AMERICANIZING TEVYA.

AMERICANIZING TEVYA. Although Deresiewicz argues that Fiddler’s “Jewishness…turned out to be the key to its success”, he acknowledges that: “Some potential backers worried that the show would prove to be ‘too Jewish.’” This review by Frederic Raphael of THE WORLDS OF SHOLEM ALEICHEM by Jerome Dauber describes the efforts in rehearsal to make Fiddler less “Jewish”. Raphael says that: “[Tevya] was edifyingly Americanized. It’s said that, while the show was in rehearsal, its director, Jerome Robbins, even tried to stop Zero Mostel from kissing the mezuza on the doorpost when he went in and out of his house. The next time he reached the threshold, Mostel crossed himself instead.”