What Makes This Film Great | Hester Street (1975)

Comments · 44

• PA

  @paulfreedman7193 · 1 year ago

  Hi Aaron, My name is Paul Freedman, and I was the actor who played Yossele/Joey in the film. I was 6 yrs old and the casting director was a parent of another child at my school in NYC. She thought I looked kinda' like Carol Kane and brought me to Joan Silver for my audition. I am an educator now living near Seattle. I just wanted to thank you for sharing this important film with your viewers. This year we celebrate the 50th anniversary of its release. As far as I know, Carol and I are the only ones left from the cast. Sadly we lost Joan just a few years ago - she was working on writing an autobiography at the time - don't think she ever completed it. But it was groundbreaking, and she was a true pioneer as a female director. Many interesting behind the scenes stories about the making and distribution of Hester Street. Anyway, I'm glad that maybe a few of your viewers will track it down and take the time to see it and absorb some of its themes and messages. Thank you for your kind thoughts on the quality and importance of the film. Congratulations on the success of your channel.

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• DA

  @damescholar · 2 years ago

  Unbelievable that this absolute gem of a film faced so many obstacles to get to the cinemas.

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• JA

  @JaimeMesChiens · 2 years ago (edited)

  My mother loved this film so much. <br>Her parents were Jake and Gitl, from a shetl in Lithuania, and a few decades later. <br><br>My Bubbe never wore a wig, but a shidel. Although, at home, she wore her natural hair, and it was beautiful. <br><br>Now that I see this film as an adult, trying to find and live true to my heritage, whilst USA is burning with anti-Semitism, makes me understand why this meant so much to my mother.

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• HE

  @here_we_go_again2571 · 2 years ago (edited)

  Hester Street is a gem. Thank you for sharing your views.👍😊<br><br>I am not Jewish. But I remember my father telling me how when they went to Ellis Island to pick up the relatives from<br>Ireland that one of the first things they did was to buy the women a hat rather than have them pull their large (Galway)<br>shawls[1] over their head when out in public. &nbsp;Back then everyone wore some sort of hat/head covering when outside<br>of their home.<br><br>1.) Galway-style shawls are similar in design to the Scottish woman&apos;s Earasaid (female great kilt) although, not always <br> &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;composed of fabric in woven plaid design. &nbsp;Also, by the late 19th -- early 20th century, not as large as an Earasaid.<br> &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;Women owned both a winter (in a heavy wool) and at least one summer Galway shawl.

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• JA

  @JaimeMesChiens · 2 years ago (edited)

  I am watching this now, for the first time. <br><br>First scene: European Jews new in USA would know nothing about this kind of dancing. <br>In Orthodox Europe, men and women did not dance together. <br>You can see this still, if you search YouTube for Hassidic Jewish weddings. You’ll see how uncomfortable this “new” dancing would have been for these people. <br><br>Did anyone else notice the sign on the dance school wall? <br>“English spoken here,” and it was also written, the same thing, in Yiddish. <br><br>My grandparents came to USA in the 1930s: just in time. <br><br>Still, until my wonderful grandparents died, they spoke Yiddish in their home, but they never, ever called it Yiddish. <br><br>They spoke Jewish. <br>Have any other second gen USA Jewish also have grands who spoke Jewish? <br><br>I wish I had, whilst they were still with us, learned more about what their early life here was like. <br><br>And I watched only the first scene, and it spoke to me this much.<br><br>Oh, I feel that I must add that my Bubbe (grandmother) left her family in Lithuania: twelve siblings and her parents, plus huge extended family. <br><br>Only one survived the Einsatzgruppen (Ninth fort outside Kaunas/ Kovno, Lithuania.) <br><br>This one man later was murdered in Auschwitz II, Birkenau <br><br>May their souls find peace and their memories be a blessing.

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• DI

  @didirobert3657 · 5 years ago

  I absolutely love Hester Street!

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• SH

  @sharonstevek.6797 · 2 years ago

  I do watch this film over and over again. It&apos;s one of my favorites. I learned a lot about Jewish customs like the wig. At work, an old Jewish woman came in, and one of the techs took a picture of her. To us we thought &nbsp;she looked ridiculous. The woman was so outraged. She immediately yelled at our Jewish boss, an ophthalmologist. The tech was fired on the spot. Then I saw Hester Street, and I understood. Thank you for explaining all of the nuances of this beautiful story in film.

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• SK

  @skontheroad · 1 year ago

  Carol Kane always spoke a beautiful Yiddish!

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• WC

  @wcw3086 · 3 years ago

  What a gem

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• AN

  @AnnaZeman-yu8dg · 3 years ago

  Thank you for the information! &nbsp;I LOVE this film!!!

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• LE

  @leonisaacs3512 · 1 year ago

  Excellent commentary on this film. I was brought here because I will be writing up an analysis for this film and this video has helped me to think further on the things I have observed in the film.

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• BA

  @banto1 · 4 years ago

  Interesting insights. &nbsp;Jake is not simply cutting Joey&apos;s hair. &nbsp;He is cutting off Yossele&apos;s side-locks, which are a hallmark of ultra-religious Jewish males, and never cut from birth onwards. &nbsp;Jake (Yankel) was obviously also brought up in an ultra-religous home (otherwise Gitl wouldn&apos;t have married him) and threw away his outward religious symbols (beard, side-locks and head covering) as part of his effort to assimilate into the Gentile American culture.

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