ST. LOUIS – For the second year in a row, Missouri Baptist University (MBU) is melding their theatre program with Southern Baptist efforts to bring a positive gospel influence to a world broken by war.
Last spring, through its production of Neil Simon’s play, “Fools,” MBU’s theatre program raised more than $3,000 to support Southern Baptist SEND Relief efforts amid the war in Ukraine.
Now, as Israel faces war with Hamas terrorists, MBU’s theatre program will support SEND Relief efforts in the Bible Lands. Funds will be raised through their Nov. 9-12th stage production of the classic musical, “Fiddler on the Roof.”
“‘Fiddler on the Roof’ is a beloved musical for many, many people,” Kasey Cox, MBU director for theatre and dance, told The Pathway. The play depicts the joys and sorrows of a small community of Jews living around the year 1905 in the fictional Imperial Russian village of Anatevka. From sunrise to sunset, the main character Tevye lives, with his kith and kin, like a fiddler on the roof – in Tevye’s words, “trying to scratch out a pleasant simple tune without breaking his neck.”
When most people think about the show, Cox said, they remember “the big joyful moments.”
“But, really, at its core,” she added, “‘Fiddler on the Roof’ is a musical about a community of people who, through their traditions, stay connected, grounded and joyful in the face of antisemitism and persecution.” At the time, Imperial Russian society inflicted violent pogroms against Jewish communities, sometimes forcing them into exile.
“In the musical,” she said, “Tevye struggles to keep his traditions as the world changes around him and as the choices of his three oldest daughters and growing anti-Jewish sentiment threaten to throw him off-balance,” Cox said.
As such, when the MBU theatre group saw antisemitism show its face in the Hamas attacks on Israel and even in some people’s responses to the war, they were eager to support SEND Relief’s efforts to respond to the crisis.
As reported in Baptist Press on Oct. 12, “SEND Relief is working with Baptist Village, a non-profit organization near Tel Aviv, to provide urgently needed refuge and resources for vulnerable and displaced people during this war. The center has been a place of refreshment and reconciliation since the late 1940s.”
Gifts to support the crisis response in the Holy Land can be given through SendRelief.org. Gifts for crisis response in Israel can also be given through the Missouri Disaster Relief’s website, modr.org/give: Just click the dropdown menu on the website and choose “Israel Relief.”
Cox noted that Southwest Baptist University is also doing a production of “Fiddler on the Roof” next year, March 7-10. She encourages Missouri Baptists to support their universities by taking part in these theatre programs, and she also encourages them to find ways to support relief efforts in the Holy Lands.
“The best thing we can do right now,” she said, “is to support the people who have already been there (in Israel) and who are doing the work, being the hands and feet of Jesus.”
To purchase tickets for MBU’s production of “Fiddler on the Roof,” Nov. 9-12, visit https://www.eventbrite.com/e/fiddler-on-the-roof-tickets-646725813317.