Finally saw Fiddler last night, and the framing device made me cry. I thought it was absolutely beautiful.
The man in the parka represents the modern, American, secularized Jew. In the opening scene, he opens the story of his spiritual forebears with bemused curiosity. By the end, even though he certainly does not live the life that they lived, with all of their old-world 'traditions' and customs and manner of dress, he recognizes himself as being part of their legacy. He motions to the Fiddler -- who represents the traditional Jewish way of life -- not to stay behind in Anatevka, a town stripped of its Jews, but to instead come with his people as they journey to a strange new world. And though the man in the parka is a contemporary American -- secular, bareheaded, wearing modern clothes -- he, too, joins the procession of his people, recognizing that he, too, is one of them, and that those traditions, those clothes, that way of life, is part of his legacy. He shares their destiny, their fate, and he respects and recognizes that that way of life is part of him.
If you're a Jew -- or, I would imagine, a person of any minority religious or cultural tradition who has struggled with maintaining a balance between your contemporary, Western life and respect for your heritage -- it is an enormously poignant, beautiful moment. Perhaps particularly so for Jews, one of the few minority groups in America whose numbers have not increased since the END of World War II -- not because of persecution or genocide, but because of rampant intermarriage, and a near-ubiquitous willingness to shed "tradition"s in favor of being as Americanized as possible. I was literally crying.
