Yiddish-Language Fiddler Will Hold Special World Refugee Day Performance; Luis A. Miranda Jr. to Lead Talkback

The award-winning National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene production of Fiddler on the Roof will fill its theater with refugees in celebration and in honor of World Refugee Day on June 20 for a special 6:00pm performance. Every seat in the theater will be donated to allow refugees from all parts of the globe to see the show. The performance will be complemented by an afternoon and evening full of events, concluding with a talkback moderated by activist, educator and businessman Luis A. Miranda Jr.

The production is partnering with the nonprofit Reboot, a Jewish arts and culture organization, to further enhance its World Refugee Day celebration by involving some of the artists they work with to help commemorate the event.

Photographer Gillian Laub and illustrator/journalist Christopher Noxon will photograph and live-sketch a select group of refugee attendees to document an extraordinary array of stories, journeys and experiences. Many refugees attending the performance will have answered a series of questions written by Nicola Behrman about their experiences of having left their homelands. Fiddler will actively be curating these interviews for a larger initiative around this conversation.

The theater will open to its guests at 5:00pm, where refreshments and concessions will be made available. There, attendees will be free to explore an installation in the theater's lobby of After Anatevka: Jewish Immigration and American Reaction, an exhibition curated by author and Yiddish scholar Eddy Portnoy for the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research that reveals the Yiddish response to 1920s-era restrictions placed on Jewish immigrants.

Miranda's talkback will allow the diverse community of refugees in attendance (and the leaders of the organizations that work to protect their rights) the opportunity to connect with one another in a safe and celebratory space in the form of a town hall event.

The current list of organizations helping coordinate the group of refugees includes:

• American Friends Service Committee—Immigrant Rights Program
• Catholic Charities
• Catholic Charities—Brooklyn & Queens
• HIAS
• Immigration Equality
• International Rescue Committee (IRC)
• Multifaith Alliance for Syrian Refugees
• Museum of Jewish Heritage
• New Sanctuary Coalition
• New York Immigration Coalition
• Tenement Museum

Oscar- and Tony-winning legend Joel Grey directs the production, which features Yiddish with English Supertitles; performances at Stage 42 began on February 11 on the heels of an acclaimed downtown premiere run at the Museum of Jewish Heritage. The cast is led by Steven Skybell as Tevye, Jennifer Babiak as Golde and Jackie Hoffman as Yente.

The Yiddish-language Fiddler is the winner of the 2019 Drama Desk Award for Best Musical Revival, Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Musical Revival and a New York Drama Critics' Circle Award Special Citation. Skybell earned the 2019 Lucille Lortel Award for Best Lead Actor.