Eyes misted, tears fell and finally sobs could be heard from the Gush Katif audience as the edict of expulsion came to its inevitable conclusion.



Jews packed their meager possessions, hugged, said farewell and Golda swept her home in Anatevka for the last time. As the Jews left their shtetl the rabbi folded his prayer shawl and walked slowly off the stage. And so the play Fiddler on the Roof ends.



But not in the production performed by students of the girls' religious high school in Gush Katif, Ulpana N'vei Dekalim. Shedding their dark costumes, they revealed orange Gush Katif T-shirts and walked proudly back on to the stage singing "L'Chaim!" - "To Life!"



"We always wanted to do Fiddler on the Roof," said Roz Schneid, supervisor of English at the Ulpana. "But this year it was imperative. The town constable, informing Tevye that the Jews were to be evicted, brought our own predicament to the fore. We here in Gush Katif are well acquainted with the words 'I don?t know why. Orders are orders.'



"Indeed, the collective Jewish memory of edicts and expulsions from lands all over the world played havoc with our emotions, as it had done with Jewish feelings around the world," Mrs. Schneid remarked.



Based on the Sholem Aleichem folk tale "Tevye the Milkman", Fiddler on the Roof was produced on Broadway in the 1960s. The play has been translated into dozens of languages and performed the world over. It depicts the life of an ordinary Jewish family in the Russian village of Anatevka.



Tevya and Golda lead a traditional Jewish life. But life is changing and they must cope with the change: one daughter makes her own match; a second daughter goes to Siberia to be with her fiance; and a third marries out of the faith. Life revolves around neighbors, arguments, the rabbi, the matchmaker, the lame horse, the milk not delivered on time, the fear of the gentiles. These are the ordinary problems of life until the eviction orders are read. Within three days, all that was home disappears.



The Ulpana has been presenting memorable musical plays in English for the past seven years. Under the direction of Mrs. Roz Schneid and Mrs. Rivky Saffer, it has reached a high level of professionalism.



"Our students not only learn English, but they learn about other cultures, as well. G-d willing, we hope we will continue putting on plays for years to come," said Mrs. Schneid.



The play was performed by the English Drama Club, for women only, on December 28th at the wedding hall of N'vei Dekalim. The Ulpana had hoped to take this production on the road outside of Gush Katif, but funding has not been available.