How to pronounce “yid” in English

In Yiddish, they called it Ludmir.

This Yiddish production, a translation of the musical, originally performed in Israel in 1965, was artfully crafted by Shraga Friedman,

And Yida is a refugee camps that's very close to the border of the Nuba Mountains and South Sudan.

They called it in Yiddish a a grabber.

And doing this in Yiddish or approaching it in a new way in such a simple way,

I don't speak Yiddish in this show, so that's my-- So she played this character in one of her silent films where she disguised herself as a man to play violin

They only spoke Yiddish.

And he speaks in Yiddish.

to in Yiddish as shpilkes, and shpilkes is kind of terminal ants in the pants. And for me to sort of sit, you know, day-to-day,

were the founders of Yiddish theater in the United States and the Yiddish theater was a theater of social activism which very much was concerned with the

"Fiddler on the Roof" in Yiddish initially began performances at the National Yiddish Theater Folksbiene, at the Museum of Jewish Heritage this past summer.

Did you have any experience with Yiddish before, or did you have any experience with the Fiddler before?

This is actually my third show in Yiddish, but the first show, I have a little bit of a knack for languages and accents,

Now let's do the scene in Yiddish.

I'm not singing the Yiddish that I've had memorized since two days ago.

I'm actually translating the Yiddish to the direct English translation on my feet.

I had a background in Yiddish growing up, but not speaking it, just hearing it, and then just peppering my life with little words

This show in another language in Yiddish-- it's really hitting everyone-- theater-lovers, non-theater-lovers , of the faith, not of the faith.

And in the direct translation of the Yiddish it's please don't send me like a sheep to the slaughterhouse to meet a terrible end.

I did not work with Yiddish at the UN.

I could speak German, Yiddish, Polish.

This is the first time a production of the Yiddish translation has been performed in the United States.

But it was my first time as well speaking Yiddish in a musical.

What have you learned in this production-- in this-- Yiddish.

With there being a different lyric-- well aside from being in Yiddish, the lyrics themselves are different.

And I thought it would be such a cool thing to do and the Yiddish, and you know, I'm still held on a very short psychological leash

For those of you who your families maybe don't have a background in Yiddish, and your friends, how do you reassure them that they're

So actually, when we were talking about learning Yiddish, they had posted on Actors Access that they were still looking for a Fiddler, and that it could be a male or female,

And I had to do all of the-- it felt like 15 minutes of Yiddish sides.

to this runway. And this runway is in Yida.

Eric Schmidt joke. It's a Yiddish joke.

time I tried to it sounds like my grandmother giving a brisket recipe in Yiddish. So Brisket's a Jewish food for some of you

Anyway, I said, "wasser," which is Yiddish and German.

On the boat, he came over, started speaking in Yiddish because I couldn't speak English.

Yeah. --who is also the artistic director of the National Yiddish Theater Folksbiene, and who brought this show to life

Clearly, this show has resonated with people beyond what anyone imagined and beyond other Yiddish productions.

loves her husband. And then it helped doing it in Yiddish.

Incredible. Daniel Kahn, he's the Yiddish rock star.

And thirdly, do you know if any of the translations that he did from Yiddish were actually influenced by the book rather than by the original Broadway show?

But on the shelves at my house was, the "Joy of Yiddish" cookbook--

term, mensch is originally a German word meaning "man." The Yiddish word is the same pronunciation, but it means a man, a

And he's not a magnetic speaker. He's a kind of, if you don't mind, a little Yiddish, a little kind of a schlumpy

a renowned Israeli actor and director, just one year after the Broadway debut of "Fiddler on the Roof." Friedman, a native Yiddish speaker,

was well-acquainted with works of Aleichem, and used his translation to infuse "Fiddler" with the rich literary references to the original Yiddish stories.

And to get you excited about meeting our amazing panel, we'd like to show you a little sizzle reel from "Fiddler" in Yiddish, followed by performances of two songs

Welcome, guys. So I think the first question everyone is probably dying to know is the Yiddish-- how did this happen?

And when you rehearsed, were you rehearsing in English first, or did you always rehearse in Yiddish?

Joel had us going back and forth in rehearsal, so it was pretty wild, because we were learning the Yiddish and trying to retain the Yiddish and memorize the Yiddish.

No, for sure. Jackie, did you have a background in Yiddish growing up or anything?