Jewish Culture Representation in the Fiddler on The Roof and The Journey Back Again

When creating this proposal of The Journey Back Again, I grasped ideas from the heavy Jewish tradition based musical Fiddler on the Roof, musician Amy Winehouse who was raised Jewish, and lastly, I followed the timeline and setting of the Holocaust. This musical theater format will effectively bring this narrative to life because it shows a personal view on the life of a girl who comes from a traditional Jewish family but rebels against it, showcasing that not everyone in a Jewish family lives the stereotypical lifestyle. The Holocaust targeted the Jewish culture and although Amy was not present during the genocide, she brought a Jewish outsider point of view when seeing the historical landmarks. Thus, broadening the knowledge and appreciation of her culture bring this narrative to life.

When discussing musicals representing African American and Jewish stories, we have often seen a bit of reoccurring themes such as cultural appropriation, stereotypes, and prejudice remarks. Both blackface and Jew face were major caricatures in musical theater around the nineteenth and early twenty century, creating images that were offensive and stereotypical of Jews and African Americans. Shuffle Along is an example of how the musical theater industry broke its color barriers on the representation of African Americans. This musical had its black performers, performing in blackface, to be accepted on the stage and hiding their true identity. A simple thing like two people in love was not allowed in the musical theater if it involved two African Americans. Shuffle Along broke boundaries when creating scenes like “Love Will Find a Way” or showing the hardships of what their daily lives entailed but had the predominately white audience glued.

Another struggle this production had to face was risking if they would profit from this musical being an only African American cast yet performed over 504 times just in New York alone. This musical had a shoestring budget and turned into a revolutionary success breaking racial barriers (to an extent) and respectively bringing African Americans into the mainstream musical theatre scene. When discussing Jews in musical theater, The Eternal Road shares a Jewish story as a universal tale to understand what it meant to give a serious representation of Judaism. This took place during a time of ignorance following the persecution of Jews. One way the musical showcases pre-World War II and Jewish biblical history through its tone of the music. The music indicates shifts to biblical mode, playing authentic synagogue songs and prayer themes sung by the Rabbi’s which gave the audience an overwhelming sense of feeling during the performance. Throughout the four acts you see a glimpse of what Jews went through; hiding in a synagogue, rabbi’s leading through biblical stories, to the “banishment” of the Jewish existence to accurately represent their historical and ideological message to America. These messages needed to be spread to break the offensive stereotypes and compass what was happening in society that were tied to the Jewish culture. From being perceived as evil, being a cursed race, mocking the accents and physical traits all played a roll in the perception of Jewish musical theater.

Drawing on this background of the mistreatment and harsh stereotypes of African American and Jewish culture, I propose an adaptation of “The Journey Back Again” into a musical. I created this proposal from different areas of interest including Fiddler on the Roof, musician Amy Winehouse, and lastly, the setting of Germany during the Holocaust. This story takes place during the Holocaust between the years of (1938-1945) and is based on a religious traditional Jewish family who lives in a small town in Germany. The main characters in this story are the mother Janis, the father Mitch, and the daughter Amy. The mother Janis is very overprotective of Amy and her husband Mitch, who is heavily involved in both of their lives providing them with cooked meals, and a clean home. The father Mitch is the breadwinner of the family since he is the only one that works, he keeps very traditional cultural and religious values near to his heart. He wants to find his daughter's future husband for her so that she will be taken care of properly. Lastly, the daughter Amy is a rebel when it comes to her faith, but it didn’t start like that until after the family flees. Before, Amy went to Hebrew school, and regularly practiced Jewish holidays with her family. After the flee to a new location she then doesn’t want to practice Judaism as her family has pushed.

The story starts with the urgency and panic to flee the town to escape Nazi Germany. Not many families were fortunate enough to stay together as a whole, or even escape their towns in time before they were executed. Luckily the family knew of this genocide before it came to their part of town by their fellow friend who happened to be a now German Nazi. The family was safely yet secretly exported out of town and relocated as refugees in London. During this time of horror, the family still tries to keep their traditional Jewish culture, while also hiding it to avoid being caught. Throughout this traumatizing experience is when Amy starts rebelling and refuses to practice Judaism. She is questioning why this is happening to her culture and feels as though if she wasn’t Jewish, she would be normal. This is when her religious beliefs change and she doesn’t identify as Jewish, or with the religion, but solely on the belief of karma and fate. Amy discovers her passion for music and art through this time of a lost identity. Both parents urge her to keep their core values, but Amy only agrees to be present during the religious holidays but refuses to believe in a higher power. Around this time Amy is 18 and starts rebelling even more because she’s an adult. She meets this boy Blake who is not Jewish, religious of any kind, and years older. Keeping his traditional values, Mitch does not approve of Amy’s boyfriend, especially since he isn’t Jewish. Years later, after many battles with Amy’s family, the father Mitch decides to forbid her from them. He did not approve of who she was becoming and didn’t agree with her values or boyfriend. The young couple decides to run off and move countries back to Germany to start their new lives post-Holocaust and World War II. Amy and her boyfriend Blake do not identify as Jewish and continue to pursue her new life and passion for music and art.

One day in Munich, Amy was needing some inspiration and decided to check out some of the Holocaust landmarks such as Dachau Concentration Camp and the Nazi rallying grounds in downtown. These landmarks share such a deep almost numb feeling when being there in person that it sparked something in Amy. All these years she has been oppressing her family's culture thinking that it was their fault the Holocaust happened. Ripping away her Jewish roots because she felt lost with her identity, to then come to a deep appreciation and solidarity towards her family and culture. Now understanding why her parents pushed their values they did on her as a kid, and that it wasn’t an evil religion like she felt forced to think. Seeing the concentration camp and rally grounds in front her makes her feel extremely lucky that her family wasn’t taken yet so selfish that her people had to experience this with no reasoning or explanation.

This story has educational components because it is showcasing a different point of view of the Holocaust yet still points out the horror and reality the Jewish community had to face. The family was lucky enough to escape before the genocide, but that doesn’t mean they can’t feel the impact it had on their community. We often are taught what went on to the Jews, but not what went on with their identities and how it affects them throughout their lives.

The intended audience for this storyline is anyone who either isn’t Jewish and wants a perspective of the religion, culture, and struggles. Yet also for people who are Jewish who could potentially relate or grasp the appreciation of their culture. The Journey Back again is intended to reach viewers mainly in today’s America, but also in Europe to inform the viewer of a different perspective of the Holocaust. Children would benefit from seeing this storyline because they can learn at a young age the depth and importance of family/cultural values, as well as understand that it’s okay to feel lost with who you are, or how you were raised. Amy was lost with her identity but later on found her sense of appreciation and understanding of her culture when she has been made to feel that it was evil.

This source material is relevant for musical adaptation today because we still face cultural stereotypes and ignorance of historical pieces that shaped our society today. Musical theater brings out such a compelling way to tell a story through the instruments, songs, setting, and lighting. Having people feel the experience in their seats about important historical contexts such as the genocide of Jews, gives a deeper understanding and hopefully breaks the stereotypes and ignorance to what has happened to a whole group of people.

All in all, throughout centuries the musical theater productions have gone through phases of portraying offensive deep-rooted issues as well as neglection to ethnic groups like African Americans and Jews. It wasn’t until musicals like Shuffle Along, and The Eternal Road that broke the racial and cultural barriers of success in the theater and gained respect to be taken seriously. Even if the stereotypes of these cultures are used, they are used in a way to broaden the viewers perspective and reclaim their identity and culture from the people who chose to use it against them. Even when creating my musical proposal, The Journey Back Again the interpretation of reclaiming identity and appreciation is the main take away of the story.