A FIDDLER ON THE ROOF

By Harvey Tobkes

We watched a video of A Fiddler on the Roof last night and enjoyed it more than we did 35 years ago. That’s what aging will do for you! The marvelous actor, Topol, an Israeli, played the lead role of Tevya.

The metaphor of the fiddler on the roof relates to the lives of the Jewish people in their little Shtetls (villages) in an anti-Semitic Russia. They tried to live normal lives while balancing the burdens of poverty and even worse, the Tsar’s orders for Pogroms, and yet, during all this, remaining faithful to their religion and their traditions. Not unlike the Fiddler playing out his tune for all the people to hear, while trying to maintain his balance atop a slanting roof, and not unlike what is happening in Israel today.