Broken Barriers (1919)

Director: Charles E. Davenport

This 1919 silent is the first American film based on the same Sholem Aleichem stories as Fiddler on the Roof, but produced 50 years before the blockbuster musical. Unlike most adaptations of Aleichem’s work, Broken Barriers (Khavah) focuses not on Tevye the milkman, but on his daughter Khavah, who falls in love with the gentile boy Fedka and must navigate the reverberations from this with both her community and her family.

Cast

Alice Hastings

Khavah

Alexander Tenenholtz

Fedka

Giacomo Masuroff

Tobias, Khavah's Father

Billie Wilson

Khavah's Mother

Sonia Radin

Parasha, Fedka's Mother

Phil Sanford

Ivan, Fedka's Father

Anna Kay

Khavah's Sister

Raymond Friedgen

Fedka's Chum