(JTA) — US President Donald Trump counts “Fiddler on the Roof,” the musical about a Jewish family seeking to maintain their traditions in an Old World shtetl plagued by antisemitism, as one of his favorite Broadway shows, he said while visiting the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. this week.
Trump’s visit was his first since he dismissed members of the national performing arts center’s board and appointed himself its chairman. He spoke at a board meeting and toured the center, according to The New York Times, which both obtained a recording of the meeting and interviewed people who had been present.
In his comments, Trump said he possessed musical aptitude but had been thwarted in pursuing a career in the arts by his father, the real estate developer Fred Trump, according to the newspaper. The White House communications director told the Times that Trump “is a virtuoso and his musical choices represent a brilliant palette of vibrant colors when others often paint in pale pastels.”
Taking control of the Kennedy Center
To take control of the Kennedy Center, which he said had leaned too “woke” in its programming, Trump ousted the former board chair, the Jewish billionaire and philanthropist David Rubinstein, whose family came to the United States from Ukraine — which was part of Russia’s Pale of Settlement, the setting of “Fiddler on the Roof.”
Trump has not previously been reported to be a Fiddler fan, but the musical has intersected with him before. The comedian Randy Rainbow created a parody of the show’s “Tradition!” called “Distraction!” to pillory Trump’s response to the pandemic five years ago.
And in 2018, a Baltimore man was arrested after shouting “Heil Hitler, Heil Trump” during a performance because, he said, a scene showing a pogrom at a wedding reminded him of his hatred of Trump.