Every from time to time a star passes away and it appears like a dying within the household. For me, and lots of different Jews, the passing of Chaim Topol is one such event. Famend for his portrayal of Tevye, the protagonist of the musical Fiddler on the Roof, Topol got here to signify the archetypal Ashkenazi Jewish patriarch, yiddle-diddling his approach into the collective consciousness.
I can nonetheless keep in mind the primary time, now 30-odd years in the past, that I noticed the 1971 movie adaptation of Fiddler – a ceremony of passage. Sitting in a cold classroom within the synagogue that Sunday morning, I watched in real marvel as a world that was as soon as fully unknown to me got here to life in sepia tones and vivid performances. Notably Topol’s.
Like most British Jews, my household arrived within the UK a while within the late nineteenth or early twentieth century, fleeing the pogroms in japanese Europe. By the point I used to be born within the early Eighties, the technology that had arrived in London’s East Finish with solely the garments on their backs have been lengthy gone – as was the world they’d left behind. Rising up within the consolation of middle-class London, I had no inkling that my household’s life had ever been every other approach. Till I noticed Fiddler on the Roof.
The bodily particulars of shtetl life as it appeared on screen might need been international to me, however the characters felt uncannily acquainted (not least as a result of my grandmother shared her title with the movie’s matriarch). Because the eldest of three daughters, it was simple to map myself and my sisters on to Tevye’s daughters Tzeitel, Hodel and Chava – every with their very own, decided personalities. In Topol’s face, mannerisms and stoicism, I may see my very own father; hardworking and dedicated to his household. And in Golde, his spouse, I noticed my mom; standing over the Shabbat candles within the dwelling that she, too, had lovingly created for us.
Fiddler on the Roof could also be a musical however beneath the catchy songs and choreographed dance routines lies a narrative with actual integrity. Primarily based on a collection of quick tales by Sholem Aleichem, the founding father of Yiddish literature, the fictional shtetl of Anatevka and its inhabitants supply a traditionally correct account of Jewish life in japanese Europe earlier than the primary and second world wars.
As a baby, listening to that your loved ones got here to the nation of your beginning fleeing persecution is one factor. However seeing it play out on display screen is sort of one other. Because the inhabitants of Anatevka packed their meagre belongings and left their village seeking a greater life, I used to be struck with a way of reduction that, when my ancestors had been in that very place, they’d headed for the UK – and never France or Holland and even Germany, the place far worse was but to return. How had that occurred? Had they, like Tevye – who was heading to his brother in New York – been fortunate sufficient to have a relative already right here? Or was it simply the hand of destiny?
Once I received dwelling from Sunday college that afternoon, Topol’s explosive rendition of Tradition was nonetheless ringing in my ears. It felt as if a bit of the puzzle of who I used to be, a bit I’d by no means even recognized was lacking, had lastly clicked into place. This spirited, sentimental, heartbreaking musical was my origin story and not solely did I’ve a clearer understanding of my id, however I may share it with others, present them my heritage, and assist them perceive too.
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It’s usually stated that an actor made an element their very own, however within the case of Topol it’s undeniably true. (I say this as somebody who hated Trevor Nunn’s production of Fiddler at the Playhouse, with Andy Nyman as Tevye.) Regardless of being simply 35 when he performed Tevye on display screen, Topol introduced a soulful authenticity to the function that can by no means be matched. To all intents and functions, he was Tevye.
Sadly, I do know virtually nothing about how my household arrived within the UK, nor the place they have been coming from; the information don’t appear to exist and anybody who knew something is not with us. However because of Fiddler on the Roof, I’ve one thing to cling on to: some sense of who they have been, how they lived, and the hardships they confronted. Fiddler on the Roof gave me, and lots of different Ashkenazi Jews, a way of belonging. It fills within the gaps our dad and mom and grandparents can’t. What a present. What a legacy. I’ll be for ever grateful.
