Yentl (1983)

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
	Barbra Streisand	...	Yentl
	Mandy Patinkin	...	Avigdor
	Amy Irving	...	Hadass
	Nehemiah Persoff	...	Reb Mendel 'Papa'
	Steven Hill	...	Reb Alter Vishkower
	Allan Corduner	...	Shimmele
	Ruth Goring	...	Esther Rachel
	David de Keyser	...	Rabbi Zalman (as David De Keyser)
	Bernard Spear	...	Tailor
	Doreen Mantle	...	Mrs. Shaemen
	Lynda Baron	...	Peshe (as Lynda Barron)
	Jack Lynn	...	Bookseller
	Anna Tzelniker	...	Mrs. Kovner
	Miriam Margolyes	...	Sarah
	Mary Henry	...	Mrs. Jacobs

Storyline

Dramatization of "Yentl, the Yeshiva Boy," by Isaac Bashevis Singer (1902-1991); originally published in Yiddish c. 1960, then in English c. 1983. The story: In an Ashkenazic shtetl in Poland, Yentl Mendel is the boyishly klutzy daughter and only child of long widowed Rebbe ("Talmud Teacher") Mendel, who teaches Talmud (a codification of Jewish Law) to local boys - and to Yentl, but secretly because girls were not allowed to learn the law in those days. When her father dies, Yentl is all alone in the world. She takes the momentous decision to leave the village and - disguised as a boy and calling herself by the name of her late brother, Anshel - seeks and gets admitted to a Yeshiva, to study the texts, traditions, subtleties and complexities of Torah, Talmud, etc. She befriends Avigdor who is engaged to Haddas, but her family discovers his brother committed suicide so they call off the wedding (in case Avigdor possesses the same madness)... Written by Micheal McLoughlin  

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