Farshtayst du Yiddish? Do you understand Yiddish? As the ads all say, you don’t have to understand Yiddish to farshtay and enjoy, really enjoy, “Fiddler on the Roof” in Yiddish, as there are super titles in English and Russian. Truly, Yiddish is special and so many of the descriptive terms have no English equivalent and lose much in translation.

On Wednesday, November 5, the Naftali Aron Torah Enrichment Program of Congregation

Shomrei Torah in Fair Lawn led a group of more than 40 excited mentschen into Manhattan to the Stage 42 Theater.

Fiddler has been translated into many languages and performed all over the globe. The original show, which opened in New York on September 22, 1964, with Zero Mostel as Tevye, has nothing, gornisht, on this production. This show is performed by a talented, spirited group of mostly young people, Jews and Gentiles, boychiks und meidlach all of whom studied and mastered their Yiddish roles. The performers are magnificent; you would think they stepped right out of our glorious but difficult past. For most of us, this was us, before our people left the shtetls and came to the Goldina Medina.

At the end of the performance we were treated to a surprise visit by Teaneck’s Zalmen Mlotek, the musical director of the production. He is also the artistic director of the National Yiddish Theater Folksbiene. We had a marvelous experience and we recommend that you, too, take advantage of this unique opportunity to experience mamaloshen on Broadway while the play is still running. lt is scheduled to farschlas its tirs, close its doors, in early January of 2020. For more information, contact Mendv Aron at [email protected].

By Irving Gerber