Hasidic Jews Watch 'Fiddler on the Roof' For the First Time

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Starring:
Yeshaya Karp
Abe Karpen
Avremi Toron
LA Rosenzweig

Directed and Produced by Seth Feldman and Allison Josephs
Production Assistant Danny Moallem
Advisor: Yoily Lebowitz

[leonewman]

Fiddler isnt supposed to be about Chasidism its about our grandparents lives as Jews in the Czar’s Ukraine

[bigbadseed]

To be fair, it takes place in another country a hundred years ago.

[tobytanzer]

My favourite dad joke is from Fiddler. "Rabbi, there's a prayer for everything! Is there one for the Tzar?" "Yes my son, of course! May G-d bless and keep the Tzar - far away from us!"

[wanderlingd]

But I always thought fidler on the rooftop was about ethnic russian jewish culture not necessarily hasidic culture

[Allnewsweb]

Re the long hair - Russian/Ukrainian Jews in the shtetl did not generally shave their heads or wear their hair particularly short - shaven heads is more a custom of central european hasidim

[JoanneS]

It's not about Hasidim, but about daily life in the shtetl. I love this play and movie, but, as the men said, it does show a stereotype of Jewish women.

[wijcik]

Bear in mind that it took place in Russia in a different time period as well and is a musical; not a documentary...

[bethanyromo]

I was in Fiddler On The Roof last Summer as Chava and it was the most beautiful musical I have ever been in. The music, the dancing, the whole story is beautiful. It brought out an actress in me that I didn't know existed! I was so scared to do the Chavelah scene for the first time in rehearsals because I had never been that vulnerable on stage. It was an amazing experience and I was so sad to see it end. I really wish we could have filmed it so I could live the experience over and over again. However, I made some amazing new friends and memories! It was totally worth it 😊 If any of y'all ever have the chance to audition for it, totally do it! Or at least go see it if y'all ever have the chance. It's an amazing show!

[dirigible]

I could have watched them watching the movie for an hour! Why isn't this longer?! Love it!

[janesmith]

It was a lovely film of its time with some wonderful songs and I think it brought that country and religion to the attention of a lot of people. The 1964 musical (the film followed in 1971) according to wiki:
"Fiddler on the Roof is based on Tevye (or Tevye the Dairyman) and his Daughters, a series of stories by Sholem Aleichem that he wrote in Yiddish between 1894 and 1914 about Jewish life in a village in the Pale of Settlement of Imperial Russia at the turn of the 20th century".

[jessicacain]

When my high school did Fiddler on the roof the guys put magnets in their hats and in the bottom of the bottle to keep it on their head.

[roboboro]

I'm a catholic and I-JUST-LOVE my big brothers and sisters the Jews. :) I love you all!
I love your words, I love your prayers, your traditions, your songs. Beautiful :)
May the Lord be with you always!

[patriciaforight]

I was baptized Catholic and my mother was a very devout Catholic. (catholic school) ect. When I was in elementary school my mother taught Spanish. When my classmates were good she would tell us stories if lessons ended early. Not even sure what brought up the movie but she started telling us some scary history. We ran out of time but the class wanted to hear more!
Time went by, one day my mother saw that the play was coming to San Diego my hometown. She arranged for a class trip. She wanted them to learn something about the Jewish people and their plight. She knew that the storyline may not be totally accurate but she wanted the class to feel and try to understand what had happened. All I can say is by the time the play ended you could have converted us right there and then! Girls crying boys running around singing (Tradition!)
P. S. Your females?!
Not screamers or overbearing BUT very strong woman!!
I was 12 when she did this for us.

[richardatkinson]

I did "fiddler on the roof" in high school and played Tevye. It was a real blast!

[philipvoerding]

I am not Jewish, but I remember that I really liked it when I saw it as a 12 year old in the early 1970s. If I Were A Rich Man and Sunrise, Sunset were the songs I liked the most from Musical. Sunrise, Sunset was beautiful in a sad sort of way. Fiddler On The Roof must have had an effect on me because even in my 50s I still like to watch the movie every couple of years or so. As a bookish person, I think the Russian peasant married the daughter I would have wanted to marry myself. It was interesting to see the comments of modern Hasidic Jews watching the movie for the first time. I read some of the comments here that talked of the flaws of the movie, but any flaws aside, the movie installed a positive fascination in me for Orthodox Judaism in general and Hasidic Judaism in particular. I sometimes watch scholarly lectures on Jewish history by Orthodox Jewish scholars and lectures on the Pirkei Avot by Hasidic Rabbis, and that's how I came across this video.

[LaKellita]

Well I mean, no one said that Fiddler on the Roof was a documentary 😂

[yelix]

I don't think the book or the musical are about Hassidim.. I mean, they take place in the pale of settlement at the dawn of the 19th century so there's no reason why Tevye and the people of Anatevka can't be hassidic, but there'd be a mention of it if they were. The Rabbi certainly didn't seem like a Hassidic Rebbe in the movie.

[riastevens]

My father and I adored this film.Hope to watch it again as only watched once

[elisinger]

Fiddler on the Roof is not about Chasidism. It’s about how regular Jews lived in shtetls all across Europe and the struggles of poverty and antisemitism they faced. What I mean by regular is what we’d today call Orthodox Judaism, before the enlightenment era of European Jewry.

[colliric]

I saw Chaim Topol on stage at Her Majesty's Theatre in Melbourne during his retirement world tour in 2007.

He was just as good in person as he was all those years ago in the movie!

Hard to believe he was only 30-something in the film, the aging makeup was brilliant!