Hester Street is a film that took place in Manhattan in the Lower East Side on a street no other than Hester Street. In the film, we were introduced to the typical livelihood of Russian Jews who were living in New York City at the time. The main characters of the film were lodged in a tenement, a building that housed hundreds of people in close quarters with minimal space for privacy and maintaining cleanliness. In the film, Gitl is seen struggling for privacy as a stranger is living just next door using the kitchen and sitting at the dinner table.

“I have found in three rooms father, mother, twelve children, and six boarders. They sleep on the half-made clothing for beds. I found that several people slept in a subcellar four feet by six, on a pile of clothing that was being made.”

– Jacob Riis

Now just as America has become populated with various other immigrant groups Hester street has become a hub of culture as have the surrounding neighboring streets. Today, the Hester street fair exists and Chinatown and Little Italy are a short distance away booming with cultural foods and attractions.  I’d like to focus not only on Hester street, but the surrounding area also because of how they flourished into mini nations of their own within America.Both men in the film work in a factory to earn a living which in reality was due to discrimination. People were forced into working in factories and as seamstresses and tailors, so many worked in Triangle Shirtwaist factory. Anti-Semitism was prevalent back home in Russia, so many migrated overseas to the United States to escape it.  We can thank Rebecca Lepkoff for images of Hester street and she’s especially relevant because she grew up on Hester street, is Jewish, and happened to go to the City College of New York. She was born in the Lower East side of New York to Russian parents. Her father worked as a tailor and her mother unable to conform to American culture unfortunately had a nervous breakdown. This is very similar to the film as Gitl struggles immensely banishing her Jewish culture to the past and donning American traditions, an American name, showing her own hair, and wearing dresses with corsets. The United States Library of Congress deemed Hester Street “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant” which given the similarity of the main character’s livelihoods and Lepkoff’s family’s it makes sense.  Today, NYC has the highest population of Jews in a metropolitan area.

In my time in college I’ve visited Mulberry, Mott, Bowery, Orchard, Allen, Forsyth, Essex to the east of Hester, and the neighbor Canal street to the south. My trips through Canal street and the surrounding Chinatown region has never been pleasant, they usually consist of my family sitting for at least an hour on one block trying to get into the nearest tunnel to get into New Jersey and never to explore the cultural aspects. However, for the first time I ventured out in the company of my friends to Chinatown for a special visit to a Hong Kong dessert shop, my sweet tooth being the cause of the visit. I found, after conducting some research on that spot that Chinatown is a hub of Chinese dessert specialties. Various dessert places have opened bringing in hundreds of people to their store front to try some. Just like Americans have apple pie, the Chinese have egg waffles, fish shaped waffles filled with red bean paste, fried ice cream, and ube flavored treats, all of which are simple common desserts back home. As simple as it was I was in Chinatown for the purpose of satisfying my sweet tooth and enjoy the company of my friends, simply being there I was swarmed with the culture and the history of the people. As soon as we exited the train station at Canal street, flags were hanging over our heads draped from store fronts, people were crowded into minute open doored stores purchasing souvenirs and gifts, there was heat in the air from the bustling traffic and close proximity of other bodies, it was another world. Almost all the awnings were in Chinese with smaller fonted English translation, the food varied from bubble tea to Chinese street food, to an assortment of seafood. All senses were triggered and overwhelming in the best kind of way possible, except for the rancid stench of the fish of course.

The egg waffle I’d ventured so far out for captured all that. It could’ve perhaps been the product of homesickness, or the celebration of the homeland that was left behind to find a better life in the United States, but also it was a mix of American culture. It embodied how the Chinese adapted to American culture and accepted it as their home, but without letting go of who they were.

It makes sense that Chinatown is so overpoweringly cultured, immigrants faced a lot of hardships from immigrants already settled and Americans, hence why immigrants created their own communities and flocked towards those that were of the same culture, ethnicity, or religion as them. That’s why places like Chinatown and little Italy exist, it was the only place people could feel at home and be in their own bubble and untouched by the prejudice that awaited them outside of their haven. So, it makes sense that Chinatown existed, the Chinese likely weren’t willing to accept American culture into their lives as the American people weren’t so willing. And this is all proven with facts as there is evidence of discrimination such as violence, destruction of property, and anti-Chinese protests which forced the Chinese into bigger cities.

There was economic hardship back in China which caused them to move to the States for the purpose of work, to send money home, and railroads, all despite the Chinese Exclusion Act being in place. More work opportunities were available in larger cities and less discrimination so the Chinese found themselves flocking into Manhattan which eventually became what we know as modern Chinatown. In the past, there was a ratio of 40:150 men to women and now (about 2010) the majority of the population has remained female in Chinatown.

“New York City has the largest Chinese population of any city outside of Asia,” according the NYC consensus as of July 2015.

Personally, walking into Little Italy was a stark contrast to Chinatown given that an entirely different nation was celebrating their cultural heritage right next door. The Lower East side of Manhattan really represents the heart and soul of the American people. America was built on the courage, hard work, and efforts of people who bravely left their countries behind and ventured to the United States of America for a better life. The Lower East side has groups of Jewish, Eastern European, Chinese, Italian, and other people of various ethnicities. Because of their diverse cultures and communities, these groups have attracted people from around the entire globe to venture over to the United States to bask in the glory of culture that became the American people.

 

 

Citations

 

The Anti-Chinese Hysteria of 1885-1886. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 May 2017.

“Chinatown Stats.” Point 2 Homes. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 May 2017.

Goyette, Braden. “How Racism Created America’s Chinatowns.” The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 11 Nov. 2014. Web. 08 May 2017.

Hester Street-A Jewish Watershed. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 May 2017.

“New York City Population.” NYC. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 May 2017.

Polish/Russian – The Lower East Side – Immigration…- Classroom Presentation | Teacher Resources – Library of Congress. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 May 2017.

“Sharing StoriesInspiring Change.” Jewish Women’s Archive. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 May 2017.

Sue. “Celebrating Women’s History: Rebecca Lepkoff.” New-York Historical Society. N.p., 07 July 2015. Web. 08 May 2017.