A communist Jew? Imagine my shock.

Is Hollywood ever going to make a movie with positive Jewish characters where the hero doesn't marry outside of the faith to be a good person? I have yet to see one. As for the Jonah Hill flick, it was overt antisemitism.

The last musical I was able to take my mom to before she left Chicago was Topol's fairwell Fiddler tour. It was such a great thing but the first time I realized it was a tragedy. I don't think I ever sat through the television production before.

Years ago, I saw the movie Ushpizin. I loved it and always remembered it.

I’ve never read the original book, but now I will. I love the movie! But, in view of what I know about history, I often have thought of the futures of those characters. Hoping that the oldest daughter’s family would be able to come to America. Realizing that the 2nd daughter and her husband would probably die in Siberia. And that the 3rd daughter and family would probably settle in Poland and eventually sent to the concentration camps. Only the two youngest would have a chance. Real and poignant.

I love movies. I have seen a lot in every kind of genre. I love horror, sci-fi, Pixar movies, Westerns, noir, action. Fiddler on the Roof remains among my five all-time favorites.

I think the interesting thing about the relationship between Tevye and Chava is that it serves as a reminder to the audience that Tevye is still a very flawed person. He's still insular and paranoid, he still has very patronizing views towards women, and he still refuses to see certain "others" as human. In a way, that could be seen as a parallel to how the Tsar's men don't see the Jews of the village as human. In the end, the only person he has to blame for losing the relationship he has with his daughter is himself, and I think there's a poignant kind of tragedy in that.

you got Tevia wrong... he is not in love with money - he wants honor and status, which, in his community, is most gained through scholarship. He says the "sweetest thing of all" would be to study with the Rabbis and be a valued counselor by the inhabitants of the town. Material wealth is a necessity he desires to have sufficient for his house and his daughter's husbands. You conflate this with his desire for excess wealth, which for him is ultimately a way to gain status, and access to scholarship. he doesn't hate work but hates the work he's is resigned to do. Wealth would gain him access and enable him to spend the time, that's all its for.

Culture is a beautiful thing. The secularization of society is not in general a BAD thing, but the shame some have over their families' past negative views of other cultures and the eagerness to assimilate into a homogenous modern society has left some of the beauty of our diversity in the memory books. As a white protestant Christian of many European countries' origin, I don't know any of the German, Swedish, French, Scottish, Irish, or English traditions of my ancestors and it makes me a little sad. We are 100% American. There is Jewish-European ancestry somewhere on my paternal grandmother's side and Native American somewhere on my maternal grandmother's side, but we have no stories of those family members. Sometimes I wish I could talk to some of my great great grandparents about where I came from.

I could not get through the whole video it is very interesting and well made. But the subject appears to present itself as if it is a about a young man fighting within himself if he should be an orthodox jew or not but the writers have no idea what that is. Even his name yossla is a nick name the Hebrew Yoseph or in English Joseph it's like calling Joey not Jesse that is the English version of the Hebrew Yessi. An orthodox man and wife would have 2 separate beds to sleep and his wife would cover her hair. It's like the writers didnt know and did care what it to be orthodox and if a Jewish man married a non jew it would be a violation of the law of God and those children would not be Jews. Jesse is violating the Torah that is his father acted like he was de@d but the writers didnt know that

I just watched Fiddler on the Roof last night for the 100th time. I cry every time. I never thought of it as a happy musical. It is heartbreaking. I loved the closeness of the family and the little town.

im 53 and watched this movie this weekend because my 13 year old daughter is into theater. Who on earth thinks this is a happy story? I couldn't help thinking what was waiting for this village in the future, WW2 and Soviet Communism, and wished they all would of made it to America.

It also had a wonderful score by Vladimir Cosma.

I only ever saw part I as a kid and somehow missed the pogrom at the end of it. I suspect motherly interference. Seeing the whole thing as an adult, I finally understood how it represented a way of life passing away. Definitely a different view than the nice little love story I thought it was.

Very good video, well done

I’ve loved this movie since I was a child. It speaks to many migrant experiences. ❤

I'm not jewish, I'm a catholic christian, and I've dived deep into the history of the Bible, both New Testament and the Old Testament (also known as the Tanakh). and like how the story of Ruth was a story focusing on the topic of marrying a gentile, and the story of Esther was the story of how the deliverance of the Jewish people could also come from imperfect people like Esther and Mordecai, I believe the story of the Fiddler of the Fiddler on the Roof has a place of importance in the history of the Jewish people.

I actually have an ancestor who snuck onto the ship to get to the US by hiding in a pickle barrel

I never thought the fiddler on the roof was a joyful musical. I am a AA and the first time I saw this musical in my choir class Zi understood this was a traumatic historical events in Jewish Family’s life. Anyone who thought this was a joyfully musical is delusional.

I'm on Team Tevye -- always! :-)

18:20 - Bad editing there. 19:35 - Same. Also, today I heard that kids are just toys to parents; The real kids are the grandchildren.

11:30 - Tearing your clothes doesn't actually symbolize agony. In the bible, it meant a great excitement over an eureka moment.

This is a story of a Jewish racist's community and one racist Jewish man who facing the backlash of their racist actions realize he need to stop being racist. SO it starts really grim but end up on happy note. :)

Watched this movie again this past weekend and I've been thinking about this over the last year and how tradition should be maintained vs modernity. Thanks for making this presentation. Been watching this movie since I was a child and only now in my forties figuring it out.

Thhhhaaannnnnkkkkkk You ! Imagine growing up with the "Jazz Singer" songbook, singing Kol Nidre from "Jazz Singer", home alone with "jesus" as a CLUELESS PATRILINEAL CAUGHT BETWEEN TWO DIAMETRICALLY OPPOSED WORLDS and your Bittersweet Jewish Grandpa from Russian Jewry hates HaShem, Judaism, Rabbis. Sorry, not sorry, but, may his memory be for a blessing, my Jewish Grandpa was a ball of furious non-stop YELLING. He had high blood pressure and I gave him his pills and was the cause of his high blood pressure. Bitterness IS Mental Illness. I WAS THIS MOVIE, like literally. The Father is NOT a STEREOTYPE. IT was real, INTERMARRIAGE is the "soft" Final *olution. Do "Yentl" ppllleeeeaaasssseeeee "A Piece Of Sky'

Great! 😃👍

I love it. the one person most important behind making the movie is the only one not a jew and his name starts with Jew... thats poetic irony.

Another example of how Hollywood never let the facts get in the way of a financially successful movie.

25:40 Tevye is asking what I asked on November 6. Why does the One Upstairs let people like this go unpunished?

OMG David this vid is sooo SLAY!!!!! Love💅🏻💅🏻💅🏻✨✨✨🎀🎀🎀😁😁😁

I'm a first generation American. My parents would take my sister and I back to the farm in the old country every summer break. They never forgot their roots. I'm a born again Christian, I love the Jewish people, and this film, and everything about it, hits me right between the eyes.

Thanks been waiting...❤

Amazing video as always! It’s about time we got a modern update for this film 😁

I remember seeing the movie when it just come out , it was for me a unforgettable experience ! The scene when we hear Kol Nidre it was so touching ( It most be my European roots with conservative beliefs ) Thank you David for bringing it back to me 💌

It is obviously a tragedy! It was antisemitism and loss

Keeping The Faith (2000)

Great video, as always! For something on the lighter side, I'd love to hear your take on Jewish themes in Mel Brooks' comedies.

School Ties. This is one you will like. As the only Jew in an exclusive prep school he davens by himself in the school's church.

WHO thought this was anything but a tragedy

I disagree with your characterization of Tevye’s relationship with God. Tevya has a loving relationship with God. Maybe a tough love relationship, but still a loving relationship with God. Just compare his relationship with God to that of his wife. He loves his wife, and she loves him, but their expression of love is different from today’s expression of love. Their love is rooted in their faithfulness to each other, to their children, and to their community. In many ways, this expression of love is very much the love that God and Tevye have for each other.

I disagree with your characterization of Tevye’s relationship with God. Tevya has a loving relationship with God. Maybe a tough love relationship, but still a loving relationship with God. Just compare his relationship with God to that of his wife. He loves his wife, and she loves him, but their expression of love is different from today’s expression of love. Their love is rooted in their faithfulness to each other, to their children, and to their community. In many ways, this expression of love is very much the love that God and Tevye have for each other.

There’s also a great irony that those who are expelled from their village, from their country, actually stood a better chance of survival than if they had remain in place in WWII.

It's definitely an American "As-A-Jew" movie.

I was reading a fairly new novel called Birobidschan by Tomer Dotan-Dreyfus, a jewish author living in Berlin, and the experience of watching Fiddler on the Roof came back to me. I think Fiddler as a story gives more, the deeper you look into it. Each daughter represents the different path open to the Jews of the community and the ways it can end. But in the original story, Tevje has more than just these three daughters. He has 7 in total. So while the three threads of these daughters‘ stories end in tragedy, there is hope that the others will be happier.

It’s not that it is “misunderstood” but rather that NO ONE cares! It’s a MUSICAL, it’s entertainment, not a historic document!

This reminds me of the line from the movie Fail Safe "How long would the Nazis have kept it up if every Jew they came after had met them with a gun in their hand" My relatives came from Russia ( Kiev today ) and Anatevka could have been their home. How would history be different if the Jewish people had simply said "enough"

This movie is just as relevant in 2024 as it was in the 1960s

Two pieces of wisdom: What does it profit a man if he gains the world but loses his soul? One cannot stop the birds from flying overhead but it doesn’t mean you have to let them build a nest in your hair.

Yentl, I think, also…

You should do analysis on Gustav Mahler and his compositions. He has a lot of motifs to Jewish traditional music.