“Rothschild & Sons”: A Musical about the Great Jewish Banking Family

In 1970, Sheldon Harnick and Jerry Bock, who had written the songs to Fiddler on the Roof, created another musical about a Jewish family—but this time about the Rothschilds, who became one of Europe’s wealthiest families in the early 19th century. Harnick collaborated in producing an updated version of the play, entitled Rothschild & Sons, now being performed in New York. Gabriela Geselowitz writes in her review:

Rothschild & Sons focuses on the family patriarch, Mayer Rothschild, and his origins as an ambitious young merchant living in the 18th-century Frankfurt ghetto. Anxious to make something of himself in a world that openly despises Jews, he marries, has five sons, and ultimately, by use of his quick wit and perseverance, transforms his family into an international banking empire—all while still looking for a way to tear down the ghetto walls.

This new production is surprisingly endearing, and . . . is leaner [than the original] in almost every way with a modest set, shrunken cast, and shortened running time. . . . Comparisons between Rothschild & Sons and Fiddler are inevitable, and these come to a head in the respective patriarchs. After all, both musicals use the lead’s familial relationships as an exploration of Jewishness. But while Tevye sees [traditional Jewish life as a source of] stability, Mayer Rothschild champs at the bit to leave the ghetto and join the larger world.

Read more at Tablet

More about: Arts & Culture, Fiddler on the Roof, Musical theater, Rothschilds, Theater

 

What a Strategic Victory in Gaza Can and Can’t Achieve

On Tuesday, the Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant met in Washington with Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin. Gallant says that he told the former that only “a decisive victory will bring this war to an end.” Shay Shabtai tries to outline what exactly this would entail, arguing that the IDF can and must attain a “strategic” victory, as opposed to merely a tactical or operational one. Yet even after a such a victory Israelis can’t expect to start beating their rifles into plowshares:

Strategic victory is the removal of the enemy’s ability to pose a military threat in the operational arena for many years to come. . . . This means the Israeli military will continue to fight guerrilla and terrorist operatives in the Strip alongside extensive activity by a local civilian government with an effective police force and international and regional economic and civil backing. This should lead in the coming years to the stabilization of the Gaza Strip without Hamas control over it.

In such a scenario, it will be possible to ensure relative quiet for a decade or more. However, it will not be possible to ensure quiet beyond that, since the absence of a fundamental change in the situation on the ground is likely to lead to a long-term erosion of security quiet and the re-creation of challenges to Israel. This is what happened in the West Bank after a decade of relative quiet, and in relatively stable Iraq after the withdrawal of the United States at the end of 2011.

Read more at BESA Center

More about: Gaza War 2023, Hamas, IDF