Join the United Jewish Federation of Tidewater and Virginia Stage Company as for a special two-part lecture series: The History Behind Fiddler on the Roof with Rabbi Michael Panitz.

The History Behind Fiddler on the Roof with Rabbi Michael Panitz

Tuesday, September 5: The Iron Cauldron
Thursday, September 7: Leaving Mother Russia
11:00 AM - 12:30 PM
Simon Family JCC
Free & Open to the Community, RSVP Required

One of the largest waves in our long Jewish history of dispersal and migration was the flight of three million Jews from Tsarist and Revolutionary-Era Russia.  As the Safam song lyric phrases it, we came to this land "fleeing persecution and the army of the Tsar."  Why did the Jewish people, so inured to discrimination, collectively decide to leave the Pale of Settlement?

In this two-session course, instructed by Rabbi Michael Panitz, attendees will examine, first, the difficult history of the Jews of Russia and the newly-created Soviet Union, 1881-1924, and second, the history of Jewish emigration from that land to far-flung destinations in North America, South America, Western Europe, South Africa and even the Land of Israel. 

These programs are supported by the Helen G. Gifford Foundation, S.L. Nusbaum Realty Co., and The Making Music Happen Community Grant Initiative, which is made possible by a generous grant from the Pertzik Fund for Arts and Culture at JCC Association of North America.