Sheldon Harnick offers insight into the process of writing lyrics for FIDDLER ON THE ROOF, from the original to his thoughts on how his own life mirror his creation.

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6 Responses to “Sheldon Harnick, lyricist for FIDDLER ON THE ROOF”

1. Dr. Amy Eisenberg says:

   March 1, 2008 at 2:56 am

   Wonderful
   Shabbat Shalom
   Chazak chazak v’tit chazek
   may you go from strength to strength
2. Terry Greenberg says:

   March 24, 2008 at 2:22 pm

   Is there a transcript available for someone who does not hear well?
3. jan descoteaux says:

   March 25, 2008 at 9:49 pm

   my maiden name is harnick – my grandfather was makar and grandmother was eurine – just wondering if we are related as the harnick name is not exactly a common name – don’t exactly know what he means by mirroring his own life as a jew – i was lead to believe that my heritage was russian – don’t really expect you to answer but i had to ask…..
4. Michael Greengard says:

   March 26, 2009 at 4:46 am

   The Merry Middle Eastern Minuet (with apologies to Sheldon)

   They’re rioting in Syria
   There’s strife in Bahrain
   There’s fighting in the Lebanon
   Qadafi’s insane.

   The Middle East is festering with unbalanced jerks.
   The Arabs hate the Persians, the Greeks hate the Turks.
   Egyptians hate Libyans, the Maronites hate the Druze.
   On one thing they all agree – to hate the Jews.

   But we can be thankful, and need have no fear.
   Our leaders waste billions of dollars each year.
   And thus, it may happen that some lovely day
   Israel may be foreclosed, and we will have to move away.

   They’re striking in the hospitals.
   And I’ve got the blues.
   What our enemies don’t do to us
   Will be done by our fellow Jews.
5. sheldon s. cohen says:

   April 27, 2011 at 6:13 pm

   This poem hits the mark!!The real danger to Israel comes from self-hating Jews, and the folks
   at Tikkum, New Israel Fund, and J Street. Despite their claims of good intentions, I regard them, in
   religious terms, as, “saint seeming deceivers”. Their unspoken objective is to put Israel “on the course of ultimate extinction”. I regard such people as “Uncle Isaacs and “Aunt Sadies.” They also remind me of the folks in the late 1940s who long and loud hailed the
   Soviet Union as really, “peace-loving” under the” benign” leadership of Joe Stalin whom they declared, really “loved” the Jews . We learned later that Uncle Joe was not so nice.
   Sheldon S. Cohen
6. joe dorinson says:

   April 30, 2011 at 4:53 pm

   With great humility and no sense of hubris, I blieieved for many years that I was a product of immaculate conception because I only saw my mother and father kissing each other once–: when they were drinking at some affair. So, Shelden Harnick’s insight struck a deep resonant chord. Their typical response to Tevye’s question in my parents generation–steeped in the Great Depression and European exile– was: “Love, shmove. Out of necessity, we got used to each other .” How sad; how true! Laughter and tears: azoi is gegagn dos leybn. Joe aka Yusl Dorinson