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It isn't about modernity , it is about what form modernity takes.

I really loved how they depicted xenophobia (in this case antisemitic xenophobia) left to their own the jews and the townspeople were friends, but it just took a little pressure to go from: "they are different" to "they must go"..

“Tradition is answers to problems we forgot.” When we abandon them, we find the problems re-emerge.

I always thought it was super sad

Interestingly, "Rock of Ages" is also the title of a Christian hymn.

Mestechko (Russian: местечко; Ukrainian: містечко, romanized: mistechko; Polish: miasteczko) may refer to: a place located within Pale of Settlement in the Russian Empire with predominantly Jewish population; see shtetl the russifed form of the term "miasteczko" from Wikipedia.

In Russian, a Shtetl is called a Mestechko, from the Polish world for city or place Miasto.

FOR ME THE MOVIE WAS THE STORY OF WHAT MY FATHER TOLD ME OF HIS SHTETL CALLED JOCOBEY IN BUCOVINA ,AUSTRIA.\ COME TO LIFE. AND THE FIDDLER HE USED TO SPEAK ABOUT. HE LEFT JOCOBEY BECAUSE HE WAS BEING FORCED TO MARRY TO A WOMAN HE DID NOT EVEN KNOW. HE WAS IN LOVE WITH ANOTHER ,AND THEY DECIDED TO LEAVE FOR AMERICA AND DID.SO THE MOVIE WAS THE STORY OF MY FATHER IN MOVIE FORM.

I’m gentile and grew up fundamentalist Christian, but my parents regularly played this movie as we grew up. Now their oldest daughter is marrying a catholic (which my parents taught us wasn’t a true Christian). I am a trans-nonbinary lesbian. And my little sister is living with a trans woman as a polyamorous person. My parents have responded to this by moving away to Texas. Unlike Tevye, they are not forced from their home away from their children and traditions. They move themselves away from us towards their traditions. How ironic.

In an early filmed version of Tevye's Daughter's. Chava does not remain married to Fyedka. The problem was not with the couple but with Fyedka's family.

Jews were hated for being rich and poor Conservative and liberal For being religious and atheists For being communists and capitalists For being stateless and having a state now It is better to be different and having Israel which is hated by the world than Auschwitz loved by the world. As mrs Horn said the world slove dead Jews. These Jews who leave tradition are homeless in spirit and reminded that they dont belong ( sooner of later) after they bring Nobels for their host and have enought to be worth to steal from them. The oldest racism

I didn't find the original musical "fun and jolly". I was unable to speak with my friends for an hour or so after we visited Fiddler On The Roof in London (with Topol). I'll never forget it. Very moving 🥰

That this is a sad story is news???!!

i have a small small disgrement.. i dont think the father is so greedy he wants money.. i think he wants security for him and his family. i dont hink he wants a bigger house or fancy jewlery just a roof and a full belly and NOT such a hard scrabble life.

Of course it is a tragedy of change and the human condition

The great thing about this movie is that it makes you relate to both Tevye (Tradition) and his daughters (Modernity). Tradition is great, and protects us from many evils. But one must be able to bend when the Winds of Change start to blow.

The whole script is based on a story of the great Yiddish author, Sholom Aleichem. The move to Palestine at the end was a zionist tack-on. It most definitely was not in the original story.

The story plays in the context of Russian Tsarist pogroms. It is permeated with the suffering of the Jewish people throughout history as they are persecuted by the people among whom they live.

The Jazz Singer with Neil Diamond resonates with a similar theme. Once again tradition has to bend to change and modernity.

If I made the movie it would be called rizzler on the roof and instead of Jews it would be about skibidi toilets

Thank you for a rich and most beautiful exposition of this great artistic piece. You have made it even more meaningful to those who may have thought they understood it fully.

A big misunderstanding here: Yes, On the surface the Orthodox Judaism they practice seems unchanged and inflexible but it is NOT the norm for Judaism. 1. Orthodox Judaism is fully adaptable to the times only when there is a Sanhedrin(Supreme Court) of atleast 71 members. Without it, Many adaptions cannot be made. Smaller ones, Like whether to drink water that has Micro-scopic shellfish in it, sure, But major ones no. The answer is 'If you need a microscope to see it, Then it doesn't affect the Kashrut of water). 2. By the time Fiddler takes place, The Orthodox Jews had become more focused on their Minhagim(Traditions) to the detriment of Halacha(Toratic Law). Had the opposite been true(as it is now), Tevye would know that he can't matchmake for his kids if they don't want it, but his kids can even go agains't him in this regard.

I used to attend a family friend's Seder where the commandment to teach the story to the next generation was fulfilled by puppet show (a kid-friendly version of your suggestion to demonstrate the story). The host family also has a tradition of collecting diverse charoset recipes from Jewish communities around the world, as a way of symbolically uniting the event with Jewish people across the world.

My ex YELLED at me "why did you make me watch this? Its so sad!" I was like, sweetie, the story was about a jewish family during the pogroms, what were you expecting?

Very interesting to learn about as a Catholic. We are put down by protestants for our traditions. We also have to go through that balance with changes around us. Thank you!

I appreciate your review. Thank you.

A possible title for your film series: A Stranger Among Us (1992). Melanie Griffith stars as an NYPD cop sent to work undercover in a Chassidic community. It starts as a fish-out-of-water story, but as it progresses, she learns not just the ways of the community, but a lot about love, tradition, and emotional maturity.

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.

Russia let all that talent come to america

True story: the composers of Fiddler were working in the same Brill building where Neil Diamond was writing Tin Pan Alley songs. He said in an interview that he didn't get what those guys were doing, writing traditional Jewish songs. He was sure they'd never be able to sell them. Then he saw the musical and realized he'd been an idiot.

It's absolutely a tragedy. But life has both tragic and funny moments. Not every second of a tragedy has to tragic. To me, the most heartbreaking scene in the movie is with the third daughter, and he shouts, "No, there is no other hand!"

Williamsburg, Brooklyn would be real fascinating too.

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.

Thanks for the great video. I’ve never seen Fiddler on the Roof, either the movie or the musical.

"Yentl" is a great film that I would recommend, and I'd love to hear your thoughts about it.

Not sure how this popped up on my CZcams feed. I've seen the movie and two local theater productions. I found it to be a sad tale and still do. I think your analysis was brilliant and provided me with a different way of understanding it. Thank you.

My dad's mother was a Russian Jew and she and her family snuck over the border into Poland to escape a Pogrom and came to America. Her mother remembers the Cossacks riding through the Sheltel, whipping the men and raping the women. It was much worse than the movie portrayed. Thus, one of my anscestors is Russian. The DNA test proved a tragic family story.

I would have put the lehrer song in the honorable mention...

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.

I can't tell you how much i love your movie reviews

Lovely channel here. Have you ever seen Disraeli: Portrait of a Romantic? It's a BBC mini series from 1978, watching your channel reminded me of that obscure show. I'd certainly recommend it.

I grew up in a lower middle class household. We didn't have a lot of extras to talk about, and taking the family out to a movie was one of those extras. I can remember distinctly seeing only two movies with my family. One was a drive in (remember those?). My parents put my brother and I in our pajamas, we settled in the back seat, and we saw If It's Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium. That movie came out in 1969, so I was still very young. The other movie that I remember going to see with my family was Fiddler On The Roof. That came out in 1971, so like two years later. There were probably other trips to the theater, but if so, I don't remember them. As a child, I didn't understand the movie. I remembered loving the music, and I remember how scary was Tevye's dream sequence. I saw it again as an adult. Because my eyes were open when I saw it that time, I was stunned by the meaning of the story. I understood the meaning behind the story, especially the way the Jews traditions were changing in the 20th Century. Each one of Tevye's daughters left the family unit differently, and the order in which they courted and married their husbands were important. I still love the music, but I love the story even more.

I am not Jewish, but Irish. These same things play out in each culture when people are forced to leave where they have traditionally lived. My people went through this when they mass migrated at the beginning of the 20th century. They tried to bring their culture with them in tact, but the new mercantile surroundings eventually and inevitably brought about fundamental changes, and the Irish became the American Irish who became Americans. Right now, Italy is experiencing an emptying out as that government intentionally fails its agrarian state (WEF), and people are forced to abandon their farms and homes. They, too, will go through the process and will exchange the identity of their grandparents for their own, new identity in whichever country they flee to. Even the military understands the break with the past when a soldier from one state is stationed at the other end of the continent in order for a separation and divorce of loyalties can be achieved. Being able to adjust to change is what it's all about. How to take the best and leave the rest. It's not alway easy.

As a "Jew of Color" some of my fellow BIJoCSM joke on me for my love of fiddler cause Ashkenazi-normativity has been so harmful to us but for me fiddler transcedes all that nuance. But maybe im biased cause i have played Golde afterall. Remains near & dear to my heart always.

As a gentile, what always hit me was what I knew about the history of the USA, & how Jews were treated. Have you viewed Yentl, Barbra Streistand's ode to that time & people? It has an equally sad ending.

I first saw this movie a theatre in the Diplomat Mall in Hallandale, Florida in 1972 with my mother and grandmother. Both were born here, but many in that theatre that day were not. At that time, that part of Broward County Florida had a high proportion of retired Jewish people, and undoubtably that audience did too. Though I was too young at that time to appreciate many of the aspects of this movie, what I do recall most vividly was the reaction of more than few older people in that audience as we left the theatre. So many were crying and essentially pleading with anyone who would listen that this is exactly like it really was back in Russia. To them, this was not just a movie, and certainly not merely a fluffy musical, notwithstanding a perennially popular score, but it was their life and the many injustices and indignities they somehow survived.

Topol has one of the coolest voices in the world

Yes, it is sad. I loved the music from the movie.

How can people not know this is a tragedy? Especially, since the whole village is evicted at the end. Nothing really good happens to anyone in the play or film.

It's Aleichem's schtick. Dialogues with God. And Kafkean from bad to worse to tragic to grotesque. We start with a lame horse and end up with pogrom and displacement.