To me, the comparisons between The Jazz Singer and Hester Street were apparent almost immediately. Most obviously, both films are about the conflicts that some Jewish-Americans faced between their heritage and their desire to assimilate into American society. In The Jazz Singer, Jakie is torn between doing what his father wants (replacing him as the synagogue’s cantor) and what he truly wants (pursuing a career as a jazz singer). In Hester Street, Jake rejects his Jewish heritage in favor of being a “Yankee”, must to the dismay of Gitl, who doesn’t understand why their Jewish customs shouldn’t carry over into America. This is embodied by the fact that Jake rejects his traditional Jewish wife for the Americanized, flashy Mamie. In addition, he has taken to calling himself Jake instead of his given name of Yankel, a situation that is paralleled in The Jazz Singer when Jakie Rabinowitz renames himself Jack Robin.
Thematically, where the two films differ most is in their resolutions of the cultural clashes faced by Jakie and Jake. In The Jazz Singer, it appears as though Jakie can “have it all”—it’s suggested that despite skipping his Broadway premiere to sing the Kol Nidre, his career as a jazz singer is unharmed. Even Jakie’s performances in blackface, which completely reject his true heritage, are accepted by his mother. In Hester Street, however, Jake fully renounces his Jewish past by divorcing Gitl and marrying Mamie. Perhaps then it is Gitl who is most like Jakie in the end, since she Americanizes some things about herself (namely her hairstyle and wardrobe) yet keeps her traditional Jewish values. In fact, even though Jake and Gitl both end up marrying people with the ideals they currently value, I would say that it is Gitl who comes out the happiest because she didn’t have to compromise her values or forget who she truly was in order to be happy with Bernstein and her son.
