Chaim Topol, Tevye the Milkman in ‘Fiddler on the Roof,’ Dies at 87

Chaim Topol, the spirited Israeli actor and singer who, one season following another, portrayed Tevye the milkman in Fiddler on the Roof on stages all around the world and in an Oscar-nominated turn in Norman Jewison’s 1971 film adaptation, has died in Tel Aviv, the Associated Press reported. He was 87.

Israel’s first international movie star, Topol also played famed Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei in Galileo (1975); an American scientist, Dr. Hans Zarkov, in the cult sci-fi classic Flash Gordon (1980); and Milos Columbo, a Greek smuggler and ally of Roger Moore’s James Bond, in For Your Eyes Only (1981).

As Polish family man Berel Jastrow, he was central to the plot of two acclaimed 1980s ABC miniseries, The Winds of War and War and Remembrance, both based on Herman Wouk novels.

In a pairing that a matchmaker would surely appreciate, Topol by his own estimation connected with Tevye more than 3,500 times over more than four decades, starting with a Hebrew-language production in his home country when he was 30.

He also starred as the Jewish dairyman and father of five daughters — and performed such signature songs as “Sunrise, Sunset,” “Tradition” and “If I Were a Rich Man” — on the West End in the mid-1960s and on Broadway in 1990-91, receiving a Tony nomination in the process.

“How many people are known for one part? How many people in my profession are known worldwide? So, I am not complaining,” he said in a 2015 interview. “Sometimes I am surprised when I come to China or when I come to Tokyo or when I come to France or when I come wherever and the clerk at the immigration says, ‘Topol, Topol, are you Topol?’ So yes, many people saw it [Fiddler], and it is not a bad thing.”

The oldest of three kids, Chaim Topol was born in Tel Aviv on Sept. 9, 1935. His father, Jacob, was a plasterer, and his mother, Imrela, a seamstress. He worked as a printer for a newspaper while taking high school classes at night, then lived on a kibbutz for a year.

He gained experience as an entertainer in the Israeli army, where he acted and sang in a traveling theatrical troupe. After the service, he honed his skills performing around the country for three years in a kibbutz theater group that he and his friends had founded in 1957.

Topol had a major breakthrough when he was cast as a Middle Eastern immigrant struggling to fend for his family in Israel in Sallah Shabati (1964). A huge hit at home, the social satire was nominated for the Oscar for best foreign-language film, and Topol, then 29, received a Golden Globe for most promising male newcomer for playing a character in his 50s. (Topol had performed the title role in a play while in the army.)

Two years later, he made his English-language film debut alongside Kirk Douglas in Cast a Giant Shadow (1966), playing a Bedouin leader in the drama set amid the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.

At the urging of friends, Topol came to New York to see Zero Mostel star as Sholem Aleichem’s Tevye in the original 1964-72 Broadway production of Hal Prince’s Fiddler on the Roof, featuring music by Jerry Bock, lyrics by Sheldon Harnick and direction and choreography by Jerome Robbins. He then played the milkman for 10 weeks in Israel, stepping in for Shmuel Rodensky, who had taken ill.

Prince had seen Topol in Sallah Shabati and invited him to test for the lead in the London production of Fiddler as it moved from Broadway in 1966.

“They could not believe it was me when I went to the audition because I was too young! They expected Sallah, who was old. Not me!” he said. “I knew no English. I studied the songs. I sang ‘If I Were a Rich Man’ and then another song from Fiddler. It was the first audition in my life.

“They asked how many times I had seen the show. I said maybe four times. They couldn’t understand how I knew all the movements, all the songs from the show. I said, ‘No, you don’t understand … I’m currently performing in Fiddler, in Tel Aviv!”

After he was hired, he began to go by Topol after the British producers had trouble pronouncing his first name.

He landed the lead in Jewison’s film version at United Artists despite lobbying by Mostel, Rod Steiger, Danny Kaye and Frank Sinatra to play the part. He was hired “probably because I was cheaper,” he told The Jerusalem Post in 2013.

In its review, THR noted that Topol imbued his performance “with all the compassion, intensity and rough humor it requires. His speaking voice is magnificent, and if his singing voice is imperfect, this only seems appropriate to the characterization.”

Fiddler on the Roof was nominated for best picture and Topol for best actor, but The French Connection and its star Gene Hackman prevailed on Oscar night. Topol, however, did receive a Golden Globe for best actor in a comedy or musical.

His big-screen résumé also included Before Winter Comes (1968) and a turn opposite Mia Farrow in The Public Eye (1972), directed by Carol Reed.

Topol last portrayed Tevye on a Boston stage in 2009 but was forced to exit the musical after suffering a shoulder injury.

A year later, he founded the Jordan River Village, where children with serious illnesses come to have fun. (His inspiration was Paul Newman’s Hole in the Wall camps.) He was also a member of the board of directors of Variety Israel, a nonprofit organization that assists kids with special needs, regardless of religion, race and gender.

He received the prestigious Israel Prize for lifetime achievement from his government in 2015.

Survivors include his wife, Galia, whom he married in October 1956. They had three children, Omer, Adi and Anat.

I have seen the movie Fiddler On the Roof now about 22 times. I still am trying to figure out what WAS the Fiddler on the Roof.

He's a grand metaphor and most excellent word play for the ages (play well and build, and rearrange to Goel). Fair warning -- what's a freedom trail without the freedom to wander off the beaten path? The Freedom Trail IS the one without a trail.

Looks like this is my little project for the morning ("Never Boring. Always Surprising"). I tend to irritate folks with my never-ending material and attitude, but it's truly the story of my life. 😂

A few things gathered from my collection:

Purim time and themes, because

If you've watched a 179-minute movie (venahafoch hu, וְנַהֲפוֹךְ הוּא = 179) 22 times, perhaps this post will hold interest. "23" only requires a fraction of that time.

The pair of words taken from Megillat Esther -- "venahafoch hu," meaning "the opposite happened" -- symbolizes the change in the Jews' status from a group whose murder was permissible, to a nation with the right to protect and avenge itself.
https://www.jpost.com/opinion/op-ed-contributors/not-a-coincidence

Fiddling. It's not just that David knew how to play with his hand...

1 Samuel 16
16 Let our lord now command thy servants, which are before thee, to seek out a man, who is a cunning player on an harp (kinnor*): and it shall come to pass, when the evil spirit from God is upon thee, that he shall play with his hand, and thou shalt be well.
17 And Saul said unto his servants, Provide me now a man that can play well, and bring him to me.
18 Then answered one of the servants, and said, Behold, I have seen a son of Jesse the Bethlehemite, that is cunning in playing, and a mighty valiant man, and a man of war, and prudent in matters, and a comely person, and the LORD is with him.

Chaim Topol
Died March 8, 2023 Tel Aviv, Israel

15 Adar, 5783,

Shushan Purim
In cities that are surrounded by a wall dating from the days of Joshua (13th century BCE) -- a prominent example is the city of Jerusalem -- the festival of Purim is observed on the 15th of Adar (instead of the 14th), in commemoration of the fact that in the ancient walled city of Shushan, the first Purim was celebrated on this day.

You know how the dialog goes:

"Rabbi, we've been waiting for the Messiah all our lives.
Wouldn't this be a good time for him to come?"

Fiddler [כַּנָּר, kanar] on the Roof [על הגג]

*kinnor [כִּנּוֹר]: violin, fiddle

Kinnor (Hebrew: כִּנּוֹר‎ kīnnōr) is an ancient Israelite musical instrument in the yoke lutes family, the first one to be mentioned in the Hebrew Bible.
Its exact identification is unclear, but in the modern day it is generally translated as "harp" or "lyre",[1] 440 and associated with a type of lyre depicted in Israelite imagery, particularly the Bar Kokhba coins.[1] 440 It has been referred to as the "national instrument" of the Jewish people,[2] and modern luthiers have created reproduction lyres of the kinnor based on this imagery.
The word has subsequently come to mean violin in Modern Hebrew.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinnor

Here is the Kinnor HaMashiach -- the Messiah kinnor -- a Stradivarius meaning the best of the best:

The Messiah - Salabue Stradivarius of 1716 is a violin made by the Italian luthier Antonio Stradivari of Cremona. It is considered to be the only Stradivarius in existence in as new state.[1] It is in the collection of the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, England.
The violin, known as the Messiah (Messie in French), remained in Stradivari's workshop until his death in 1737. It was then sold by his son Paolo to Count Cozio di Salabue in 1775, and for a time, the violin bore the name Salabue. The instrument was then purchased by Luigi Tarisio in 1827.
Upon Tarisio's death, in 1854, the French luthier Jean Baptiste Vuillaume of Paris purchased The Messiah along with Tarisio's entire collection. "One day Tarisio was discoursing with Vuillaume on the merits of this unknown and marvelous instrument, when the violinist Jean-Delphin Alard, Vuillaume's son-in-law, exclaimed: 'Really, Mister Tarisio, your violin is like the Messiah of the Jews: one always expects him but he never appears' ('Vraiment, Monsieur Tarisio, votre violon est comme le Messie des Juifs: on l'attend toujours, mais il ne paraît jamais' [2]). Thus the violin was titled with the name by which it is still known."[3]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messiah_Stradivarius

The Messiah is located at the museum that was built to house Elias' cabinet of curiosities. The same Elias who is on record concerning the Philosopher's Stone [109. THE TZOHAR].

The earliest known written mention of the philosopher's stone is in the Cheirokmeta by Zosimos of Panopolis (c. 300 AD).[3] 66 Alchemical writers assign a longer history. Elias Ashmole and the anonymous author of Gloria Mundi (1620) claim that its history goes back to Adam, who acquired the knowledge of the stone directly from God. This knowledge was said to have been passed down through biblical patriarchs, giving them their longevity. The legend of the stone was also compared to the biblical history of the Temple of Solomon and the rejected cornerstone described in Psalm 118.[4] 19

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosopher's_stone

Born to wander:

"The violin, known as the Messiah (Messie in French), remained in Stradivari's workshop until his death in 1737. It was then sold by his son Paolo to Count Cozio di Salabue in 1775..."

At the head of the corner, the Hub of the Revolution,

The Boston Stone is a stone in Boston, Massachusetts. Near --but not on-- the Freedom Trail, it is a minor tourist attraction:

Of course, philosopher comes from the Greek meaning a lover of wisdom.

Philosopher's Stone
Φιλοσοφική λίθος

= 1737

Elias Ashmole and the anonymous author of Gloria Mundi (1620) claim that its history goes back to Adam, who acquired the knowledge of the stone directly from God.

Up on the roof of that very building with the odd 1737 cornerstone twinset:

https://blackstoneblock.com/project/120-blackstone-street/,

The project added back the top floors 4 and 5 that had been lopped off along the way (Client: Adam Travel) --

Earning Your Higher Souls

Adam [אדם = 45] is Strong's 120:

Gen 6:3 And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man [120], for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.

Adam Travel (address 7) and Adam Convenience -- along with Bella Vista Tours and Room Escapers -- are located in the same building where the rejected stone became the head of the corner.

And also on the opposite corner, the place named "Kalā" (coconut klipah, coconut shell in Thai -- the imagery is on the sign); which is to say, the place of the skull.

The Scroll of Esther is commonly referred to as "The Megillah", [המגילה] in Hebrew, which adds up to 93. It's the book famous for all of its hidden mysteries and revelations. The word for a scroll is based on rolling, the revolution of the thing so to speak.

Rolling along underground is the place where the central artery (I-93) had been concealed by way of the Big Dig. It's a, paradox fit for a queen.

It's a short walk from Penuel er Faneuil Hall (whose origin goes back to the famous Market Riot of March 24, 1737, when about 500 men in disguises and painted faces pulled down the public Middle Market House...). The Holocaust Memorial is along the way:

The New England Holocaust Memorial is located a few steps off the Freedom Trail, making it a popular tourist attraction.[7]

The greeting for the 7th day:

Lekha dodi liqrat kallah
p'ne Shabbat neqabelah...

(Alchemical writers.)

I have seen the movie Fiddler On the Roof now about 22 times. I still am trying to figure out what WAS the Fiddler on the Roof.

Funny thing... Pharaoh had all of this supposed power, but built into his own scepter was its and his demise, because *WAS*. It's the simple meaning. You'd think someone would have noticed by now.

It not only first shows up in the Bible here:

And the earth was without form, and void...

"WAS" is located on a standard keyboard right below "23."

It's as if the whole world and everything going on in it is Hebrew school. Might as well watch from the roof and provide the background music.

🍿🤔

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.