Theodore Bikel: In the Shoes of Sholem Aleichem Theodore Bikel: In the Shoes of Sholem Aleichem, a new documentary from the National Center for Jewish Film, is an intentionally personal story told by one of the most accomplished and politically-influential Jewish entertainers of the 20th Century. Director John Lollos combines scenes from Bikel’s acclaimed solo…
Tag: Fiddler on the Roof
Yente/Yenta
3/14: Yente/Yenta TBE The March 14th lecture sponsored by the Temple Sisterhood featured an eye-opening discussion by Congregant Jan Lisa Huttner who presented an examination of the character Yente- the-Matchmaker, from the Broadway musical Fiddler on the Roof. Jan explored how the name Yente (or Yenta) has evolved from being a person’s name to a…
Bikel Screening
2/8: Bikel Screening “People ask me: ‘Where are your people from?’ And I say: ‘Bukovina.’ And they say: ‘Where is that?’ And I say: ‘Okay, used to be Russia. When my parents were born, it was Greater Austria. In 1919, it became Romania. In 1946, it became Russia again. And now it’s Ukraine.” And they…
The Muses of IBS
The Muses of IBS Isaac Bashevis Singer won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1978. He was the first Yiddish author to be honored with a Nobel Prize for Literature, and he is quite likely to be the last Yiddish author ever to be honored with a Nobel Prize for Literature. But let’s be honest: how…
Congregation Beth Emeth Dvar Torah
Congregation Beth Emeth D’var Torah Jan Lisa Huttner will do the Dvar Torah at Temple Beth Emeth in Flatbush, discussing the Daughters of Zelophehad as the precursors of Tevye’s daughters in FIDDLER ON THE ROOF. The five Daughters of Zelophehad make their first appearance in this week’s Parsha “Pinchas” (Numbers Chapters 26 & 27). Join…
Congregation Beth Emeth Sisterhood Lecture
Congregation Beth Emeth Sisterhood Lecture Unlike most discussions of Fiddler on the Roof, this presentation will turn the spotlight on women—the female characters in Sholem Aleichem’s Tevye stories and the women in Solomon Rabinowitz’s personal life. Solomon Rabinowitz loved women—especially his wife Olga and their many daughters—and Huttner contends it was this love that enabled…
Marriott Lincolnshire’s Fiddler
Marriott Lincolnshire’s Fiddler The Marriott Lincolnshire opened their new production of Fiddler on the Roof on Feb 24. I have now seen over two dozen performances of Fiddler in my life, but this was the first time I’d ever seen Fiddler “in the round.” “The great thing about working in round is the ability to…
Chaim Topol’s Farewell Tour
Chaim Topol’s Farewell Tour Topol’s Tevye is not a man “desperately clinging to Tradition” (as one critic described with another actor in the role). More than anyone else in Anatevka, Topol’s Tevye is genuinely interested in new people with new ideas. No one forces him to invite Perchik-the-Student into his house. He opens his door…
Jan Chats with Steven Greenman
Jan Chats with Steven Greenman I received a wonderful Chanukah gift last year, a two-disc set of “new Klezmer” called STEMPENYU’S DREAM. After listening to it several times, entranced, I called composer Steven Greenman at home in Cleveland to learn more. “I was born in December 1966, so the whole FIDDLER ON THE ROOF thing…
Sholem Aleichems novella STEMPENYU
Sholem Aleichems novella STEMPENYU This funny tale of a fiddler whose music stirs villagers to the heights of romantic frivolity supposedly inspired Chagall’s famous “fiddler on the roof” painting. A classic, it is the humorous and touching saga of shtetl life and what happens when one young woman falls for a fiddler as famous as…