This is the Forward’s coverage of Fiddler on the Roof, the seminal 1964 Broadway musical about a Russian man who attempts to maintain his Jewish way of life circa 1905. It is based on Yiddish stories by Sholem Aleichem,…
Fiddler on the Roof
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The Schmooze You Haven’t Seen The Hora Till You’ve Seen It Done On Jet Packs
It’s been a long, hard, emotionally exhausting week, and we are sad to report that it is only Tuesday. A video of Orthodox men performing a synchronized jet pack dance is the only thing that can save us now. In the most audacious bit of Jewish filmmaking since Mel Brooks made “Blazing Saddles,” BarStool Sports…
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Culture All-Yiddish ‘Fiddler’ Captures How Jews Really Spoke To Each Other
This article originally appeared in the Yiddish Forverts. As soon as the film version of “Fiddler on the Roof,” based on the stories of the classic Yiddish writer, Sholem Aleichem, came out in movie theaters in 1971, my family and I went to see it. I thought it was wonderful, especially the songs. I learned…
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Theater America’s First All-Yiddish ‘Fiddler’ Is A Perfect, Bittersweet Portrait Of Jewish Joy
I was sick for my latest birthday, sniffly and feverish, yet I somehow found the wherewithal to force my gathered friends to watch the scene from “Fiddler on the Roof” in which the furious ghost of Frume Sarah rises from the grave. You know the one. Tevye, trying to convince his wife Golde to approve…
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Culture A ‘Fiddler On The Roof’ In Yiddish — The Way It Ought To Be
Barely two years after Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Salesman” made its groundbreaking 1949 debut, a Yiddish production starring — and translated by — Joseph Buloff opened in Brooklyn, with Miller’s blessing. The title of a review by George Ross in Commentary described it as “‘Death of a Salesman’ in the Original,” and the witty…
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The Schmooze The 8 Best Jewish Weddings Ever Seen On Screen
8.’Family Guy’ insists that all Jews are cheap (thanks guys) but it’s still a nice wedding (even though the Nazis get involved.) 7.Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson know how to bring the ruach to a Jewish wedding. 6.Imagining a wedding in the Belorussian woods, surrounded by Jewish partisans. We’ve got more on the real Bielski…
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Culture 15 Can’t-Miss Summer Events Starting With Yiddish ‘Fiddler’
My best memories of summer are of the arts: Catching a B.B. King concert in a Denver August downpour; waiting in the humid heat for a free ticket to “My Fair Lady” at the Muny in St. Louis; spreading a jacket on the beach at Coney Island and watching the riveting and under-recognized “Crown Heights”…
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Culture First Step To An All-Yiddish ‘Fiddler On The Roof’? Dance Auditions.
During the cherry-blossomed blush of the first proper week of spring, on the same day Prince Harry and Meghan Markle announced which musicians would accompany 2018’s most hotly-anticipated nuptials, a group of men across the pond from Kensington Palace rehearsed for another famous wedding. “Hot toe! Hot toe! And heel,” choreographer Staš Kmieć yelled at…
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The Schmooze Joel Grey Will Direct The First Yiddish Production Of ‘Fiddler On The Roof’ In the US
As the brilliant Shalom Aleichem wrote in “Tevye The Dairyman,” the book of stories upon which the musical “Fiddler On The Roof” is based, “You see how it is, my dear friends. There’s no pleasing everyone. It’s hopeless to even try, and the more you play the peacemaker, the less peaceful things become.” But is…
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