Drink Lakayim! To Life !

Fiddler on the Roof, a wonderful musical film. It tells of the story of the breakdown of traditions and the need to embrace change in a world peppered with new ideas,modernization and liberty.

How relevant is the message of the movie. Embrace change or die like a discarded dinosaur. The relevancy and appropriacy is more real today than it ever was;what with globalization and the internet.

Seen to the eyes of three daughters Tzeitel, Hodel and Chava and their milkman father,Tevye and how they forsook traditions to get married, Fiddler on the Roof, is at once poignant yet foreboding etched upon a background of anti-Semitism.

Fiddler on the Roof takes place around 1910 in a small Ukrainian village. It is an uncertain time. Unrest grips the country - unrest caused by the Pogroms (when Jews were driven en masse from their homes), rising anti-Tsarist sentiment (which would lead to the Revolution), and the approach of World War One.

A central theme is how the old traditions are disintegrating under the pressure of a world culture that is being re-shaped by industrialization and mechanization.

The songs are second to none. I enjoyed all of them. Some are hauntingly beautiful while others tug at your heartstrings. The music score by John Williams is superb and deserved the Oscar.

Enjoy the songs and the music.

Drink to La Kayim! To Life! To Life!

Heartsong