by Johanna Ginsberg
NJJN Staff Writer

June 4, 2009

Students from four Essex County schools were discussing Fiddler on the Roof — namely, the character of Chava, who breaks her traditional Jewish parents’ hearts by marrying a gentile Russian boy.

Krista, who identified herself as Italian, said she could identify with Chava’s bid for independence. Elana, from an Orthodox yeshiva, said she and many of her peers related to Tevye, Chava’s father, in his efforts to pass on his faith.

They were just two of 40 high school students — black and white, Jewish, Christian and Muslim — sitting together at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark on May 27. They looked like ordinary teenagers in jeans and T-shirts; others added religious garb — a hijab or a kipa to their otherwise unremarkable clothing.

All were encouraged to discuss performances they had seen at the theater and perhaps reach across some deep cultural, ethnic, and educational divides.

Students from four area high schools — Rae Kushner Yeshiva High School and Livingston High School, both in Livingston, and University High School and Team Academy in Newark — had been invited in previous weeks to view two selected performances: Fiddler on the Roof and the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater’s performance of “Revelations.”

In last week’s culminating event, they had the chance to meet each other and, through facilitators, share not only their thoughts and reactions, but dance moves that perhaps could express what words could not.

The $10,000 arts education program was the brainchild of NJPAC president and CEO Lawrence Goldman and was underwritten by Judy Weston of Montclair.

“Part of our mission is bringing diverse audiences together,” said Sandra Bowie, NJPAC’s vice president of arts education. “For two of our real highlights this year we would bring a group of students together to see the [performances] and then deepen the experience by talking about it.”

NJPAC provided resource guides for students to bring back with them to their classrooms for discussions on the historical, literary, and social perspective of the performances — one a classic musical about a Jewish shtetl, the other a dance piece set to Negro spirituals.

“In both of the pieces, ‘Revelations’ and Fiddler on the Roof, you have the triumph of the human spirit, and we wanted the kids to see the production from that standpoint,” said Bowie.

‘Where is the line?’

In the culminating event, students broke into two groups. Talk quickly focused on religion: what it offers, what it does not; and how students’ ideas about religion played out in the performances they saw and how they play out in students’ own lives.

When asked about the role of religion in their lives and in society, the students saw positives and negatives, offering everything from “It curbs independence” and “It leads to war” to “it provides fellowship and guidance” and “it offers moral and ethical grounding.”

Asked to relate their ideas about religion to the performances, all the students turned to Fiddler on the Roof.

Krista, whose dark brown hair was dyed pink in places, saw Chava as a symbol of independence.

“Even though most of my family is religious, I wouldn’t say I am. I don’t feel held back by rules,” she said. “I’m like the daughter who chooses the Russian husband. Everyone said to her, ‘You’re wrong,’ but she did what she thought was right and not what others thought was right.”

Michelle, an African-American girl in a Team Academy T-shirt, said Tevye’s character in Fiddler gave her hope for her own father. “My father wants us to be happy, but he has very strong beliefs,” she said. She liked the way Tevye “softened” to his daughters’ requests.

Asata, also in a Team Academy T-shirt, said she identified with the way Tevye spoke with God. “My mother talks to me when stuff is going on. But she also says, ‘Talk to God and He’ll help you.’”

Elana, a Kushner student, described a classroom conversation she had with peers who saw Fiddler as a defense of Jewish tradition.

“We saw how important keeping tradition alive was to Tevye,” she said. Her classmate Stephanie said, “I heard a sermon the other day that a true Jew is someone who has Jewish grandchildren. If what Chava did — running off with a Russian guy — what is the likelihood that she will have Jewish grandchildren? Where is the line?”

Other students reacted strongly to Stephanie’s statement. One, from Team Academy, said, “To me that’s weird, that’s crazy. Why can’t you just be Jewish?”

“I understand what she’s saying, but you can’t tell me I’m not a true Christian,” said Michelle, from Team Academy. “How could you judge me?”

Added Krista: “I understand where she’s coming from, but every once in a while there’s that one child who gives everyone gray hairs and wants to break away….”

Meanwhile, Elana said the play inspired her to have a conversation with her mother about Chava’s choice. Pressed to describe her mother’s response, Elana said, “She told me above all, family was most important to her. Even if I would decide to go against her faith…she would always accept me.”

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