (to the point that he asks his wife, Golde, "Do You Love Me?"). Finally, Fyedka the Gentile, by refusing to carry out the evacuation, turned out to be a principled human being - something the Constable, the one Russian that Tevye had always trusted as a friend, was not. Indeed, the Constable turned out to be totally unprincipled, putting self-preservation ahead of friendship.
Just to be clear, Norman Jewison didn't create "Fiddler On The Roof". He directed a film adaptation of a well-established, iconic Broadway show that had been around for about 7 years when the film was released.
The side of change (Perchik) is a side for the younger generations. As you get older, like me, you become very very weary of change and you join the side of tradition (Tevye). I really can relate to this. My generation was the first in thousands of years to marry outside the faith. But change continues and I don't like the changes in today's society. I am nostalgic for the more traditional life we used to have. Thank you for posting this insightful video. You earned a new subscriber.
Perchik probably died in a Siberian labor camp, and Hodel (including any child she may have had inside her) likely starved and died in misery as well. Perchik's preferred form of change (Bolshevik Revolution) led to the starvation of tens of millions and a reign of totalitarian terror in the former Russian empire (including the Ukraine) for the better part of a Century and brought the world to the brink of a nuclear holocaust. Perchik was the consummate sophomore - smart enough to make serious trouble, not wise enough to understand that it is trouble in the first place.
My favorite movie. I get tears in my eyes every time I watch it. How could people not know it's a tragedy? Well - it's a tragedy filled with joy (Bernard Malamud).
My parents had the sound track for this movie, and we played it fairly frequently. However, I was well into my 20's before I saw the full movie. I cannot listen to "Anatevka" without crying. What do we leave? Nothing much. Only Anatevka. Gut wrenching. This is a beautifull, powerful, and sad movie. But oh, so well done!
Good Gravy.... Fiddler On The Roof is a Tragicomedy. The overall story is that of a tragedy, however, it is interlaced with moments of comedy to make it more palatable and more realistic. Even when things are going wrong there are moments of levity. Secondly, I think it is an absolute crime to say that the most important thing in life to Tevye is money. The most important ting in life to Tevye is his family. And to that e struggles between their happiness and their well-being. Tevye objects to Motel marrying Tzeitel not because the tailor is poor, but because Tevye knows what it is to be poor and the strength needed to provide. Strength that until that point, he does not see Motel possessing. Motel does two things that convince Tevye. 1) He stands up to Tevye. Claiming that despite being poor he is entitled to some happiness, a feeling that Tevye is too familiar with. 2) He promises that Tzeitel will not starve, He gives Tevye a pledge that he will make sure that his daughter's well-being will not be compromised, Tevye only ever agrees to Lazar Wolf marrying Tzeitel because it assures a safe life for her. Tevye is placing her well-being over everything else. Lazar Wolf's money is simply a means to that end. Motel's vow and show of strength are enough to convince Tevye that he can trust Motel with Tzeitel. The next biggest thing in Tevye's life is his relationship with God. His current view of God is that of a friend, someone to share you troubles and thoughts with, someone to bicker with, but at the end of the day, someone you can trust, like the rest of the villages in Anatevka. The Culmination of "If I were a Wealthy Man" is him saying that with wealth he wouldn't spend all his time working. He could actually study and discuss the Good Book, to understand God more. He calls that "the greatest gift of all."
For me the most poinent moment in the films is when the inflexibility of the protagonist finally breaks down over his third daughter leaving to be with the exiled husband. He recognizes that family trumps all separation and disagreement. As his live is forever changing.
My favorite movie. If I turn on TCM and it is showing, my family knows I am out of commission for 3 hours. You did such a wonderful job of explaining the heart of this story.
This is such a compelling movie/musical, one I've seen several times over the years. Last time I saw it, I reconnected with my old Jewish law partner whose family came to the US from Russia in the early 20th century, and he told me some things about their journey to the US via Paris, and how the family has sadly disintegrated. It also reminds me of my Scottish ancestors who left their Hebrides island home in the 1730's as the English destroyed their way of life. That island is now uninhabited. Change and relocation seem to be a universal phenomenon, and Fiddler on The Roof deals with the issues involved as well as can be done.
When I was a little girl, my grandmother used to take me to see this when it would come around to movie theaters once a year, and she would always explain this was how her family came to America from their little town in the Pale. My grandmother was 1 year old when that occurred, but I still picture her as being Tzeitel. It was really an excellent learning tool for me, understanding what they went through, and all they left behind / gave up to come here. Now I have an 8 year old granddaughter I share it with. Sometimes the best way to understand history is through a cinematic dramatization like this.
I always showed Fiddler to my middle and early high school aged students, not only for the Jewish aspects, but also the very notions you present in this presentation. Thank you for bringing this to the masses...
@@_yiddishkeit On the Fourth of July, when all the flags are flying and fireworks are going off-- oh wait, that's Avalon...well, Tevye and Sam could probably swap stories anyway...
The continuation/end of the story is even more sad. Of the remaining two daughters, one of them takes her own life. The tailor dies of disease before they even arrive in the US. Perchik dies in the war.
My parents were basically Chava and Fiyedke. I grew up with 2 traditions......but no family...until later in life, when I learned I had cousins, aunts and uncles. And after awhile, I even learned I had grandparents. Time heals.......but you have to want it to heal.
I am almost 71 and this movie was an annual tradition in my Irish-American home for decades! My mother knew (ans would recite) all the best lines just before the actors said them. I still love this movie and have shared it with friends! I did understand what the movie was about , and I still cry for the people who lived through it every time i watch it. Thanks for talking about it!!! 💙💙💙🙏🏻🌎☮️☘️
I didn’t expect to spend my morning watching this but wow such incredible work. Please continue doing these, they are awesome, you have this thing nailed
Thank you so much for this. Born in Washington, DC, a year affer my father the soldier, came home from WWII--an ''early boomer"", I knew this play very well. At 13, I joined ''Habonim"", the Zionist youth group, and that became the focus of my life. At 17, I spent a year on a Kibbutz in Israel..then.returned to the U..S .to go to the University (as I had promised my parents). Then I met my Israeli love at the age of 19. I'm 77 now ...still in Israel from 1970 , with 2 grown up childrren, 6 grandchildren --all sabras . It's been hard , sometimes nearly unbearable--but I am not sorry, but proud: I wanted to make a positive difference in the world, and especially for my people. Although I never saw the movie, the musical play was my Zionist group's present to the Kibbutz (Gesher Haziv), so I knew it well, including all the songs by heart. Right now, with 4 grandsons in the war, tears came to my eyes at the end of the movie. ..and now I will find it, as I remember not just my past, but my grandparents', theirs, etc.! I'd love to hear any comments. Elinore Liebersohn Koenigsfeld
It’s horrible that your grandsons now conduct their own program in Gaza or face imprisonment if they refuse too. Just remember what happened to Tevyes village and ask yourself should any other families suffer the ways his did. Look into the events surrounding the founding of Gesher Haziv, the new historians are an excellent source.
Very sad that your grandsons have to risk their lives in an unwanted war, behaving like Russians chasing people out of their villages. My heart goes out to you.
@@jonathanhosh4459there’s nothing sad about proud Jews defending their indigenous homeland from Islamist terrorists who seeks to continue the work of the Soviets and Hitler.
@@davidbrasher3595 Not even remotely the same and the fact you are even comparing the two is disgraceful and disgusting to the memory of every Jew who suffered persecution and pogrom.
You are right, why should innocent Jews be massacred by those beasts, for land that never belonged to them. This is an ideology like the czar's Christianity and Mohammed's islamic desire to rule the world, but first start with the Jews. They're an easy target... but the IDF don't agree. G-d may not be happy with our behaviour but we are still his beloved people and will never allow us to be destroyed. We have a holy purpose in this world of falsehood and that is to show that there is a Creator, and there is morality and truth. The Guardian of Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps.
In my high school's production of Fiddler on the Roof over 50 years ago, I played the fiddler. Until I saw this video I had forgotten the hope and relief of my character when Tevye invites him to come along as they leave Anatevke. I played the character as though only Tevye really saw him for certain. The Fiddler appears in various scenes, often among other players, but there he is so blended in with other minor characters that he could be anonymous or non- corporeal. It is only when he and Tevye interact that he is definitely real, to Tevye.
I’ll have to read the original stories. My (Catholic Irish) parents always loved the film. Even bought the album. (They were both born just before the Second World War.)I first saw it in my teens and loved it too, though I am averse to musicals in general. Loved the humour and humanity. And the music was cool (not fluffy). And the tragedy at the end really got to me. I identified with those people suffering such egregious injustice and likened it to the history of Irish Catholics. Of course I personally have never had to endure such oppression. Even then I appreciated the tension between tradition and innovation, and kind of understood that both were necessary to a healthy outlook on life. Even though a Catholic I was kind of on the side of the father when faced with his daughter’s marriage to a gentile. I think the musical presents the problems to us without giving a dogmatic solution, just as Shakespeare’s plays do. Still love it. Thank you for your thoughtful presentation.
Donafoley2412- Thank You for your Comment and your sympathy to the Jewish People. Unfortunately, there seems to be a lot of Jew Hated in the thinly veiled form of Anti-Zionism in Ireland now.
@@PennilessPolitics Definitely not in favour of putting children in cages. I remember the pics of children in cages put out in the first months of Trump’s presidency to show how inhuman his policies were but which actually dated from Obama’s presidency. But that’s by the by. If the Israeli government is putting children in cages (and I haven’t seen evidence of that), that can’t be good, but we were discussing the plight of Jews in Eastern Europe long before that. Whatever the present government of Israel does (or what is imputed to them truly or falsely) cannot be blamed on Jews in general, much less on the people on whose lives that musical is based, who could have no idea of what the new state of Israel would face or decide, and who may have been for it or against it if some visionary had revealed it to them. It is written in what we Christians call the Old Testament that the sins of the fathers shall be visited on the sons, but where is it written that the sins (real or imaginary) of the sons shall be visited on the fathers?
I’m a conservative Christian and I love this movie. I’m very attached to tradition and the Bible. The Bible stories made me want to learn history because I see the Bible stories and history as stories about people. All different yet of the same human nature, flawed and lost and designed to crave a relationship with God and to know their purpose in this life. Beautiful, tragedy, sorrow, joy and all the character growth and flaws to contend with, I find it engaging. TY for your video, I enjoyed the explanation very much. As a Christian and as a human being, I have a special place in my heart for the Jewish people. God Bless.
A few years ago I had a similar experience. I found in my research that listening to Rabbi’s like Rabbi Friedman use Hebrew versions of the Old Testament. St Paul, in his mission to the Gentiles used a Greek translation that was then translated into Latin which was then translated into English. Things were lost in translation.
@@juditrotter5176 Rather, officially expressly omitted. See the history of Council of Nicaea in Turkey, to standardize what was to be believed. But those are other discussions for those interested.
@@juditrotter5176(Most) modern translations use the oldest manuscripts they can find, to get as close as possible to the original meanings. What believer would willingly pervert the words of almighty God?
I'm Irish American and live in the Midwest Nebraska. I have seen this movie when young and old and got the humer and tragedy. Showed it to my kids young and now they are older and got it all to . That's the magic of the movie. The fiddler is the balance of life that makes you go on in spite of tragedy. And traditions are the anchors. Classic for every culture... The Jewish story that is a lot of cultures story . Genius movie....
Shalom from America. when I was a wee lad my school had a play. My family was christian and we were of the kind which respect Gods people. I worked hard to get into the play and wound up with Tevye. I still remember all my lines and many of the others. I watched it several times and grew to understand it as I did. I was only 12 so this has had a pretty profound and lasting impact on me. God Bless Israel and God bless her Ally America. Those who Bless her shall be blessed those who curse her shall be cursed. Lazerwolf is still such a hard name.
@@ericaugust1501 It depends on what traditions you are talking about. Traditions of morality and family and culture and law (thinking about the US Constitution) benefit everyone and limit chaos and division. Those with power and wealth today are doing their violent best to overthrow all traditions and morality in favor of chaos.
@@lorisimpson4535 unfortunately traditions (like law and culture) predominantly empower those with power and wealth. it has always reinforced their wealth and power at the expense of those who don't have it, this is everywhere in history. Sure the US constitution example is something special, because it was created immediately after trying to get out from under the boot of power, and by those who had not yet ascended to power of kings and nobility which was so dominant back then, so it was created by people who struggled against corrupt traditions directly. but it is a rare moment in time that this happens. it is why the constitution is so important. right now, present time, for example, the politicians in power are in the same position of power as held by kings and nobility, they answer only to their own wealth and external wealth interests, can never be challenged out of power due to the all consuming propaganda machines, and all new laws and traditions are in their own self interest, and they divide the populace by turning them against each other with shallow identity politics, which is also historically a common tool of the corrupt. but there is no chaos being created for them. they still firmly hold all the power. so i guess i do agree that traditions can vary from good to tyrannical, but i don't consider 'family' a tradition. it is a biological instinct. you don't need tradition/laws to enforce that which comes naturally. i also don't consider morality should be a tradition/law. morality is gained thru education but it's foundation is biological, because it stems from the biological instinct to feel 'you are treating me unfairly', which begins the first step along moral reasoning. so education is among the best traditions because it can at its core challenge other traditions which are applied like an unthinking hammer because that is how the power status quo is maintained.
@@ericaugust1501Bingo. Tradition is very much a mixed bag. Female genital mutilation (or any genital mutilation) is an example of a tradition that does not necessarily serve those it's forced upon.
@@ElegantHamster-d7s agreed. thats an example of the many traditions meant to give control to those already holding all the power. hence my assertation that most traditions serve those in power at the cost of those who are not.
I am not Jewish but I grew up with the musical since my parents had the record from the stage production. The movie came out when I was in my teens. I played the record to death! I knew the songs and loved the songs and had absorbed the story through the songs before I ever saw a production of it. Tradition and change. They require such a balance. My favourite song was sadly not in the movie other than in instrumental, , Far From the Home I Love. I think it, too, resonated the longing for the past while yearning for the future and trying to fit the past into the future or at least to carrying it with, "Yet, there with my love, I'm home." I have moved around a lot in my life, leaving every home and making a new one, so the song also resonates that way with me, too. Home as a sense of comfort and belonging is threaded through the whole show. It's very complex and I cherish it. Amusingly, when my sweetie and I combined our video collection, we had 2 copies of Fiddler on the Roof. He also is not Jewish but the show means a lot to him as well.
@@judithstrachan9399 And relentlessly, as the popular German folk song "Hoch auf dem gelben Wagen" makes clear. The song, about a trip on a yellow postal carriage, touches on the delights of life that one sees by the wayside and wants to stay to be part of, but cannot because the carriage keeps rolling along - "aber der Wagen der rollt", as each verse ends.
We had the 2 VHS set of this when I was a kid. It was a family favorite and still one of my own favorite musicals. It's so cool that a Jewish story can resonate with people from all walks of life.
Although they were 12 years apart, I played Lazar Wolf twice against the same Tevye and Golde for the same theatre company. I was never the same since. The actor for Tevye and I have been friends for over 40 years. No one knows this (the mikes never picked it up) but in the final wrenching scene when Lazar goes to see Tevye before going to America - when the two men hug, I would always whisper in Tevye's ear "I am so upset!" Once you have done 'Fiddler', you never see people and their suffering the same way again. A light, fun comedy? No. Anyone in a production of 'Fiddler' will tell you that the emotions are raw, and also heartfelt. Thank you Yiddishe Kino Club for this discussion. Shalom!
I read of another production where the actors playing Tevye and the Constable were longtime friends. Teh sense of betrayal was palpable, according to the original poster.
Exactly it's a very sad story, my family story of all the jews in Ukraine , Russia, Poland etc. I read the book by Shalom Aleichem and like all his books he wrote wirh humor by the real jews lives were terrible.
Fiddler on the Roof certainly contained sad events. But a tragedy is a play with a sad ending. This had a happy ending: Tevye and his family arrived in America, where they would survive and be free to practice their faith. And, naturally, an American audience would see it that way, rather than focusing on the price they would have to pay in not being able to fully retain their traditional way of life.
Throughout my life this film has been a bonding point between me and my mom. It took on a whole new meaning when I left the Christian church I grew up in and my mom is so indebted to. She still loves and accepts me, but I can tell she's absolutely gutted by my decision. This movie helps me see from her perspective, how she might be feeling about what I've decided to do for the betterment of my own life. It's easy to see me as the daughters and her as Tevye, who is the main character of the movie and therefore we see his point of view the most, which really helps in my relationship with my mom. All the daughters' stories hit hard to me, but especially Chava's. I have no idea what will be "too far" for my mom that she has to break ties with me, and if I get there I have no idea what either of us will do. It will be hard but I'm sure I'll figure it out. Thanks for the video, man. This is a really special movie for me.
My high school did this play when I was in 10th grade. I was Yente, the matchmaker and the comic relief, but I was still very much aware of how sad this story ultimately is. This play actually caused my mom to tell me about the Jewish heritage on her mom's side that was hidden for several generations. We aren't Russian, but this play still impacted me on a deeper level due to this revelation, especially as I was the only cast member with known Jewish ancestry. Even all these years later, I hear the music... 🎶 to life, to life, l'chaim! 🎶
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One of the best movie
I saw this movie in Iran around 1972 in city call Abadan
Woahhhhhh
Oh how times have changed.
And songs!
Dang, wow.
Snap! Jo'burg 71. Must say, the deeply tragic meaning was obvious from the outset.
The "comedy" in Fiddler is of the if-I-didn't-laugh-I'd-cry variety, like when Tevye complains to God that his horse is lame, to the effect of, "I know I'm a sinner and deserve punishment, but what did the horse ever do to You?"
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The Jewish Fate has always been like a fiddler on the roof trying to Balance without falling .
Tevye says there's no shame in being poor... but it's no great honor either.
I've said that completely unironically about my 2 cats when they were sick, and without remembering it was in this.
borscht belt humor ....
I'm sorry, who thinks Fiddler on the Roof is quaint and fun? I mean, there's a lot of humor in the first act, but it is deeply depressing and existential, while still hopeful. It's one of the movies guaranteed to make me cry.
Fr people do this thing all the time " black swan is acc a horror thriller" like most don't agree
Well, crying can be fun sometimes.. 😂
"far from the home I love...."🎹🎹
That's what I was wondering?!
Well, there's also individual context. My mom loves musicals, and this was a big one, so I am reminded of quality time with my mom. I also liked watching war films with my dad, but I don't believe either one of us was ever a warhawk.
Even as a child i didn't think Fiddler On The Roof was just a happy musical.
How could anyone not realize how serious and deep the film is.
I thought the same thing. I figured everyone knew it was actually a sad story. Although for a long time I thought Sound Of Music was a dumb musical until I actually sat down and saw it. Had no idea it was about WWII. At the end when Captain Von Trapp sang Edelweiss, a song I’d always written off as a pretty but vapid tune, it brought me to tears.
@@mariecarie1 Edelweiss is a touching song. Two of my grandparents were children in German/Austria. They came to the US with their parents just after WW1. As a young lady I lived in Indonesia and their flower is Melati. As romantic girls do I dreamed of having twin girls and them Edelweiss and Melati after the 2 beautiful flowers in my young life.
Probably they haven't watched the thing and just know of it from the upbeat songs.
@@theyellowmeteor you're right that is a possibility.
@@ussarng4649 Parallel to Anatevka, on which John Williams set just the right mournful note.
The music of that movie is insane. I think "To Life" the song in the tavern when Tevya and Lazer Wolf announce the wedding for Tevyes daughter is one of the most impactful intense music in Cinematic history. It starts with a Jewish melody and dance, goes into a Russian folk sound and dance where the towns folk actually invite the Jewish members of the community to join them, goes back to the Jewish and then comes together with both styles playing at once complimenting each other despite their differences. The sound, the energy, the chaos, yet harmony is so incredible. It takes my breath away.
I love the bottle dance.
The Klezmer music is awesome. Check out Klezmer Conservatory Band if you want more.
One of the most eye opening things I’ve discovered about Fiddler on the Roof is how I relate to it now vs how I related to it when I first saw it as a 13 year old. Back then, the independent, more modern daughters who eschewed tradition were the characters I resonated with. Now I’m in my 50s and I’m increasingly lamenting the loss of heritage and tradition in a society that no longer cares for it.
I could have written your comment word for word. I was also 13 when I watched in the theatre. I remember trying very hard not to let my parents know the movie made me cry. It was the first movie I ever cried at, I was so troubled that the girls had such a small pool of choices for husbands, none of them fit. But today the thing that makes me cry is how reckless we are with our roots and history. It’s worth fighting for. We aren’t Jewish, but we don’t need to be; the components of the experience are Human ones. Fiddler on the Roof is a masterpiece.
Even as a 25 year old this resonates with me. By rejecting our traditions and heritage in the west we have lost something of out souls modern technology is great but we lost something important
@@michaelroos7944 With age, experience, and introspection has come wisdom.
Yes opwave= I waTCHED THIS MOVIE AS A YOUNG TEEN AND WAS JUST ENTHROULLED WITH THE MUSIC. Now in my 70's I see so much more depth
A dangerous observation. It means that you have swung to the right as you age. In truth, your youth wished to improve the world and the lot of people, now, not so much. Worth some deeper thought.
Rest In Peace Chaim Topol (1935-2023)
Incredible actor. He WAS Tevye, having played the role on over 3000 times on stage. And his performance is forever immortalized in the film.
I got to play Hodel in a few hundred of those and it was the most extraordinary experience. You're right- each and every night he was Tevye. And he utterly broke your heart.
When I heard of his passing, I cried. He will forever be the Papa.
I didn't know... rest in Peace Big Fella.
@@Renfair333 What an amazing experience & lovely memory to treasure - thank you for sharing!🙏♥️🏴
I didn't gear about that 🥹
The saddest thing? That it was necessary to explain this at all. How could anyone NOT recognize the tragic themes in Fiddler?
❤
Thank you, Nancy, I'm so glad you said this. I think the film makes the clash with tradition obvious, as is the constant threat of violence, and its materialisation at the wedding. Of course it was all heavily sanitised, as you'd expect from an American production, but still makes its points so clearly (as you'd expect from an American production).
It’s always good to review, teach and revisit understandings from one generation to the next in ways the new generations appreciate and can hear.
@@AyurvedaWithChitra It's a good thing *IF* it needs to be explained. Do you seriously think that Fiddler requires explanation? 🤦♀
@@lesleyvivien2876 Yes, we live in times where histories are forgotten, compassion has declined and division is on the rise. All of which are reasons for the rise of antisemitism, racism and tribalism. This video has an international multicultural, multigenerational platform. For a specific set of people, Fidler needs no explanation, but there is an audience which needs to be introduced to Fidler so they can relate and not see it just as an “old Jewish musical” but an archetypal story which every generation moves through.
@@AyurvedaWithChitra True - and well argued.
There will be an audience that says "well it's only Jews, innit" but they may be the same people who think that an endless barrage of rockets into Israel from surrounding countries is acceptable, because it's only Jews, innit. Is there any hope for these people?
Read the original story, it shows the three eldest daughters and their tragic lives, the first becomes poor(poverty is as death), the second ends up in Siberia and dies, the third converts and is dead to her parents. Very tragic story.
I think the third gets divorced. Ironically, only the daughter who obeys her father and marries his choice, not hers, ultimately ends up happy. She is the fifth oldest as I recall.
That is much more tragic. Maybe the musical was made more ‘Hollywood’ to appeal to comfortable gentiles like me. Though it didn’t go so Hollywood as to give us an artificial happy ending.
. Thank you very much! I had not read the book and didn't know.
There is also the 1939 film Tevya, which handles the marriage to the gentile differently
@@Rene_Lhote Daughter number five didn't strike me as happy at all. Her husband is horrible, and even Tevye regrets this choice.
As a Catholic, I ❤ this musical. I watched it as a 5 year old- enjoyed the music and grasped the sad historical and moral meaning perfectly. I remember feeling disgusted at the persecution and concerned at the loss of tradition and found the fiddler enigmatic, symbolic, and melancholic. As a child, I completely got it and the story made a big impression in my consciousness. 45 years later, I had my daughter watch it. Such great actors! The makers of this musical and movie greatly contributed to society. It should be watched in schools. Tevye was right in that some things can change but others should never change. There are limits
As someone who grew up calling myself a Jew, having studied the Bible for myself for a few years, I realize that we Jews and Catholics suffer our respective Vaticans ( the Pharisaical rabbinical movement for ‘Jews’). We both suffer indoctrination with many man made narcissistic doctrines and depend on charlatans for our understanding of Yahweh and Yahshua. Just start studying the Bible as an individual with no label and you will see what I mean in time. Shalom!
It’s a poetic masterpiece - I am not Jewish and this is one of my favorite films. Beautiful and very tragic.
Life Is Beautiful is also beautiful and tragic, with a stunning main character.
Who on earth misunderstood Fiddler on the Roof? Of course its a tragedy.
I saw it as a “hopeful tragedy,” that in spite of the coming tragedies that WE know will befall Europe with two world wars and a Holocaust, we also know that many Jewish immigrants who came to American cities would face dramatic and irreversible changes.
Lit my thoughts, I never saw it as anything else, especially since we know wwII is coming and we hear that some of the characters will go to europe
I guess the same people who play I will always love you at their wedding.
@crispindry2815 Your comment is rude and ill-informed, at best. Is that how sad your world is, that this type of vitriol is the only way you feel valid?
Those who didn't understand it were sentimental gojim (not per se intentionally antisemitic) and secularized atheist Jews.
I don’t expect many people to understand this, but as an Acadian who knows the story of his own people and their ethnic cleansing from land they literally pulled out of the sea for themselves, and whose ancestor survived the massacre at St-Anne’s when they were a 12 year old boy, the song “Anatevka” always hits home for me. There are more than a few parallels between the Jewish story and our own.
Reading the comments is frequently said to be a bad thing, but I find all kinds of items of interest. Thanks to this comment I went to Google and Wikipedia to find information on Acadia as a real place and what the Massacre was and where. I appreciate this.
I didn’t know about Acadia until I read novel about baby girls who got swapped so the sick French one could see the English doctor. The day before the massacre. So the English baby went to (I think!) New Orleans with her new family. Such a sad novel, but happier ending.
That was SO unfair, what happened to the Acadians. I certainly saw the similarities to Fiddler.
Acadian also. I thought the same thing.
Destruction of whole communities and societies is the worst crime. It is shameful this goes on today and the world sits on its hands.
@@casteretpolluxI certainly hope the Palestinians figure into your comments.
I married into a family of Russian Jews that came over after the collapse of the USSR. Fiddler on the Roof always makes me think of them and how the soviets brutally pressed all their traditions out of them. They're completely secular atheists now, lost all connection to Judaism, the Yiddish language, etc. My mother-in-law sometimes talks about how her grandmother--the last generation of her family born in a shtetl--sometimes tried to teach her grandkids little prayers and what not in their cramped little Moscow apartment, but she never got very far. She was afraid of being overheard by one of the other tenants and reported.
Fiddler on the Roof isn't just about tradition yielding to modernity, but the inherent violence of that process. Even when it happens peacefully as with the marriage of Tevye's daughters, it can be this awful, traumatic struggle. What a nightmare it is when that change comes at the barrel of a gun.
As a child of Soviet immigrants this resonates.
The 20th century, or at least the first half of it, kept on getting worse and worse.
Everyone in Soviet Union felt their religion pressed out of them, Jewish or not. The evil scourge of communism has so much to answer for.
@@suzanneja710 This is true, but it's worth emphasizing that the persecution was not equal across all religious groups. Christians were able to enjoy periods of relative tolerance while for observant Jews, it was pretty much just all crackdown all the time.
As bad as the Soviet Union was for Russians, it was much worse for all its ethnic minorities. It's such a tragedy because one of the great promises of the Bolsheviks was to bring justice to the marginalized peoples being crushed by the Russian Empire; instead, they just put their feet in the czar's boots.
@@suzanneja710 the evil is not communism as an economic idea. After all, every Catholic religious community thrives in a communist cooperative...difference is everyone is doing it for God, and everyone is on the same page. And nobody needs to be better than anyone else.
What happens when the system is bigger than a small religious community, then the needs of the individual is trampled and someone always rises to power to dictate to the rest.
There is the evil.
As a Christian and a Gentile, this movie stirs up the deep love and respect I have for the Jewish people. I'm reminded of God's promise to Abraham, "I will bless those who bless you and I will curse those who curse you"!
Goody goody gumdrops to you.
@@lisareed5669 Aaaggghhh! I lie mortally wounded skewered by your rapier wit... NOT! 😅😅🤣🤣😂😂
Jews are only 1 of Israel’s sons
I thought it is one of the saddest movies I've ever seen. Tevye loses almost all his children in one way or another, loses his business, eventually loses his whole way of life. Perhaps it was physically easier in America afterward, but the whole life was destroyed.
Ahh - but not really. Their life transitioned, as it must. Remember the "Season" dialogue in Ecclesiastes.
The whole book is a mournful tome, but that part still holds hope.
Your comment also parallels the story of Job, (which is a much maligned text that's been argued for centuries.)
But, he did not lose his soul.
He did not lose his first daughter at all. She married Motel, the man she loved, and she moved with her parents to America. Motel and his sewing machine became an accomplished tailor in New York.
@@dovbarleib3256 read the stories
@@dovbarleib3256 Right.
Interestingly, depending on how one looks at it, it's a hopeful story for his family, because as you pointed out, he kept relations with his first daughter and her husband. For that matter, his other daughters did marry, and he escaped the Holocaust by coming to America.
Tevye talks about his trials, and has a bit of a glum type of humor about them, but the way the Bible treats them is that the Lord brings the person through the trials.
I think that if the movie was about the Holocaust, it would be harder to have this same kind of hopeful positivity. But as it is, one can see positives in small things.
My favorite movie. I am a Jew who was born and raised in almost the same shtetl (in Soviet Belarus), I was raised by my grandparents who spoke Yiddish, they had a wooden house. Anatevka. Right on the border of the Gomel region and the Kyiv region, where Shalom Aleichem lived.... Yiddishland that no longer exists. Millions were destroyed in the Shoah
Yet you still have your soul.
And now these are separate countries, the Empire that was the Soviet Union and still is Russia is beginning to fall apart, and Ukraine has Jewish president!
א ריזיק שיינעם דאנק פאר אייער דערציילונג. איך האף, אז איר האט פארשריבן אייער געשיכטע און די געשיכטע פון אייער באבע-זיידע, אדער ווייניקסטנס דערציילט זי אייער עייגנען קינדער. ס׳יז ממש וויכטיק, ניט צו לאזן אזעלכע געשיכטן פארשווינדן. איך וואלט גערן אזוי רעדן מיט אייך א ביסל אויף יידיש! איך וווין אין אמעריקע, אבער איך רעד רוסיש אין דער היים און לערן שוין עייניקע יארן מאמע-לשון. וועלכן דיאלעקט רעדט איר, א ליטווישן? זענען די באבע-זיידע געווען חסידיש צי מתנגדיש?
If you do not mind me asking, how did your family survive?
😪
-When a poor man eats a chicken, one of them is sick.
I swear, this is one of the best one-liners from the first act.
That and:
-For a man with a slow tongue, he spoke a lot.
Tevye gets so delightfully salted, when his knowledge is questioned.
isn't there a scene where he offers a "quote" and is told it's not in the Scriptures, to which Tevye rejoins, "Well, it damn well SHOULD be!"
@@guyfaux3978
"Where does it say that?"
Tevye: "All right! All right! It doesn't exactly say that, but someplace it says something about a chicken!"
I like the Rabbis answer to Is there a blessing for the Czar?
@@Tikiguy007so good!!
Maybe it´s because I'm not Jewish, but can you explain the joke? A poor man wouldn't eat a chicken if he's healthy?
How does anyone not realize how tragedy walks hand in hand with joy in Fiddler? This seems obvious to me. The first time you, as a kid, hear the song Anatevka you realize the jokes are there to hide and manage the pain.
The title is simply click bait to those that have never seen it.
@@jimreimers4213 yea, cuz the videographer is crap.
Good point. Life is change. Life is pain. But life can also be great beauty! Finding the humor in life helps us smile through the pain as we search for beauty.
Family! Tradition! But in the end... Family!
tragedy walking hand-in-hand with joy may be a very common perception in Jewish thinking, but it's not so common elsewhere. but perhaps it should be.
after all, as the Good Book says, "Everything has an appointed season, and there is a time for every matter under heaven ... a time to weep and a time to laugh; a time of wailing and a time of dancing."
Exactly!
I was born in 1965, quite a bit before the movie musical. Back in those days we listened to records, and I listened to the musical score from the play Fiddler on the Roof, over and over again until I knew every word of every song. Even as a child I knew this story made me cry and yet also made me feel joy. It made me fear change and cling to what I knew; stability. For my entire life I have felt like the Fiddler, small correcting movements, nothing that could break my balance. But change comes to us all, just as the author was saying. Now I look at the world around me and I seek out the Fiddler for balance. I'm not even Jewish, though secretly I wanted to be Jewish as a child, because it seemed to me that the Jew could hold on to his balance, to hear the Fiddler more clearly, than my Christian family seemed to. I think now I understand that we all look to the Fiddler in our moments of confusion and change. No musical has ever touched me so deeply as this one and I will forever be grateful for the insight it has given me. Once again I feel hot tears on my cheek as I review the scenes and songs from this wonderful story. Nothing in this story leaves me untouched.
I feel the same way- I’ve loved this movie since I was a child. Tevye’s reaction to Chava’s marriage is heartbreaking and always makes me cry!
Fiddler first opened on Broadway September 22, 1964.
@@smwca123 I think what I meant by that was the Hollywood musical movie and not the theatrical performance. It was the soundtrack of the theatrical performance that I listened to as a child. I like that it came out 8 months before I was born. My mom must have been listening to it while she was pregnant with me.
My fifth grade teacher took us to see this at the cinema (late 60s) and it resonated so deeply for me being the grand daughter of a refugee from Smyrna when they were being chased out of their home, their way of life. Every aspect of this story had something my mother told me about my grandmother's plight. I will always be grateful to my teacher for giving me the chance to see this movie. It has shaped much of my worldview and I believe being a better person.
Pretty heavy for 5th graders!
Thank you for drawing the parallel to Smyrna. May their memory be eternal!!
I doubt this would be allowed today , think about that!
Thank you for this comment. The genocide and ethnic cleansing of Christians from western Anatolia, including the destruction of Smyrna in 1922, is often looked over in comparison to the much more high-profile Armenian genocide, not to mention the Holocaust; that is why it is so crucial to recognize these historical parallels. Over the course of the twentieth century, my family experienced pogroms in the Russian Empire, Stalinist repressions, the Holocaust, and Soviet institutional antisemitism. Needless to say, I understand and empathize with your ancestral trauma.
I'm 86, Christian, and a father, grandfather, and great-grandfather. When I saw Fiddler, and saw that regardless of ethnicity or religeon, that we're all basically the same: human... warts and all. Thank you for reminding me of that. More importantly, what's not to respect, honor and love?
Well said Robert. And Jewish music reflects that, being sad and tragic and then becoming full of joy because if you don't have any joy in a time of tragedy, you will never make it
Classic drama?
I love Fiddler on the roof. My favorite movie of all time. The story is amazing, the music is absolutely perfect.
I've watched this movie more than once in the passing of my life. The last time I watched it, I was overwhelmed with grief and cried uncontrollably. It still grieves me because this movie highlights man's inhumanity to man.
Omigosh, who can see Fiddler as a cheerful show? One of my favorites. My son played in it in a school production and I watched every show. Have seen numerous productions. I cry at the end every time. I'm crying now, just thinking about it.
People also don't realize that Les Mis is about police brutality (even though the villain is a police officer known for brutality) and usually think it takes place during the French Revolution, even though they literally say it doesn't and talk about the post-Revolution flag.
In 1971 I was 16 yo. I'm 69 now. There's something so special about this movie that I only watched once, along with both my parents, and I don't forget the emotions it generated in me. The deep sadness, the love for your parents (and love between your parents as a couple), the sense of safety and grounding that tradition makes you feel, and the possibilities that change brings, the music, the majestic scenes....what an impression it left on my mind that I still remember it after 53 yrs.... The Sound of Music....I've watched it so many times...but Fiddler on the Roof, only once and never forgotten!
I remember seeing the play on Broadway starring Zero Mostel, in the winter of 1971. I didn't really understand the story, but my grandparents did. Theodore Bikel, who played Captain Van Trapp in the Broadway play of "The Sound of Music" also played Tevye in the road version of "Fiddler," which I saw a few years after seeing original play on Broadway at the Valley Forge Music Fair in Valley Forge, PA. That was when I finally understood the story.
The Sound of Music drowned out the cries of pain. That movie was a huge distortion of the true story it claimed to be.
Also, Plummer spent the evenings plying some of those kids with booze to seduce them. I got that from the actors themselves.
Same here. I even sang "Fiddler on the Roof" for my choir solo. ( We had to pick out a song and sing it for our grade.) That movie made quite an impression on me. I finally watched it again a few years ago. Wonderful movie!
@@fgoindarkg Yes, I know about the true story in a biography written by Agathe Van Trapp, the real name of the Captain's eldest daughter (it wasn't Liesl). Also, all of the children's names had been changed from the original to the play and the movie, thereby distorting the content of their story, especially the part about their escaping to Switzerland over the Austrian Alps as shown in the movie. As Agathe explained in her biography, the real story of that escape was that the family headed to a train station that was close to their estate outside Salzburg, and that was how they managed to get to Switzerland before the borders were closed. I didn't know about the thing you wrote about Plummer plying some of the kids w/booze, but I do know that he disparaged the movie by calling it "The Sound of Mucus".
I'm Native American and remember ''Fiddler'' and what we lost - land, religion and place. Those with the power and the gun get it all, until we stop them.
Our history certainly reflects a long tradition of might makes right. I think our modern world is struggling to establish a more humane way to navigate conflicts.
Overt control can take and destroy so many things. And yet, what survives is the most valuable of all.
if the europeans hadn't come over here and grabbed the land when they did.....China or Russia certainly would have. There's no way that Native Americans could have ever fought off all the developed countries that would have clamored over here for the land. You can be angry and fight against it....or....you can go with what you have and work to make it better.
or you can be Palestine.
@@Emg2463What are you talking about? Russia gave up its rights to Alaska and Fort Ross. God Almighty, when are you clowns gonna stop trying to rewrite history?
As an immigrant from Soviet Union 36 years ago, I can say that tradition comes back. It is resilient. My grandparents adapted to changes and life in the communist country, my parents knew nothing about jewishness except antisemitism. My children are religious and follow the tradition.
Tradition ultimately wins because it is based upon practicality and pragmatism. When tradition isn't however, it loses.
Also gives a meaning to life.
And the Soviet Union is broken up, but there still is this very large piece called Russia which is causing trouble!
@@thomaskalbfus2005 Right now the problem in the region is caused by the eastward expansion of NATO which is something the US and the the Western Europeans promised Russia it wouldn't do .
The US is attempting to create Ukraine as a puppet state with nuclear weapons directly on the Russian border.(Remember the Cuban Missile Crisis .....same thing just in reverse. ) I would say Russia has every justification to do everything it is currently doing to defend itself and the Russian minority in eastern Ukraine.
Stop drinking the Mainstream Media Kool-Aid and the lies from the military-industrial complex Eisenhower warned us about.
koolaid
@@irinachulsky6222 Some is Masorah- Tradition. Most, not all, of those Traditions are actually Commandments in the Torah- for instance, the fringes on the corners of his 4 cornered garment that Tevya calls a Tradition are commanded in Numbers 15:38.
Being African-American, there is a parallel I can draw between Fiddler On The Roof and the life my grandparents. Being in a rural, agricultural living a hard life, being oppressed, it's something that resonates with me.
I can see that... Thank you for your post.
I always appreciate hearing how the themes from Jewish movies resonate across cultures. 💛
The closest community to ours is yours. We are more brothers/sisters than any other community in the US.
@@_yiddishkeit I feel like Fiddler On The Roof can be relatable to so many people across different groups.
@SafetySpooon There are some things that both African Americans and Jewish people have been through. For Jewish people in Eastern European, it was pogroms and expulsions. For African Americans in the South and other parts of America, we went through alot of violent bigotry after the Civil War.
Tuvia reminds me of my father, he was a simple man, hassidic, i chosed a different path, and he allways bent the rules for me, because he was a loving father and a good man. And this was a struggle of him. He wanted the traditions and rules, but family was more important to him. This is so emotional for me to see again the story of fiddler on the roof even though I've seen it so many times, it touches the deepest human struggles and emotions , all while having so much love and compassion for humanity. This is why it's a timeless work of art. We have to take the spirit of the play and carry it into the real world. Look at others and remember their deepest struggles which are exactly like our own. And treat each other with compassion.
It's sad that religious beliefs affect people so.
It's long past time that trying to bring children up in any religious/cult belief system was recognised for the ab*se that it is, and banned. It would have made your father a happier man.
@@pineapplepenumbra judaism is kind of a different though, its also a culture and historical story with rich traditions. So i actually think it wouldn't have made him happier, he got alot of meaning to his life from Judaism, and also gave it to us, im not religious, im an atheist, but the cultural aspect and the traditions are very very important to me,
But i agree, it can be very very wrong . And abusive, but not allways, not every religious situation in the world is necessarily abusive, if religions were this bad, they wouldn't have survived for so long, we need something to hold on to. This is not inherently abusive.
@@The_Cat_Lady_ Without it, christianity wouldn't have evolved, and without the 2, their bastard child, islam, wouldn't exist.
"not every religious situation in the world is necessarily abusive"
No, of course, not, but on balance, these belief systems have caused more harm than good (and it used to surprise me that so many people were so ignorant about that).
The world would have been a much better place without them, and, of course, animals wouldn't be subjected to the awful barbarity of kosher/halal slaughter.
The thing about the latter is that muslims know, in truth, that it's wrong, but they cannot admit to it. When I ask them a certain question (one I'm not allowed to ask any more), they never answer.
@@The_Cat_Lady_ " if religions were this bad, they wouldn't have survived for so long,"
Religions/cults are like cancers, or memes. Part of their nature is that they are designed to continue. They are very manipulative, and rely on gaslighting and brainwashing to flourish.
Firstly, far too people see aware of how awful, powerful and insidious brainwashing is.
Secondly, if they make it hard to leave (expulsion from the community, physical violence, or even death for Apostates), then it's hardly surprising that they persist. Even yesterday and today I've had youtube replies from people afraid to come out as Atheist, as their "christian"* parents/community will chuck them out.
Thirdly, they tend to breed a lot. However, as someone pointed out, now that the internet exists, far more people are leaving, as they discover just what nonsense these beliefs are.
* There's no such thing.
I understand and respect your view. I once was there, but no longer. Here is a glimpse. Earlier in the Torah, God tells Abraham that he will walk to a place that God shows him. That section has a play on words. The key phrase is lech-lecha. This phrase corresponds with the homonym "go within". The Torah is about getting in touch with our deep inner self
.
Mitzrayim, the name for Egypt also means 'a narrow place'. The story of escaping Egypt is a story if escaping our own narrowness. Again the story is aboutlooking within and growing into a spiritual person
@pineapplepenumbra
Got out of jail today!!!! I would play the musical in my head to stay sane, then this was at the top of my recommendations! Right now I'm really vibing with the theme of starting over with nothing but your spirit... Thank you for making this for me!❤
Marisa Tomei’s character in a film I’ve forgotten the title of has hit a low point in her story and sings, “Pick yourself up, brush yourself off, and start all over again . . .”
Good luck on your journey! 😊
So, if you miss a moment playing the music in your head, you go right back to jail. Right? I think you may need to work on your stay out of jail plan a bit more than that. Run it by your parole officer.
I'm not Jewish, but Fiddler on the Roof meant so much to me as a kid and still holds a special place in my heart. This explanation is fantastic. Thank you for making it.
I'm not Jewish but there is something so beautiful about the story and the musical. Thank you for posting. Shalom.
I'm a 57 year old living in Melb Australia, i am NOT Jewish. I saw this film when I was 8 or 9 and still remember being both sad and somehow inspired at same time, thank you for an in-depth look at the ideas and central themes that still run true for all of us.
Hey fellow Melbournian
Queenslander here. I was extra sad because I expected a musical to be all happy. I was about the same age.
Another Aussie here
Fiddler on the Roof is basically my family's story, specifically the daughter that married Perchik. Nothing good came out of it, except for generations of people hated for the Jewishness that they lost. No traditions, fractured, dying community. The luckiest of Tevye's daughters, in my view, ended up being the little ones who hopefully had a chance to grow up in their tradition and prosper.
Thank you for a good analysis of the movie!
Huh?
Many Jews who got to the US wanted to, indeed, give up their traditions and in exchange, prosper. But it's a false goal. They might prosper materially but after the 2nd generation a lot of them didn't know they were even Jews any more. And once you become just another American, in a culture that's hyper-individualistic, where it's easy to become destitute and hard to rise above destitution, well, there's a reason life expectancy in the US is the lowest of the OECD countries.
@alexcarter8807 lol, that's nice, most of my family got killed during the holocaust and Lenin's/Stalin's repressions. Pretty sure their life spans were shorter. I'll take the good old USA over the old country any day.
My grandparents were Ukrainian Jews who left Kyiv in 1904 when there was a pogrom. 90 years later I was reading "Nicholas and Alexandra," and found there indeed had been a pogrom in Kyiv in 1904. I felt so connected to the grandparents I never knew.
Tevya had 5 daughters, the 2 youngest are not much involved in the film or play. They are discussed further in the original stories.
Thank you for reviewing this classic tale.. Im a Christian, but as a human This is immensely soul wrenching
Sorry your soul is so damned wrenched.
As a general music teacher in Philadelphia, I had the privilege of showing this movie to all my classes over a 22 year period. I never tired of it and always looked forward to showing it. How deeply significant; how wonderful in summarizing life's nature; how best in showing the sadness, joy and realities of life. (One small example: one of my students turned around and caught me with tears in my eyes when Tevye sang to Golda, "...do you love me?..." So full of richness and truth.
The music is amazing and singable. Maybe that's why people get confused. Even the cute melodies like "Matchmaker" have a seriously troubling message. Especially if you're a girl.
It's a troubling message in the modern era, not when you are in multigenerational subsistence agrarian lifestyle where a full belly is a higher priority to erotic love. There is wisdom in matchmaking because a marriage is not just the uniting of two people, it is the uniting of two families and the creation of a new family. The community has an interest in the marriage, it is not a bystander as we think of today.
I’m an orthadox jewish girl, 20, and as all my friends from my Jewish high school are getting married, I’m still trying to figure out whether it’s actually a bad thing to get married or a very good thing our society is lacking.
Most of the girls from my high school are doing a mixture of college, other schooling, or work and are also dating or thinking of dating through a matchmaker. Now a days, there are so many options that having a matchmaker is really great and a very good way of dating. I’m not going to get into detail, but I don’t think a matchmaker is that bad. Still it’s hard to know since there aren’t many studies on it from people who actually are married with kids and we’re married from a young age in my community.
@@cookiediangelo8511 One of the most terrible things in Western culture right now is the devaluation and denigration of the family. The tradition of marriage and generation and continuation of the family and tradition through time is under attack. Such destructive ideas are not in fact modern---they come up every time a culture or civilization is in decline, and presage the literal destruction of the civilization by barbarians. The veneer of civilization is very thin, and marriage and the family is a bulwark and defense against chaos and disaster for human beings.
. Funny how the same people who would mock a matchmaker, have blind faith in computer dating.
@@cookiediangelo8511 I guess we'll take your word that a girl named
Cookie Diangelo is Jewish. Anyway, do get married, and soon. Not today or tomorrow but be married by your twenty-third birthday, and have children. Don't think so much. You will be happy.
The first time I saw this film, I agreed that tevya was mostly focused on money. But when I saw it more recently as an older adult, I was struck by his poverty and hard work.
Yes! I don’t think money was the most important thing to Tevya. I think he realizes that money would’ve made his life much easier. You can see he accepts his place in the world when he questions G-d, as he is working, about why He made so many poor people. I didn’t ever see it even as complaining. It was just acceptance with some questioning.
@@Kerryjotx if he were really so concerned with money, he’d put down that useless horse. A man in his position couldn’t really afford to keep and feed a land horse. That’s what a sensible dairyman would have done. But Tevya was too compassionate.
I was shocked by the assertion that money was the most important thing to Tevye. In the context of the real story of the movie, and Tevye's character, that smacked of antisemitism. That old trope of the "moneygrubbing Jew." I found that SO inappropriate and entirely against Tevye's character and way of living demonstrated in the whole movie. Even coming from an evident Jew it was jarring. I see many Jews echo ideas of Jew-hatred these days. I do not understand it at all.
When one is Young, parents protect us against poverty. Things were tough for my parents, but we ate every day, we had our parents and a roof over our heads. We went to school and could borrow books,still quite expensive then, from the library. One Christmas, all they had was a couple of books of Greenshield stamps, remember them, so we had two small gifts and a new picture bible, I still have it. We weren't poor. We had a better Christmas Day, in spite of mum's turkey, than many we've had since.
Terribly sad, but the most beautiful movie.
RIP TOPOL, incomparable.
I'm not Jewish at all. But I remember my reaction when I first saw this movie as a member of the Irish diaspora. It's a very Jewish story, but it's also a very Irish story too. When you look back through our history, especially around the same time, you see many of the same themes.
Had a similar reaction from one of my neighbors. He was Armenian and by the end of the film he said “We Armenians and Jews aren’t that different, we shared the same pain.”
Fiddler in the Roof is perfect. I love the humor, the music, Tevye's relationship with God and his love for his faith and his family. I was lucky enough to play Hodel in Fiddler when I was in college. It will always hold a special place in my heart.
My mother's very Catholic family left Latvia in 1910 - they were Polish speakers but they were also ethnically Lithuanian. One of them tried to contact the family left in Europe in the 1920's and found that they couldn't find information about anyone left. So, it was happening to so many people in the Russian Empire. Most of the Jewish people I have known in my life came from the Russian Empire.
Oh. OK. And this is helpful.....how?
When the books were written I think it was about "Modernity vs Tradition", but by the time the play was staged in 1964 it had taken on a different meaning. With the scars still fresh "Fiddler" is a reminder that the Jews are never truly safe and that history is always cyclical. Whether it be Renaissance Spain and forced conversions, the Progroms of both Czarist and Communist Russia, or Berlin, Vienna, Prague and Warsaw of the 1930s and 40s to this very day. That's the true tragedy hiding behind the catchy songs and story of "Fiddler"
Allow the families removed in 1948 to return to Israel and withdrawing from the West Bank will ensure that Jews will be safe in their own land.
The second daughter and her new husband intend to move to Poland. Anyone who saw it when it came out knew that this young couple would die. It is heartbreaking.
@@jonathanhosh4459Israel withdraw no families. The arabs leader told the arabs to leave Israel so they could conquer and remove the jews.
What about the Jews that were throw out of the arabs land the Jews had lived in for 2000+ years, and before Muhammad arrived
absolutely right
@@jonathanhosh4459
You mean the families who supported Arab imperialism and attempt to annihilate Jews returning to their homeland?
Sure, we just saw what giving back land to Arab colonizers does, continuous rocket attacks for decades, suicide bombers - a literal pogrom! 1200 dead, 200+ kidnapped!
Respectfully? F off with that mentality.
Currently, watching the movie in its entirety for the first time today. I am not Jewish. However, I've grown up with Eastern European Jewish culture all my life. This movie was always celebrated. as it represented a lot of. the stories of my friend's grandparents and the teachers I grew up with. However, I never stopped to think that the movie was not a movie of celebration, but of sorrow. It paints the picture. in a different shade of colors.
I saw this as a teenager 3 times. I felt the spirit of the daughters and their young loves, a spirit of freshness, new ideas, growth, and change. But now I’m old I see the many ideas young people of today bring with them same hope and enthusiasm, but…..life has taught me that not all ideas bring positive growth and goodness. I came to see that not all tradition is all bad and even has some wisdom for those who seek. Now I feel Tevya’s struggle deeply. I value tradition much more than before, but also understand the yearnings and hopes of each coming-of-age generation. Balance is in the struggle somewhere, but it’s never easy to find.
How could anyone not know how sad this movie was?
Perhaps someone who has never seen or heard of the movie would qualify for that.
I was part of a production of the musical in high school, funnily enough right as the Ukraine war was starting up. One of the things that resonated most with me was how everyone reacted post Chava leaving. They all became completely miserable. Notably, Tevye curses his horse for being sick instead of joking about it. The story seems to be not about how far you can bend the tradition before it breaks, but how long you can resist bending before you break.
Interesting take :)
YESSSSSS! And continually reconstituting oneself, returning, after breaking. Like returning to the chorus after a verse.
YES. This is my reading of the film, too.
I watched this a few weeks ago for the first time as an older adult and it wrecked me for a week.
I watched only a few scenes of the movie called, "Shawshank Redemption" when realizing soon enough I couldn't finish watching it at the time without feeling wrecked for a week after too. I better finish watching it now. Later.
I first saw the film almost a decade after its debut while I was attending university. Having been raised in a Christian home and being well schooled in both Old and New Testaments, I immediately 'got' what the film was trying to get across to the audience. I think the constant breaking of the fourth wall by Tevye was a way to school people who were not familiar with Jewish traditions and with the culture and history of the time and place. It also provided some much needed comic relief to what is a very sad overall story. It instantly became one of my all-time favorite movies, partly because it shines a light on a period of history that was very dark. Its message is also timeless. May we never forget. May it never happen again.
When I explain our family history to my kids, I basically show them this movie and explain "that's why we came to America in the early 20th century." My grandmother's family came from Odessa, so a bigger city, but facing similar challenges. My other 3 grandparents came from small towns very much like the one in the show.
We also explained my wife's mother's family coming to New York from Puerto Rico by showing them West Side Story. We haven't found an age appropriate movie on the Irish Potato Famine that explains my wife's father's side. There's a few, but the target audience is older.
OMG, THANK YOU SO MUCH! WAY too MANY people keep insisting how we all have to LOVE THIS MOVIE, & yet most people DON'T GET IT!
This. Thank you for getting me 😇😇😇
I played the rabbi some years ago and Chaim who was in London and a good family friend came to visit. He said to me he'd heard I was playing the rabbi and asked me to go through the few lines with him. He then directed me word for word, emotion to emotion, gesture to gesture. At the next rehearsal I did exactly as he said and the director said - 'Don't do it like that, I preferred the way you did it before'!
I do think that it is in essence a rather sad story though. We know what's coming to Europe in the decades ahead and as they walk out of the village at the end it symbolises to me the route to the holocaust.
When you say Chaim you mean Topol. Right? So he gave you advice how to play it and your director didn't like it? Wow.
@@maestroclassico5801exactly!
Your director was a fool! I hope you disobeyed him!
@@Renfair333 If one wants to work, one obeys the director.
When I was a young teenager I got to play Tevye twice.
And I concur, though it has some comic relief, it is about a family coming to terms with a new world, and how that impacts them emotionally.
"Girls are people."
"...A Radical!!"
I think the one thing tTreva really wants when quoting the good book he really wants to spend time in the good book. Because when he is speaking in the rich man song is sweetest thing of all would spend 7 hours everyday reading the good book.
This was a well done review - especially as it relates to everyone... and maybe prepare people NOW for what's coming. What's coming might even be a worse fate than for The Fiddler.
I've only ever seen the movie. I've never seen Fiddler on stage. But one thing that always resonated with me about Tevye more so than his daughters is his willingness to bend tradition just a little bit because of the love I feel he has for his daughters. Of his contemporaries in Anatevka, I feel like he's the most open minded. He welcomed Perchek despite him being a radical who believes girls are people to. He accepted the overtures of the gentiles in the L'chaim scene when the other revelers were reticent. And he eventually bent a little bit at the end when Chava came to say goodbye. She wasn't totally dead to him and I think he could eventually come to like her husband even if he is a gentile.
That acceptance was hinted at, near the film's end.
@@davegreene8588 Tevye must have realized that Fyedka wasn't about to betray his wife's family the way the Constable had done. The Constable, the one Russian Tevye had always considered a friend, turned out to be almost totally unprincipled.
@@smwca123 not in the film. His character is one of the saddest, because he knows what he has to do is wrong. Early on, he warned Tevye that some mischief was coming (because he had been given orders to), he did the least possible harm once he followed orders, and then showed a guilty face ever since.
@oogabooga6346 Like anyone in the service of the Tsar, the Constable had no choice but to follow orders or be replaced, as the visiting superior made clear. However, like everyone, he ultimately must answer to his conscience for his (in)actions. That principle was clearly established at the Nürnberg war crimes trials of 1940s, along with the principle that merely following orders blindly is no excuse for atrocities.
The fact that Nicholas II was a rabid anti-Semite gives a whole new meaning to "May God bless and keep the tsar, far away from us!"
Was he? the czars set up the pale of settlement in the 1600s to protect the Jews, and keep others away, it was good land, the best land, Ukrane, I'll look more into it.
@@awesomesurfer6358He supported the black 100s, he was a huge fan of "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion", I don't know, that screams, "Rabid anti-Semite" to me!
@@awesomesurfer6358 The comment is specifically referring to Nicholas II. Not all the czars.
@@venus_envymeh, odds are they were all rabid Jew haters to a degree..
@@m.s.6586
So how many degrees do you have to reach before you become rabid?
I read the original book. The fate of the two younger daughters is even more tragic. A heartbreaking story.
What happened
@@Cliffviewnightradiodj read the stories!
Overlooked in the commentary was Tevye's re-evaluation of his own 25-year arranged marriage, and his relationship with Golde, asking her "Do You Love Me?"
Topol has one of the coolest voices in the world
It is one of my favourite films of all times.. watched several times and sob every time. It’s beautiful and touching, speaks of love and sorrow
I’ll tell you a little story. I’m 70 years old. I come from a military family lots of moving around, lots of change. I hated it. Of course, in my lifetime I’d always heard the catchy tunes from the fiddler movie. About five years ago, the Jewish community center in my town, screened the fiddler with the lyrics at the bottom of the screen so that people could sing along. At the end of the movie, as the villagers are drifting from their home of many years, I found myself weeping openly i with snot running from my nose and looked around at the audience with the lights on now and I was the only one crying. So embarrassing but at the same time I couldn’t help but wonder, because I seemed to be the only one to grasp the inherent tragedy depicted in this movie. I was brokenhearted while all around me people smiled and chatted. and hummed tunes they had heard. Even now I am crying, and I am not Jewish or even religious. What we hold dear in our hearts is built on the foundation of our life‘s experiences.
Amazing story, thanks
I think those of us who were uprooted and moved every year or so, grasped the heartache quickly
I'm sure the rest of the audience had seen the film and listened to the soundtrack so many times--heck, many of their ancestors lived it! So if they didn't seem moved to tears, it's certainly not for a lack of sensitivity! It's just not a new story to them.
BTW the original Fiddler was made in English. The Yiddish version which you watched was written only recently.
I remember a podcast episode where Mike Pesca remarks that Fiddler of the Roof is structured differently than any other musical. Most Musicals the issues expand in the first act leading to a breaking conflict at intermission, then resolved to a joyous conclusion at the end. Fiddler breaks for intermission at a wedding, and the finale is the destruction of the town
It's a musical tragedy, which was an ambitious project for the creative team, but the end product is magnificent.
We did Fiddler when I was in high school, then again when I was in community college. My daughter was involved in a production when she was in high school. My mom struggled with the song "Sunrise, Sunset" and I never understood why. Then I had children of my own. I can no longer sing the song myself, and I try not to listen to it because it makes me cry. I totally understand why my mom struggled with hearing that song.
I think I sympathize the most with Tevye in the sense of having changes thrust upon you with no choice in the matter. I am in my mid 60s and have seen a lot of changes in my life. Things that I accepted and that made perfect sense to me are no longer acceptable and are now considered bad and undesirable.
I hear ya, Turned 61 this year. Life has not allowed me children, and won't be now unless something really, really, strange happens, but even so, observing those whom it has reveals much. A bit of a tangent, it is sad to observe those who are so enmeshed in simply existing that they have no time or energy left for being.
My favorite movie
This musical play and movie had a profound influence in my life. As a white 16-year old, I was cast as Motel the Tailor in our high school musical in Indiana. The themes in the story resonated with me. I never knew what a pogrom was until then. I never knew about the Holocaust until then. I began reading EXODUS by Leon Uris and ARMAGEDDON by James Michener. I wrote papers in my American literature class relating to tradition and change. In our speech team, I performed Tevye’s monologue in Humorous Interpretation. It left a mark on my soul and changed me forever.
As I see it, Tevye sees in each of his 3 sons-in-law certain signs of himself. Motel largely mirrors Tevye's own hard-working nature and poverty. Perchik tests Tevye's receptiveness to new ideas, which to his own surprise turns out to be greater than he expected (to the point that he asks his wife, Golde, "Do You Love Me?"). Finally, Fyedka the Gentile, by refusing to carry out the evacuation, turned out to be a principled human being - something the Constable, the one Russian that Tevye had always trusted as a friend, was not. Indeed, the Constable turned out to be totally unprincipled, putting self-preservation ahead of friendship.
Just to be clear, Norman Jewison didn't create "Fiddler On The Roof". He directed a film adaptation of a well-established, iconic Broadway show that had been around for about 7 years when the film was released.
The side of change (Perchik) is a side for the younger generations. As you get older, like me, you become very very weary of change and you join the side of tradition (Tevye). I really can relate to this. My generation was the first in thousands of years to marry outside the faith. But change continues and I don't like the changes in today's society. I am nostalgic for the more traditional life we used to have. Thank you for posting this insightful video. You earned a new subscriber.
Perchik probably died in a Siberian labor camp, and Hodel (including any child she may have had inside her) likely starved and died in misery as well. Perchik's preferred form of change (Bolshevik Revolution) led to the starvation of tens of millions and a reign of totalitarian terror in the former Russian empire (including the Ukraine) for the better part of a Century and brought the world to the brink of a nuclear holocaust.
Perchik was the consummate sophomore - smart enough to make serious trouble, not wise enough to understand that it is trouble in the first place.
My favorite movie. I get tears in my eyes every time I watch it. How could people not know it's a tragedy? Well - it's a tragedy filled with joy (Bernard Malamud).
My parents had the sound track for this movie, and we played it fairly frequently.
However, I was well into my 20's before I saw the full movie.
I cannot listen to "Anatevka" without crying. What do we leave? Nothing much. Only Anatevka.
Gut wrenching.
This is a beautifull, powerful, and sad movie. But oh, so well done!
Good Gravy....
Fiddler On The Roof is a Tragicomedy. The overall story is that of a tragedy, however, it is interlaced with moments of comedy to make it more palatable and more realistic. Even when things are going wrong there are moments of levity.
Secondly, I think it is an absolute crime to say that the most important thing in life to Tevye is money. The most important ting in life to Tevye is his family. And to that e struggles between their happiness and their well-being. Tevye objects to Motel marrying Tzeitel not because the tailor is poor, but because Tevye knows what it is to be poor and the strength needed to provide. Strength that until that point, he does not see Motel possessing. Motel does two things that convince Tevye. 1) He stands up to Tevye. Claiming that despite being poor he is entitled to some happiness, a feeling that Tevye is too familiar with. 2) He promises that Tzeitel will not starve, He gives Tevye a pledge that he will make sure that his daughter's well-being will not be compromised, Tevye only ever agrees to Lazar Wolf marrying Tzeitel because it assures a safe life for her. Tevye is placing her well-being over everything else. Lazar Wolf's money is simply a means to that end. Motel's vow and show of strength are enough to convince Tevye that he can trust Motel with Tzeitel.
The next biggest thing in Tevye's life is his relationship with God. His current view of God is that of a friend, someone to share you troubles and thoughts with, someone to bicker with, but at the end of the day, someone you can trust, like the rest of the villages in Anatevka. The Culmination of "If I were a Wealthy Man" is him saying that with wealth he wouldn't spend all his time working. He could actually study and discuss the Good Book, to understand God more. He calls that "the greatest gift of all."
I completely agree with this
For me the most poinent moment in the films is when the inflexibility of the protagonist finally breaks down over his third daughter leaving to be with the exiled husband. He recognizes that family trumps all separation and disagreement. As his live is forever changing.
My favorite movie. If I turn on TCM and it is showing, my family knows I am out of commission for 3 hours. You did such a wonderful job of explaining the heart of this story.
I was in Fiddler 3 times in 2 theaters. Played the same role every time: FRUMA SARAH. 😅❤
This is such a compelling movie/musical, one I've seen several times over the years. Last time I saw it, I reconnected with my old Jewish law partner whose family came to the US from Russia in the early 20th century, and he told me some things about their journey to the US via Paris, and how the family has sadly disintegrated. It also reminds me of my Scottish ancestors who left their Hebrides island home in the 1730's as the English destroyed their way of life. That island is now uninhabited. Change and relocation seem to be a universal phenomenon, and Fiddler on The Roof deals with the issues involved as well as can be done.
When I was a little girl, my grandmother used to take me to see this when it would come around to movie theaters once a year, and she would always explain this was how her family came to America from their little town in the Pale. My grandmother was 1 year old when that occurred, but I still picture her as being Tzeitel. It was really an excellent learning tool for me, understanding what they went through, and all they left behind / gave up to come here. Now I have an 8 year old granddaughter I share it with. Sometimes the best way to understand history is through a cinematic dramatization like this.
I always showed Fiddler to my middle and early high school aged students, not only for the Jewish aspects, but also the very notions you present in this presentation. Thank you for bringing this to the masses...
I want to see a sequel, Fiddler on the Roof Part 2, Tevye's Revenge.
You’re watching it now. It’s called modern day Israel and our fight for survival against the worldwide Jihad
😆 I guess part two would be him arriving to America...
@@_yiddishkeit
Then joins USMC, goes back to the village and conducts a one man guerilla war for years.
@@_yiddishkeit On the Fourth of July, when all the flags are flying and fireworks are going off-- oh wait, that's Avalon...well, Tevye and Sam could probably swap stories anyway...
The continuation/end of the story is even more sad. Of the remaining two daughters, one of them takes her own life. The tailor dies of disease before they even arrive in the US. Perchik dies in the war.
My parents were basically Chava and Fiyedke. I grew up with 2 traditions......but no family...until later in life, when I learned I had cousins, aunts and uncles. And after awhile, I even learned I had grandparents. Time heals.......but you have to want it to heal.
I am almost 71 and this movie was an annual tradition in my Irish-American home for decades! My mother knew (ans would recite) all the best lines just before the actors said them. I still love this movie and have shared it with friends! I did understand what the movie was about , and I still cry for the people who lived through it every time i watch it. Thanks for talking about it!!! 💙💙💙🙏🏻🌎☮️☘️
You had a truly wonderful mother!!! Bless you all now and forever!!!
I love it.
This is one of those shows as a kid I never really understood the message of, but just enjoyed the songs of… but on rewatch, the story made me cry.
I love this movie. Thank you for this episode.
I didn’t expect to spend my morning watching this but wow such incredible work. Please continue doing these, they are awesome, you have this thing nailed
Thank you so much for this. Born in Washington, DC, a year affer my father the soldier, came home from WWII--an ''early boomer"", I knew this play very well. At 13, I joined ''Habonim"", the Zionist youth group, and that became the focus of my life.
At 17, I spent a year on a Kibbutz in Israel..then.returned to the U..S .to go to the University (as I had promised my parents).
Then I met my Israeli love at the age of 19. I'm 77 now ...still in Israel from 1970 , with 2 grown up childrren, 6 grandchildren --all sabras . It's been hard , sometimes nearly unbearable--but I am not sorry, but proud: I wanted to make a positive difference in the world, and especially for my people.
Although I never saw the movie, the musical play was my Zionist group's present to the Kibbutz (Gesher Haziv), so I knew it well, including all the songs by heart.
Right now, with 4 grandsons in the war, tears came to my eyes at the end of the movie. ..and now I will find it, as I remember not just my past, but my grandparents', theirs, etc.! I'd love to hear any comments. Elinore Liebersohn Koenigsfeld
It’s horrible that your grandsons now conduct their own program in Gaza or face imprisonment if they refuse too. Just remember what happened to Tevyes village and ask yourself should any other families suffer the ways his did. Look into the events surrounding the founding of Gesher Haziv, the new historians are an excellent source.
Very sad that your grandsons have to risk their lives in an unwanted war, behaving like Russians chasing people out of their villages. My heart goes out to you.
@@jonathanhosh4459there’s nothing sad about proud Jews defending their indigenous homeland from Islamist terrorists who seeks to continue the work of the Soviets and Hitler.
@@davidbrasher3595
Not even remotely the same and the fact you are even comparing the two is disgraceful and disgusting to the memory of every Jew who suffered persecution and pogrom.
You are right, why should innocent Jews be massacred by those beasts, for land that never belonged to them. This is an ideology like the czar's Christianity and Mohammed's islamic desire to rule the world, but first start with the Jews. They're an easy target... but the IDF don't agree. G-d may not be happy with our behaviour but we are still his beloved people and will never allow us to be destroyed. We have a holy purpose in this world of falsehood and that is to show that there is a Creator, and there is morality and truth. The Guardian of Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps.
In my high school's production of Fiddler on the Roof over 50 years ago, I played the fiddler. Until I saw this video I had forgotten the hope and relief of my character when Tevye invites him to come along as they leave Anatevke. I played the character as though only Tevye really saw him for certain. The Fiddler appears in various scenes, often among other players, but there he is so blended in with other minor characters that he could be anonymous or non- corporeal. It is only when he and Tevye interact that he is definitely real, to Tevye.
I cried for Tevye. I cried a lot.
I’ll have to read the original stories. My (Catholic Irish) parents always loved the film. Even bought the album. (They were both born just before the Second World War.)I first saw it in my teens and loved it too, though I am averse to musicals in general. Loved the humour and humanity. And the music was cool (not fluffy). And the tragedy at the end really got to me. I identified with those people suffering such egregious injustice and likened it to the history of Irish Catholics. Of course I personally have never had to endure such oppression. Even then I appreciated the tension between tradition and innovation, and kind of understood that both were necessary to a healthy outlook on life. Even though a Catholic I was kind of on the side of the father when faced with his daughter’s marriage to a gentile. I think the musical presents the problems to us without giving a dogmatic solution, just as Shakespeare’s plays do. Still love it. Thank you for your thoughtful presentation.
But putting children in cages is okay?
Donafoley2412- Thank You for your Comment and your sympathy to the Jewish People. Unfortunately, there seems to be a lot of Jew Hated in the thinly veiled form of Anti-Zionism in Ireland now.
@@PennilessPolitics - What the Hell are you talking about?
@@PennilessPolitics Definitely not in favour of putting children in cages. I remember the pics of children in cages put out in the first months of Trump’s presidency to show how inhuman his policies were but which actually dated from Obama’s presidency. But that’s by the by. If the Israeli government is putting children in cages (and I haven’t seen evidence of that), that can’t be good, but we were discussing the plight of Jews in Eastern Europe long before that. Whatever the present government of Israel does (or what is imputed to them truly or falsely) cannot be blamed on Jews in general, much less on the people on whose lives that musical is based, who could have no idea of what the new state of Israel would face or decide, and who may have been for it or against it if some visionary had revealed it to them. It is written in what we Christians call the Old Testament that the sins of the fathers shall be visited on the sons, but where is it written that the sins (real or imaginary) of the sons shall be visited on the fathers?
@@PennilessPolitics
No, it's not.
I’m a conservative Christian and I love this movie. I’m very attached to tradition and the Bible. The Bible stories made me want to learn history because I see the Bible stories and history as stories about people. All different yet of the same human nature, flawed and lost and designed to crave a relationship with God and to know their purpose in this life. Beautiful, tragedy, sorrow, joy and all the character growth and flaws to contend with, I find it engaging. TY for your video, I enjoyed the explanation very much. As a Christian and as a human being, I have a special place in my heart for the Jewish people. God Bless.
A few years ago I had a similar experience. I found in my research that listening to Rabbi’s like Rabbi Friedman use Hebrew versions of the Old Testament. St Paul, in his mission to the Gentiles used a Greek translation that was then translated into Latin which was then translated into English. Things were lost in translation.
@@juditrotter5176 Rather, officially expressly omitted. See the history of Council of Nicaea in Turkey, to standardize what was to be believed.
But those are other discussions for those interested.
@@juditrotter5176(Most) modern translations use the oldest manuscripts they can find, to get as close as possible to the original meanings. What believer would willingly pervert the words of almighty God?
As an Indian Hindu whose community faced a Pogrom in Goa under the Portuguese inquisition, this movie relates a lot to our community.
I'm Irish American and live in the Midwest Nebraska. I have seen this movie when young and old and got the humer and tragedy. Showed it to my kids young and now they are older and got it all to . That's the magic of the movie. The fiddler is the balance of life that makes you go on in spite of tragedy. And traditions are the anchors. Classic for every culture... The Jewish story that is a lot of cultures story . Genius movie....
Shalom from America. when I was a wee lad my school had a play. My family was christian and we were of the kind which respect Gods people. I worked hard to get into the play and wound up with Tevye. I still remember all my lines and many of the others. I watched it several times and grew to understand it as I did. I was only 12 so this has had a pretty profound and lasting impact on me. God Bless Israel and God bless her Ally America. Those who Bless her shall be blessed those who curse her shall be cursed.
Lazerwolf is still such a hard name.
“Tradition is answers to problems we forgot.”
When we abandon them, we find the problems re-emerge.
rose colored glasses. tradition also benefits those with power and wealth inordinatly more than those without.
@@ericaugust1501 It depends on what traditions you are talking about. Traditions of morality and family and culture and law (thinking about the US Constitution) benefit everyone and limit chaos and division. Those with power and wealth today are doing their violent best to overthrow all traditions and morality in favor of chaos.
@@lorisimpson4535 unfortunately traditions (like law and culture) predominantly empower those with power and wealth. it has always reinforced their wealth and power at the expense of those who don't have it, this is everywhere in history. Sure the US constitution example is something special, because it was created immediately after trying to get out from under the boot of power, and by those who had not yet ascended to power of kings and nobility which was so dominant back then, so it was created by people who struggled against corrupt traditions directly. but it is a rare moment in time that this happens. it is why the constitution is so important.
right now, present time, for example, the politicians in power are in the same position of power as held by kings and nobility, they answer only to their own wealth and external wealth interests, can never be challenged out of power due to the all consuming propaganda machines, and all new laws and traditions are in their own self interest, and they divide the populace by turning them against each other with shallow identity politics, which is also historically a common tool of the corrupt. but there is no chaos being created for them. they still firmly hold all the power.
so i guess i do agree that traditions can vary from good to tyrannical, but i don't consider 'family' a tradition. it is a biological instinct. you don't need tradition/laws to enforce that which comes naturally. i also don't consider morality should be a tradition/law. morality is gained thru education but it's foundation is biological, because it stems from the biological instinct to feel 'you are treating me unfairly', which begins the first step along moral reasoning. so education is among the best traditions because it can at its core challenge other traditions which are applied like an unthinking hammer because that is how the power status quo is maintained.
@@ericaugust1501Bingo. Tradition is very much a mixed bag.
Female genital mutilation (or any genital mutilation) is an example of a tradition that does not necessarily serve those it's forced upon.
@@ElegantHamster-d7s agreed. thats an example of the many traditions meant to give control to those already holding all the power. hence my assertation that most traditions serve those in power at the cost of those who are not.
I am not Jewish but I grew up with the musical since my parents had the record from the stage production. The movie came out when I was in my teens. I played the record to death! I knew the songs and loved the songs and had absorbed the story through the songs before I ever saw a production of it. Tradition and change. They require such a balance. My favourite song was sadly not in the movie other than in instrumental, , Far From the Home I Love. I think it, too, resonated the longing for the past while yearning for the future and trying to fit the past into the future or at least to carrying it with, "Yet, there with my love, I'm home." I have moved around a lot in my life, leaving every home and making a new one, so the song also resonates that way with me, too. Home as a sense of comfort and belonging is threaded through the whole show. It's very complex and I cherish it. Amusingly, when my sweetie and I combined our video collection, we had 2 copies of Fiddler on the Roof. He also is not Jewish but the show means a lot to him as well.
I always thought it was a SAD movie. Change however isn't kind, which is why it is SCARY. But Change does not ever stop.
True, but the changes in Tevye's previously peaceful life happened in a rapid succession, moreso than in many others' lives.
@@davegreene8588 rapidly and violently.
@@judithstrachan9399 And relentlessly, as the popular German folk song "Hoch auf dem gelben Wagen" makes clear. The song, about a trip on a yellow postal carriage, touches on the delights of life that one sees by the wayside and wants to stay to be part of, but cannot because the carriage keeps rolling along - "aber der Wagen der rollt", as each verse ends.
We had the 2 VHS set of this when I was a kid. It was a family favorite and still one of my own favorite musicals. It's so cool that a Jewish story can resonate with people from all walks of life.
Although they were 12 years apart, I played Lazar Wolf twice against the same Tevye and Golde for the same theatre company. I was never the same since. The actor for Tevye and I have been friends for over 40 years. No one knows this (the mikes never picked it up) but in the final wrenching scene when Lazar goes to see Tevye before going to America - when the two men hug, I would always whisper in Tevye's ear "I am so upset!" Once you have done 'Fiddler', you never see people and their suffering the same way again. A light, fun comedy? No. Anyone in a production of 'Fiddler' will tell you that the emotions are raw, and also heartfelt. Thank you Yiddishe Kino Club for this discussion. Shalom!
I read of another production where the actors playing Tevye and the Constable were longtime friends. Teh sense of betrayal was palpable, according to the original poster.
The theme that stands out to me in this film is the longing.
Exactly it's a very sad story, my family story of all the jews in Ukraine , Russia, Poland etc. I read the book by Shalom Aleichem and like all his books he wrote wirh humor by the real jews lives were terrible.
Fiddler on the Roof certainly contained sad events. But a tragedy is a play with a sad ending. This had a happy ending: Tevye and his family arrived in America, where they would survive and be free to practice their faith. And, naturally, an American audience would see it that way, rather than focusing on the price they would have to pay in not being able to fully retain their traditional way of life.
This is the way for the Russian Mennonites ! Go from living together to being scattered over most of the world 😢
Throughout my life this film has been a bonding point between me and my mom. It took on a whole new meaning when I left the Christian church I grew up in and my mom is so indebted to. She still loves and accepts me, but I can tell she's absolutely gutted by my decision. This movie helps me see from her perspective, how she might be feeling about what I've decided to do for the betterment of my own life. It's easy to see me as the daughters and her as Tevye, who is the main character of the movie and therefore we see his point of view the most, which really helps in my relationship with my mom. All the daughters' stories hit hard to me, but especially Chava's. I have no idea what will be "too far" for my mom that she has to break ties with me, and if I get there I have no idea what either of us will do. It will be hard but I'm sure I'll figure it out. Thanks for the video, man. This is a really special movie for me.
My high school did this play when I was in 10th grade. I was Yente, the matchmaker and the comic relief, but I was still very much aware of how sad this story ultimately is. This play actually caused my mom to tell me about the Jewish heritage on her mom's side that was hidden for several generations. We aren't Russian, but this play still impacted me on a deeper level due to this revelation, especially as I was the only cast member with known Jewish ancestry.
Even all these years later, I hear the music...
🎶 to life, to life, l'chaim! 🎶