By Mitchell Bard
THIS YEAR is the 50th anniversary of the play, Fiddler on the Roof.
Originally, the composer (Jerry Bock), and lyricist (Sheldon Harrnick) wanted to make a different musical, one based on Shalom Aleichems Wandering Stars. They decided that story required too many characters so they decided instead to write about Tevye the Dairyman.
Most people probably know that Shalom Aleichem created the Tevye character; what they may not know (I didnt until I read a collection of his stories) is that there is no story titled, Fiddler on the Roof.
In fact, the play is based not on one story but several that were beautifully fused by Joseph Stein.
It took roughly three years to finish the book and music, during which time the drafts had a variety of names, such as The Old Country, before settling on Fiddler.
Some of the biggest names in Hollywood and theater were considered for parts in the play, including Walter Matthau, Eli Wallach, Rod Steiger, Gene Wilder, Danny Thomas, Alan King, Lee Grant and Bea Arthur (who eventually got to play Golde after being rejected several times).
Some who auditioned for the film and were rejected were Robert De Niro, Richard Dreyfuss, Rob Reiner and John Ritter. They were beaten out by such household names as Leonard Frey and Paul Michael Glaser (before Starsky & Hutch).
ONE STORY that Shalom Aleichem wrote about Tevye that was not included in Fiddler was Tevye Goes to Palestine. In that story Tevye has become depressed by the death of his wife Golde and the tribulations of his older daughters. One of his younger daughters, Beilke, who is just a child and minor character in Fiddler, becomes engaged to a wealthy, snobby, unlearned man named Padhatzur.
Beilkes fiancé quickly makes it clear that he is embarrassed by Tevyes profession and offers to help set him up in business and suggests he move to America. When Tevye reacts hostilely, Padhatzur asks if he would like to go to Palestine instead. Old Jews are always eager to go to Palestine, he says.
Tevye is so miserable that he thinks this might be a good idea. I would like to stand by the Wailing Wall, to see the tombs of the Patriarchs, Mother Rachels grave, and I would like to look with my own eyes at the River Jordan, at Mt. Sinai and the Red Sea, at the great cities Pithom and Raamses. In my thoughts I am already in the Land of Canaan the land flowing with milk and honey when Padhatzur breaks in on me impatiently: Why waste all this time thinking about it? Make it one-two-three and decide.
Tevye decides to accept Padhatzurs help and go to Palestine. It is not until a later story, Get Thee Out, that we learn what happened next. Tevye says that the Holy Land is indeed a land flowing with milk and honey. The trouble, he admits, is that the Holy Land is over there and I am still here outside the Promised Land.
The remainder of the story recalls the tribulations Tevye encounters with his family and the authorities, which, ultimately, leads to his expulsion from his home. When he mentions the future, Tevye states that he does not know where he will go next, Yehupetz, Odessa, Warsaw or America. He does not mention Palestine and Shalom Aleichem never reveals his fate.
ALTHOUGH SHALOM Aleichems Tevye never made it to Palestine, I decided he belonged there and that it would provide an opportunity to tell the story of Israels birth through his eyes. If it were a film, the story would be Exodus meets Fiddler on the Roof.
Being fiction, I take some literary license with the story in After Anatevka: Tevye in Palestine. I imagine what happened to the three older daughters left behind while focusing on Tevyes youngest daughters, whose stories are told in other Shalom Aleichem stories but not in Fiddler.
Rather than simply repeating the theme of tradition, I add an additional layer of conflict and angst by placing Tevye on a secular kibbutz where he is the only religious man. He is forced to confront the challenge to his beliefs posed by the socialist ideals of his fellow kibbutzniks.
His children continue to vex him as they adapt more quickly to their new surroundings.
Meanwhile, Golde, who dies in the original stories, is very much alive and still worried about the welfare of her children both in Palestine and those she left behind.
I hope readers get some insight into life during the yishuv period and find the history more interesting when told through Tevyes eyes.
I certainly make no claim to having the literary talent of Shalom Aleichem, but I am confident that After Anatevka will make you laugh and cry and appreciate why Tevye is indeed a wealthy man.
Dr. Mitchell Bard is the author or editor of 24 books, including The Arab Lobby, Death to the Infidels: Radical Islams War Against the Jews and After Anatevka: Tevye in Palestine.
