![]() ![]() King - were similarly fiddling with the foundations of both Jewish and American culture. At the time, many Jewish public figures - Friedan and other feminists Harry Hay and other gay rights activists Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, who marched arm-in-arm with Dr. The other slope falls forward toward assimilation and the loss of identity, which felt like cultural genocide. One slope falls backward, embracing traditional Jewish values and risking genocide. as a fiddler on the roof!"įiddler On The Roof (FilmPublicityArchive/United Archives via Getty Images)Consider that image: a figure precariously perched on the peak of a house, steep slopes on either side. "Without our traditions," the musical's protagonist Tevye says at the end of the song, "Our lives would be as shaky as. ![]() but at the same time, they are stabilizing. Papa "has the right as master of the house to have the final word at home," while Mama "must know the way to make a proper home, a quiet home, a kosher home," and "must raise a family and run the home, so papa's free to read the holy book."Ĭlearly, "Fiddler" seems to say, patriarchal traditions are unjust. Not long after Jewish author Betty Friedan's "The Feminine Mystique" had launched second-wave feminism, Harnick introduced the shtetl of Anatevka and its quaint ways through a song about unequal gender roles. "Fiddler" gave a legendarily one-word answer to the question of where that stability might come from: Tradition! Jews, like others, were challenging social norms in the name of morality and freedom, but maintaining their identity as Jews required stability. Harnick's lyrics and the conflicts in Stein's plot mirrored the sources of tension that audience members brought into the theater. Untangling that knot is how "Fiddler," which debuted on Broadway in 1964, managed to enthrall Jewish Americans. They were starting to fit in and be seen as real Americans, even though fitting in meant surrendering their differences, to some extent, and negating their identity as Jews.Ĭonspicuous consumption became a part of Jewish American life. Because so many Jews had enlisted to fight Hitler, they had qualified for the GI Bill, giving them access to higher education, better-paying jobs and nice houses in newly constructed suburbs. On the other hand, Jews were finally starting to get what their immigrant grandparents had worked so hard in sweatshops to achieve. Calling attention to their Jewishness, they feared, might trigger more antisemitism. The Rosenbergs' execution in 1953 still darkened their spirits, and the echoes of Joseph McCarthy's antisemitic committees still rang in their ears. Less than two decades had passed since the liberation of Jews from Nazi death camps. On the one hand, Jews knew they were outsiders. In the early 1960s, the Jewish American soul was tied in knots. Matthew Weiner on "Mad Men" and the Jewish experience: "It's the same story as Don's identity" They were speaking to the heart of contemporary American Jewry. Harnick, Stein, and Jerry Bock, the show's composer, weren't trying to depict history. Their scholarly kvetches aren't wrong, technically, but they miss the point. In later years, Jewish studies professors have been less kind, complaining that Harnick's lyrics and Joseph Stein's book sentimentally sanitized the shtetl and misrepresented both Judaism and eastern European life. "Fiddler" was an instant hit, beloved on both stage and screen. Instead, Jewish pride gave rise to popular entertainment: Mel Brooks' movies, Lenny Bruce's stand-up and "Fiddler on the Roof." While most pride movements fought internalized oppression through parades, art, fashion and music - think of James Brown's "Say It Loud–I'm Black and I'm Proud" and Helen Reddy's "I am Woman" - Jews in the '60s didn't hold Rosh Hashanah rallies or wear Passover pins. Untangling that knot is how "Fiddler" managed to enthrall Jewish Americans. ![]()
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