Broken Barriers

Plot Summary

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.

Top Cast

Alice Hastings Khavah

Alexander Tenenholtz Fedka

Giacomo Masuroff Tobias, Khavah's Father

Billie Wilson Khavah's Mother

Sonia Radin Parasha, Fedka's Mother