There is one thing I cannot stand about FotR, the film: Golde’s hairstyle. It bugs me so much I cannot watch her, because I end up watching her hair, waiting for it to MOVE. It never does, IMS. It was very 60s hair, for all that it was made in 1971 and supposed to be 1905 Russia.
That and the film is too long/slow. But the songs are good as is the acting etc. I can’t rewatch it often, but it’s a good film.
I don’t remember seeing her hair in it- it was usually covered with a babushka (or whatever you call it). The only scene without one I can think of was at the wedding where she and the other women were all wearing wigs (as orthodox Jews they had to cover their real hair- even Yente wears a dark wig over her grey hair).
Some trivia (totally unrelated to the OP): One of the Tevye stories biggest fans was Mark Twain. He received an English translation from a European friend with the note “this man reminds me of a Jewish Mark Twain”. When they met during the short period Aleichem (aka Sholem Rabinovich) lived in NYC (Sholem having had to leave Russia in the same 1905 edict that expelled Tevye and his family), Twain (aka Samuel Clemens) enthusiastically reversed it and told him “I’m the American Sholem Aleichem”. Twain also helped out Sholem out financially to some degree (Aleichem would not accept much) and in using his influence to cut through some red tape to get Sholem’s wife and children into the country (they were in Switzerland), though ultimately Sholem chose to join the family in Switzerland instead of bringing them to America.
Nope–her hair is not covered by a babushka and not the wedding scene, either. It hangs there, on either side of her face, looped back into some kind of bun. The “loops” (really swathes) do. not. move. With her, without her, in a wind, when she bends over–no movee the hair. Once you see it, you can’t not see it…
I can’t find an image on line. I only get pics with her wearing the babushka. Damn. I’m not about to rewatch the whole film just to point out the scene(s). I know there is one in the cottage. She may have a babushka on, but it’s not covering her whole hair. I seem to recall bread making or some other kitchen activity… it’s been awhile. Sorry.
Some trivia about Tevye’s hair in the film: as mentioned, Topol was only in his 30s when he appeared in the film and his hair had very little gray. Each day the director, Norman Jewison (who’s not Jewish incidentally) would pull gray from his own hair and beard and have it glued into Chaim Topol’s beard and hair. (Source: the DVD commentary.)
More trivia: the actor Louis Zorich, who played “his honor the Constable”, was a native of Chicago and NYC (“in America…”) and had never learned to ride a horse. During one of his horseback scenes- the horse through him and he lost consciousness- which caused his very pregnant wife, Olympia Dukakis, to go into premature labor (only about 2 weeks or so, but…). The baby was born fine, Zorich wasn’t seriously injured and recovered fully. He’s still married to Dukakis and is probably best known for his role as Paul Buchman’s father on Mad About You.
Topol has reprised the role several times for stage and during one of his Broadway/road show runs Golde was played by Rosalind Harris who played oldest daughter Tzeitel in the film. He said that this took some getting used to for both of them.
Great Australian production video- see Topol sing pop. A NOT SAFE FOR WORK DUE TO LANGUAGE video from the following year (see Topol bust a groove).
I had to read this twice to understand it. My brain hurts. 
How sure are you of this? The Hasidim still wear the garb of 19th century Europeans, including heavy black coats and hats (even in the heat of Israel). Plus Ashkenazi in Israel still eat the same European foods like borscht, stuffed cabbage, kugel, etc. along with the Mediterranean/ Arabic food of the region.
Sure there has been a good deal of assimilation with the Sephardic culture, but I don’t think you can characterize Israelis as having “turned their backs” on their European ancestry.
If I’m wrong, some Israelis will show up in this thread to correct me - I’m basing this on having lived there for a summer and on knowing some Israelis fairly well.
There is no doubt that certain groups - the ultra-Orthodox - still live, talk and dress much as they have always done in Eastern Europe. But these groups in many cases tend to be hostile to the whole Zionist notion.
There is little doubt in my mind that many “modern” Israelis (the typical more secular Israelis who self-identify as Israeli) see themselves, their culture and their language as having more or less deliberately rejected their European heritage (those of them who are Ashkenazi in background). The experience of Jews in Europe is considered as one of a sort of “ghetto culture” of humiliation, stifling religiousity, and persecution - consider the (if you will) “unmanly” negative stereotype of “the Jew” - compared to the Israeli positive self image of heroic pioneers overcomming great physical odds to make a success of their country. The former is associated with Yiddish and the latter with Hebrew; they are viewed as antithical.
This is by no means an attitude limited to Israelis, my mother told me that her father, a 1st generation immigrant, was actively encouraged by his parents not to learn Yiddish for the same reason - it was the language of humiliation - though in my mother’s generation there was a strong renaissance in interest in Yiddish culture; I have heard the same thing is happening in Israel, with young people ceasing to care about its “ghetto roots”.
This is seen most evidently in the revival of spoken Hebrew:
From: Revival of the Hebrew language - Wikipedia
In short, “Fiddler on the Roof” is an affectionate look at a culture that was for a long time rejected by most Israelis. That may not be the case so much any more, as Israelis are beginning to forget the reaction of rejection of “ghetto culture” and are I think becomming somewhat more open to it; but to many Israelis it has distinctly negative connotations.
You’re argument makes sense to me. But my only other thought is that in my experience all Jews (from Israel and elsewhere and myself included) have love hate relationship with the persecution that they have and still face. We have a joke in my family that theme of most Jewish holidays is “they tried to kill us, they didn’t, so we eat.”
Whether its Haman, Antiochus, Ramses, Nebuchadnezzar, the Roman Empire, the Cossaks, Hitler, or the Arab nations the Jews have had a lot of people try to take them out, and I’ve always felt that Jews feel both a sense of pride for having survived the attempts and, whether they admit it or not, get some satisfactions out of lamenting their lot in life.
Fiddler, along with depicting the strong familial, cultural, and religious ties of the Jewish people, also reminds them of yet another struggle they have overcome and gives them license to kvetch about it every once in a while…
“You mother won’t buy you the Jordan Michael tennis shoes? When I was a little girl in Russia the Cossaks stole our grain and I had to eat my shoes!”
what an appropriate thread!!
The main Israeli theater in Tel Aviv is performing Fiddler right now
Enjoy this video clip of the stage performance.
(yeah, do it–it’s fun…Even if you don’t speak the language, you can hear that the Hebrew translation rhymes, and fits the melodies as well as the English.
That was hilariously funny, seeing all these ‘shtetl Jews’ speaking Hebrew with super-Israeli accents. (An Israeli accent is very different from that used in Eastern Europe back in the day, with different stresses on the syllables, different pronunciation of vowels, and some different consonants.)
ETA: I’m not sure why that strikes me as so much funnier than shtetl Jews singing in English, but it does. Perhaps because I’ve known so many formerly Eastern European Jews (including one grandmother, although she was from the big city rather than a village) who spoke English, but not too many who spoke Hebrew outside of a religious context.
Well, I spoke to an Israeli friend of mine who said that Fiddler is not especially popular in Israel because its too ashkenaz, confirming Malthus’ posts. However, she didn’t seem to think it was a conscious rejection of a bad history, but rather just a wholesale adoption of a new one by the people born and raised in Israel. For many of them all they know is Middle Eastern lifestyle so that is their preferred source of art, food, dress, language, etc.
Similarly, outside of ultra-Orthodox circles, people don’t eat much of what Americans would think of as ‘Jewish’ (really Ashkenazi) food, like gefilte fish, kugel, tzimmes, etc. The national comfort foods are much more Middle Eastern, like humus and falafel.
I think that is probably true of the younger generations of Israelis. They have grown up in Israel, maybe even their parents have grown up in Israel, and that Ashkenazic stuff is all ancient history to them; they no longer care about the “bad history” because it is now truly of the past.
It is different to Israelis of my generation (and particularly of my parent’s generation, who lived through WW2). The sense of rejection of a poisionous European history of degredation and extermination was much more immediate.
In effect, the question is this: why did Ashkenazic Jews migrating from Europe not simply take their Yiddish/Ashkenazic culture with them, like most immigrants? Why learn an entirely new national language (spoken Hebrew), new cuisine, new customs of all sorts? Some can be explained by adaptation to new climates and the like, but in large part it was a concious decision - represented by many Israelis taking new Hebrew names for themselves (“David Grün” became “David Ben-Gurion”; “Levi Školnik” became “Levi Eshkol”). Today’s Israeli culture is in large part formed by that decision, but the emotional reasons for it have somewhat dissipated into the past.
What about Topol’s earlier movie, Sallah Shabati?
Wiki
YouTube clip (which even without speaking Hebrew [or whatever the song is in] is an extremely catchy song; I really wish I was Jewish sometimes- it’s not the religion or the faith or the homeland as much as I love the sound of Hebrew and love Jewish folksongs, klezmer and being able to say oy without sounding like an idiot 
[where’s that Hasidic emoticon when you need it?] )
Is Sallah Shabati still well known among Israelis who came of age post Golde Meir?
It’s the role that really put him on the map and got him the role of Tevye, and it’s filmed/set in Israel. My understanding is it’s a comedy-drama about a Moroccan Sephardic Jew who emigrates with his family and experiences prejudice from teh mostly Ashkenazi mainstream Jews, but I’ve only seen bits and pieces on TV. The Youtube comments mention the same thing I’ve noticed, which is that even though I can’t compose a single sentence in Hebrew I can tell the subtitles are flat out wrong in some scenes (i.e. they just don’t make sense, and it’s not a language barrier). My understanding is there’s a musical version of this as well (for stage, not screen) but apparently it’s never been performed in the U.S. (at least not in a major venue).
Is there a national epic of Israel (something akin to Gone With the Wind or The Godfather in America)? Or an iconic TV show such as All in the Family or I Love Lucy? (I’ve read there was an Israeli version of Barney Miller in which the Vigoda/Fish character was almost 90 [instead of 65 like Fish] and a Yemenite].)