Fiddler on the Roof, a musical adaptation of Sholem Aleichem’s “Tevye” stories, was an immediate hit when it premiered on Broadway fifty years ago. With songs by Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick and choreography by Jerome Robbins, it ranks among the most successful musicals of all time—with constant international productions in schools, community theaters, and professional stages from Korea to Finland. Although the story is based on the experience of Jews in rural Eastern Europe, its resonance goes far beyond the Jewish community, speaking powerfully of the need faced by every culture and every generation to balance tradition with change, a tightrope act symbolized by the play’s central metaphor—a precariously perched fiddler on the roof.

Living legend seems like a fair description for Theodore Bikel. He co-starred in A Streetcar Named Desire with Vivian Leigh and Laurence Olivier. The role of Baron von Trapp in The Sound of Music? He originated it. Movies? He appeared in The African Queen, My Fair Lady, and many others, including The Defiant Ones, for which he was nominated for an Academy Award. (And don’t forget 200 Motels.) As a folk singer, he had his debut at Carnegie Hall, co-founded the Newport Folk Festival, and up to now has recorded close to 20 albums, including one comprised of Soviet Jewish freedom songs smuggled out of the former USSR. Oh, and he’s also a political activist and arts advocate, a talented guitarist, and a fabulous story-teller. He first played Tevye in 1967, and has performed the role more than 2,000 times. His appearances at the Freight have become a glorious... tradition!

Merima Ključo is a world class accordionist who has performed as a guest soloist with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Holland Symphonia, and the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, and in productions at the National Jewish Theater, Bremer Theater, and Nederlandse Kinder Theater, and on the soundtrack for the film In the Land of Blood and Honey. She worked with Theodore Bikel on the play Sholom Aleichem: Laughter Through Tears and in the group Serendipity 4. Her interest in world music, particularly the music of Bosnia, led her to record the album Zumra, in collaboration with Bosnian singer Amira Medunjanin. The Sunday Times of London named Zumra one of the top 10 world music albums of 2010.

Samuel Norich is the publisher and chief executive officer of the Forward, serving as publisher of the Yiddish Forverts since 1997, and  the English Forward since 2000. He immigrated to the US from Germany in 1957 and was the executive director of the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research from 1980 to 1992, and as vice president of the World Jewish Congress from 1975 to 1981. He wrote What Will Bind Us Now?: A Report on the Institutional Ties Between Israel and American Jewry in 1994.

Visit Theodore Bikel's website

Visit Merima Ključo's website