Many times, immigrants feel the need to completely disregard their background, culture, and religion in the name of assimilating to a new country, new customs, and new traditions. Hester Street and The Jazz Singer are examples of two movies that clearly depict conflicts of religious identity where some have trouble finding a balance between old and new traditions and others never seem to truly let go of their background despite their strong desire to do so.
Hester Street is a film targeting the issues of immigration and assimilation in the United States. When Gitl arrives in the United States she has a hard time adjusting to her husband Jake, who has established himself and assimilated American customs. Gitl has a hard time letting go of the religious customs and traditions she brought along with her from Russia. When she first arrives, Jake doesn’t want her to wear a wig because she’s in America now. She refuses to wear her real hair because she still clings to the identity she entered the country with; Jewish law requires women to cover their hair after marriage and Gitl is doing exactly that; Gitl does not have an issue with wearing a wig or a kerchief but Jake does. Jake has assimilated and become an American and wants his family to do the same. Jake lets go of the identity he came to the United States with and creates a new one for himself as a Yankee, particularly when he changes his name from Yekl. Even though Gitl refuses to let go of religious traditions, she still tries to please her husband, who’s stopped loving her. In order to try and change her identity, she changes the way she dresses and begins to wear her real hair to please him, but he still does not feel the same way about her. The scene from the movie that clearly depicts religious conflict that stood out to me was when Jake cuts off his son, Yossele or Joey’s payot while Gitl is hysterical. Jake wants to get rid of any signs that he is Jewish and denies that part of his background because he insists on becoming an American and part of an educated country. These religious conflicts are resolved when Gitl divorces Jake because she can’t become who he wants her to be and marries Mr. Bernstein, who accepts that he’s a Jew but still has assimilated a few new customs; he found a balance where he accepted his background and new traditions. Mr. Bernstein accepts Gitl the way she is and does not insist on her changing everything about her to become an American.
Jakie Rabinowitz, a young Jewish boy growing up in America deals with religious and racial conflict when he wants to be a jazz singer but his father wants him to be a Cantor. Rogin correctly identifies a generational conflict that is apparent throughout the movie between Jakie and his father. Because of this generational conflict, he runs away from home and has the opportunity to do what he wants. I agree with Rogin when he claims that “he gives up on his Jewish for an American dream.” Jakie runs away from home because he wants to pursue his dream, which conflicts with what his father wants. Once he runs away, he gets many opportunities to sing especially on Broadway. However, Jack is forced to make a huge decision choosing between singing as a Cantor when his father is on his deathbed and performing on opening night. Jack chooses his religion and his family over singing jazz. Despite the fact that he tries to let go of his religious background, there are instances in the movie that show how important his religion really is to him. At the end of the movie, he prefers singing as a Cantor over singing jazz on opening night. He may have assimilated many American customs, but he hasn’t forgotten what’s important to him.
