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Bringing Anatevka Back ‘To Life!’ Joel Grey on the return of ‘Fiddler on the Roof’ in Yiddish By Jane Levere
When joel grey was first approached five years ago about joining the National Tevye or direct the show. The legendary actor’s choice to stay behind the scenes as director has proven Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene’s planned production of Fiddler on the Roof in Yiddish, he was asked if he would prefer to star as fabled milkman itself a wise one, yet again, as this award-winning Fiddler returned to Off Broadway in November for a limited run at the New World
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Stages theater. This will be the third time that the Steven Skybell as Tevye in the Folksbiene’s ‘Fiddler on the Roof’ Joel Grey winner of an Oscar, Tony and Golden Globe has helmed the production, whose Yiddish title is A Fidler Afn Dakh. It was first presented to packed audiences in 2018 at the Folksbiene’s home in Lower Manhattan before transferring to Stage 42 in Hell’s Kitchen; a planned national and international tour was shuttered largely due to Covid. Grey, perhaps best known for originating the role of the Emcee in the musical Cabaret on Broadway in 1966, has a personal connection to Yiddish theater. His father was klezmer clarinetist and vaudeville star Mickey Katz, who performed songs in Yiddish as well as English.
TOM STOPPARD’S JEWISH FAMILY ALBUM
“Here’s a couple waving goodbye from the
train, but who are they? No idea,” Grandma Emilia Merz tells her assembled relatives as she flips through a photo album in the opening act of Leopoldstadt, the latest production from legendary British playwright and screenwriter Tom Stoppard. “It’s like a second death, to lose your name in a family album.”
Leopoldstadt, now on Broadway at the Longacre Theater after a successful run on the West End in London, takes its title from the Jewish ghetto in Vienna. Emilia, played by Jewish actress Betsy Aidem, is the matriarch of the wealthy, interconnected and intermarried Merz and Jakobovicz families of Vienna.
In 1899 Grandma Emilia (right, played by Betsy Aidem) looks at the family photo album with her daughter Eva (Caissie Levy).
At that gathering in the opening—a Christmas party in 1899 enlivened with interwoven, playful dialogue that is a Stoppard trademark—family members debate the meaning of assimilation, discuss mathematics and opine on Theodor Herzl’s pamphlet Der Judenstaat. Ironically, as theatergoers will see, one character wonders if there is an actual need for a Jewish homeland: “…the beating heart of Viennese culture. This is the Promised Land,” he insists. There’s also talk about who would come to their next large get-together—a Passover seder.
Questions about Jewish acculturation and endurance—as well as that photo album— cycle through Leopoldstadt. Its five acts shift from 1899 to 1900, then 1924, 1938 and 1955, creating snapshots of the Merzes and Jakoboviczes’ journeys that saw them attain almost full acceptance in their native country only to lose everything under the Nazis.
If this Jewish story of success followed by devastation seems familiar, Stoppard nevertheless invests his tale of memory, grief and love with an intimate, haunting beauty. The play is set largely in one room that changes to reflect the families’ fortunes, from the warm, sepia-toned grandeur of bustling celebrations filled with relatives to a stark post-World War II scene with harsh lighting. Those who remain, whittled down to three, return to Vienna, look at the photo album and must contend with their guilt.
These scenes are intimate by design; this is Stoppard’s most personal play, a fictional take, he has said, on his own Jewish history. The 85-year-old Tony- and Oscar-award winner, best known for plays such as Travesties and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead and for the screenplay to, among other films, Empire of the Sun, only discovered that he is Jewish 30 years ago, and that both sets of his grandparents had died in the Holocaust.
In Leopoldstadt, 6-year-old Leo escapes the Nazi regime in Vienna and finds refuge in England. As a young adult, Leo, a proxy for Stoppard, can barely recall his Viennese relatives, let alone recognize them in photos—yet another tragic erasure for these Jewish families already subsumed by loss.
The 90-year-old Manhattan resident spoke with Hadassah Magazine several weeks before the reopening of A Fidler Afn Dakh. This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.
What is the appeal of Fiddler, especially today?
The appeal has always been the same, but it’s heightened probably because of the awareness of the war in Ukraine. [Fiddler on the Roof’s fictional shtetl, Anatevka, is thought to be located in Ukraine.] The people there are being murdered and kicked out, so I think it’s a very poignant time.
The play is timeless in its political point of view and political circumstances and world view. People coming to see it, including non-Yiddish speakers and non-Jews, can relate to the fact that this type of oppression and bias has been going on forever.
Is the creative team the same as in the previous productions in Yiddish?
All the same people. Everybody loves it and wanted to be a part of it—including me.
Which of the original cast has returned?
I would say three-quarters of the cast will be the same. Steven Skybell, who won a Lucille Lortel Award (given for excellence in Off-Broadway theater) for his performance, is coming back as Tevye. He is now performing with the Lyric Opera of Chicago’s Fiddler in English as we speak. It’s his first time doing Tevye in English.
How did the New World Stages engagement come about?
It was always talked about that we would have another engagement more uptown that would, hopefully, open the doors to more people who don’t want to go downtown to Lower Manhattan, where the Folksbiene’s Yiddish Fiddler was first staged. We’re all excited. It’s like being closer to Broadway.
Jane Levere is a New York City-based freelancer for The New York Times, The Washington Post, Architectural Digest, CNN, Afar and Metropolis, among other publications, and a life member of Hadassah.
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StopAntisemitism Is On The Frontlines Against Jew-Hatred on College Campuses
Liora Rez
Executive Director, StopAntisemitism
StopAntisemitism.org’s success in achieving real-world results in combatting antisemitism—such as antisemites being fired or expelled—means the small but mighty organization has become a trusted and leading entity in the fight against antisemitism. In her mission to protect and preserve Jewish culture, StopAntisemitism’s Executive Director Liora Rez is now pointing a finger at an area of society that’s seen a shocking rise in Jew-hatred: American higher education. In response to Jewish students and their families inquiring about the safest schools for Jews to attend in the United States, StopAntisemitism released its inaugural report in September—Antisemitism on U.S. College & University Campuses 2022—that assesses 25 different schools on how they’ve previously handled antisemitic incidents and what they’re currently doing to protect their Jewish communities.
Through extensive background research and surveys sent out to both school administrators and Jewish students, it’s clear that antisemitism on college campuses is not taken as seriously as other acts of discrimination. Grades were assigned using baseline measures that included questions such as: Does the school include Jewish representation in DEI efforts? Do Jewish students feel like they are held responsible for Israel’s actions? Has the school adopted the IHRA definition of antisemitism? How does the school respond to acts of antisemitism? Only three schools earned an ”A” while seven schools received failing grades.
In the survey sent out to students, more than half of respondents confirmed they had experienced antisemitism at their school, with only half of these victims choosing to report the incidents to school administrators. Additionally, the majority agreed their schools do not take antisemitic incidents and the protection of Jews on campus seriously and more than half feel the need to hide their support for Israel while on campus.
“What the results of this report show is that American colleges and universities are not doing enough to protect their Jewish students and foster a welcoming environment for Jews,” said Executive Director Rez. “We’ve had some shocking responses from some of the schools that refused to participate in our survey, such as ‘this isn’t in our best interest.’”
Except, it is in their best interest. What StopAntisemitism’s report does is implores these universities and colleges to look inward and see how they can effectively combat antisemitism. Additionally, it offers the opportunity for these schools to work in conjunction with StopAntisemitism, which uses call-to-actions to motivate its followers in helping garner legitimate results.
Take for instance the case of Yasmeen Mashayekh, an engineering student at the University of Southern California who was exposed by StopAntisemitism in November 2021 for posting antisemitic tweets such as, “Death to Israel and it’s b***h the US” and “yel3an el yahood,” which is Arabic for “curse the Jews.” Following StopAntisemitism calling her out on social media and featuring her in its “Antisemite of the Week” newsletter, Mashayekh lost her job as a tutor and was demoted from her position as a “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion” graduate student senator at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering. She was even paid a visit by the FBI for her previous comments vilifying Jews.
While it’s important that there are organizations willing to stand on the frontlines in the fight against antisemitism, everyone needs to do their part. Administrations at these higher education institutions must act on their students’ behalf to expose and combat Jew-hatred and bigotry. Allies have been at the core of every social justice movement in history. Without their support, the future welfare of Jews remains in question.
