I can NEVER hear "Far From The Home I Love" from Fiddler on the Roof without choking back sobs. Hodel is leaving to go join her fiance in Siberia. She and her father are waiting at the train station, knowing they'll probably never see each other again (I started crying just writing that sentence). She's trying to make him understand why she's going. In the movie, as she's singing, her life starts flashing before Tevye's eyes.
I have a Pavlovian response.
"Helpless now I stand with him, watching older dreams grow dim..."
By the end of the song, when she says, "Papa, God alone knows when we shall see each other again", and he replies "Then we shall leave it in his hands......", I'm a complete mess.
This song is on my iPod in the car, and if I've got mascara on, I always skip over it. I've tried to listen to it without crying. I can't do it. I've cried three times writing this post.
I've always been so attracted to movies/books about Jews or Russians. The melancholy that is inherent in those cultures hits a spot for me. And Fiddler on the Roof, which is about Russian Jews, was always an obvious home run for me.
Although, I will say, it's not just the lyrics that speak to me. I accidentally downloaded another version of this song, a newer version. And I almost threw up listening to it. The singers had no Jew in their voice.
You cannot sing Fiddler on the Roof songs with no Jew in your voice.
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