Peopling of New York City, Spring 2012

These three films involve characters that work to morph themselves into the person they feel they should be. But family and their cultural and traditional values hold back their dreams of transformation. These characters all have problems with identify. Traditional Jew or blackface jazz singer? Jewish immigrant or American resident? What these individuals do not understand is that in becoming their ideal selves it is not always necessary to let go of who they once were.

In Ellis Island the immigrants come to America looking for a new life. They must assimilate to the almighty American culture to succeed in their new home. The clips I viewed were at times very artsy and strange, very similar to a performance I viewed, Supernatural Wife a remake Euripides’ play “Alscestis.” I wasn’t very sure about the entire meaning of Ellis Island. But there was a certain scene of women putting their fingers through their hair and making motions as if they were washing it. Which quickly led me to think that they were washing themselves of their past, leaving their former selves on the docks of Ellis Island.

Hester Street is about a Jewish immigrant, Gitl, who moves to New York City to find a new life. As he assimilates into the American culture, his traditional values no longer have a hold on him and he becomes Jake. Completely disrespecting his wife, he begins to have an affair with a dancer, Mamie. Jake leaves his wife to marry her, only to separate from Mamie afterwards. Which came to show that in attaining a new identity it is not necessary to completely let go of your old values.

In The Jazz Singer, Jakie, the main character has to make a huge sacrifice in order to go for his dreams of becoming a jazz singer. Jakie’s father is extremely traditional and is therefore reluctant to let his child sing “the devil’s music.” In order for Jakie to do what he really loves, he lets go of his former identity. What Jakie didn’t understand was that in becoming a new person, he didn’t need to let go of who he once was. He finally learns that in the end, through the death of his father.

While getting ready for the rehearsal of his big debut, Jakie has his face all made up in blackface. His girlfriend comes to check on him and physically he is ready to go, but emotionally he is unprepared. When Jakie looks in the mirror, he doesn’t see his painted face. Instead he sees a service at his old temple, which symbolizes the religious traditions he used to value as a child. His past is staring him in the face and he’s not sure what to do. Finally, Jakie’s mother comes to see him, she says that his father is dying and his last wish was to have Jakie sing a prayer at temple. Jakie skips his rehearsal to do just that and at the end of the film he is in blackface performing for a large audience.

The ending of The Jazz Singer meant to be a good one, but during the end of the film I couldn’t help but feel a little insulted. I know society was much different in the late 1920s, but I could not take Jakie seriously in his ridiculous “blackface” getup. I searched the phrase ‘blackface’ on the web and the more I learned the more upset I became. To me Jakie’s blackface drew on the crude archetype people have of blacks and African-Americans, and though some may say that Jakie’s blackface during the film was simply part of his identify crisis, but to me it is evident through the last scene that Jakie’s blackface was not meant to be seen as a problem but just another part of the film.

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.

Hi guys! Happy Groundhog Day! Hopefully winter is gone forever. Anyway…

Out of all the papers and movies we had to watch/read, Hester Street caught my attention the most. Besides the fact that the sound track was completely off, I have to say I honestly watched the whole thing. Sometimes I was completely confused as to what was going on but thats what made it so intriguing. It was obviously set in New York, but the scene was so different and the accents were so thick.

The main character Jack (I don’t remember his hebrew name) is so determined to be this ideal “yankee.” He drops his real name, shaves his beard and tortures his wife into changing into something she doesn’t want to be. While this movie also shows that conflict of identity of Jack, I think it also shows it for his wife. She struggles between being true to her own self or becoming the woman that his husband will love again. The most important scene from Hester Street that depicts this is when Jack comes home from work and believes that his wife’s real hair is a wig and tries to rip it off. Ultimately, this is the the breaking point in their relationship. I think that this is also the point in which the conflicts of identities get resolved. Each character  realizes that they cannot change who they’ve been or who they have become.

Unlike Jackie from The Jazz Singer, Jack never seems to regret becoming an intolerable yankee. There are sometimes when it seems he doubts himself, but in the end he gets exactly what he wants: An American wife and no relation to the old country. Jackie, however, gets the best of both worlds. He takes over  the synagogue when his father passes and gets to sing jazz on broadway. Although there are some unsettling points in the Jazz Singer, I think that the film does successfully resolve Jackie’s issues. My opinion is that when people say it isn’t resolved they’re referring to their feelings of not being happy with the way the movie did so. Just because Jackie seemingly got one of the first happiest endings in film history does not mean he didn’t resolve his issues. The final scene of the Jazz Singer is proof of the resolution. He’s there performing for hundreds of people, when just the scene before he was in the synagogue.

Oh and food for thought: If Jackie’s father was so strict why did he have such an American name such as Jackie when it was a big deal for Jack to change his name?

The issues of Immigrants and immigration are always controversial and it seems like that they are going to be permanent hot issues in the United States. As for the issue of the racial and religious identity of immigrants, should immigrants keep their old fashion or assimilate to the American culture or accept the both sides?

In the films the Jazz Singer and Hester Street, they both have characters who are more willingly to keep their religious conducts and beliefs such as Jakie’s father and Jake’s wife after they move to America. Even though they have moved to a new land and have a new life, they still keep Jewish tradition. For instance, Jakie’s father commits himself to his people and play the role as a cantor for the Jewish community and he also hopes to raise his son as his successor; Jake’s wife Gitl does not depreciate her traditional hair style and dress and keep them and she also would like to raise her son in a traditional way.

However, Jakie and Jake are two people who reject their old tradition, which cause conflicts between them and their family. Jakie, grown up in America, has his own dream of being a Jazz singer. He runs away from home after his father beats him up for his singing those unacceptable songs. Jakie wants to become whom he wishes to be. Jake completely abandons his Jewish identity and regards himself as a gentile. He cannot bear his wife’s old fashion and passionately pursue trendy Americanized lady Mamie.

Even though Jakie and Jake are similar, they are completely different in terms of identifying who they really want to be. Jakie’s pursuit of his dream, in my point of view, is acceptable because he finds out who he wants to be and I think his father should support him, which does not mean to let Jakie give up religious conducts because singing jazz music is just one aspect of Jakie’s life. If Jakie’s father knows how to educate little Jakie and respects his talent and passion, and helps him understand their religious value in the meanwhile, Jakie would absolutely have a better childhood and a successful career as a jazz singer. Fortunately, Jakie finally still returned and re-identify himself as a Jew, with showing his talent on stage at the same time. Unlike Jakie, Jake loses his identity because he follows other peoples all the time. He keeps telling his wife that people do not dress like her here (in America) and he even overlooks his own wife for her old fashion, not noticing her love for him. He only sees the superficial things like dress. I believe that a person’s identity is not based on what he wears but his or her thoughts so I argued that Jake does not identify who he really is.

Both Gitl and Jakie eventually identify themselves as “new Jews”. Gitl puts on the feather-decorated hat and remarries to Berstein who keeps Jewish tradition and assimilate to American culture in some ways( we can tell this when we see Berstein puts on yarmulke for Joey), and from these, we can see Gitl as a new Jewish lady. Also, there is another evidence: when a lady asks Gitl that what her son’s name is, Gitl insists on saying Joey which is a English name. Similarly, Jakie sings Jazz song and follow Jewish tradition.

Excluding the two radical ways: being completely Americanized and committing to the tradition thoroughly, Keep the important tradition and assimilate to the American culture in some way are the best choice.

Rogin makes many interesting points that I missed in The Jazz Singer. When we were watching it in class, I thought the story was simply about a boy who wanted to sing jazz music. But Rogin brings up all these religious and racial conflicts the character goes through in the movie. The Jewish boy paints himself black in order to perform jazz, and he changes his identity from Jakie Rabinowitz to Jack Robin. Rogin describes Jakie’s blackface as a “racial cross-dressing.” It replaced the Jewish man as well as the black men. An interesting point that Rogin brings up is that the part where Jakie’s father sees him and yells at him to stop singing secular music is the last time we hear speech in the film. And only after this scene does Jakie start putting on his “blackface,” suggesting that the black men become silenced. Jakie suffers from a conflict of identity–his family is Jewish and he has grown up listening to his religion’s music, but he wants to follow his passion as a jazz singer. An interesting quote from Rogin was “two bodies, one blacked and one white, heal Jacki’s single, divided soul.” A scene that best shows his conflict is perhaps the one where blackfaced Jakie is staring in the mirror and sees his father singing. I believed that the ending would be Jakie choosing one side and being happy with his one identity, but the movie doesn’t seem to resolve that; it seems as if Jakie is still acting as two different people, going back and forth with whichever is more convenient for him.

I thought Hester Street was a more entertaining film that shows another man vs. self conflict, regarding culture and religion. In the book From Ellis Island to JFK, Foren talks about the reasons so many people, especially Jews, immigrated to the United States. She talks about how Jews suffered under political and religious persecution, as well as anti-Semitism and violence. America was a “free country for the Jews” that promised better wages, jobs, political and cultural freedom, and “material abundances.” America was the land of dreams, sense of achievement, and freedom. In Hester Street, Jake shows his love and passion for America and repulsiveness of his former ways. Many characters in the film, especially Jake, say things such as “It’s America!”, “Some country, huh?”, “It’s different here,” etc. to justify their new, less restrictive ways of life. If blackface was a symbol of Jakie’s new identity as a jazz singer, then I believe that hair served a similar purpose in Hester Street. Jake is repulsed by Gitl’s wig and “kerchief,” he cuts Joey’s hair and is delighted that his son looks like a “yankee,” and he has cut his own beard since he came to America. He becomes easily frustrated with his traditional Jewish wife and often seems to look down upon her. I think Jake doesn’t like Gitl’s traditional ways and her calling him “yankel” because she keeps reminding him of his former self and “true” identity, which he seems to dislike. He only wants to follow American ways and wants to teach his son English and baseball to make him like a yankee. Perhaps the “self-conflict” we see in The Jazz Singer by Jakie is portrayed in Hester Street by Gitl instead of Jake, since Jake doesn’t even seem to find a conflict between following his Jewish identity and American customs. Gitl is the one who is torn; the one who struggles to decide whether she should leave her Jewish customs and take off her wig, call her son “Joey,” and get a divorce.By the end, Gitl has become more “americanized” and is perhaps living a better American life than her husband, who struggled very hard to achieve one.

In both The Jazz Singer and Hester Street the protagonists clearly deal with similar crises of identity. Both Jakie and Jake face inner tension as they deal with trying to figure out who they “really” are. Both men are Jewish immigrants that settle into a place that is seemingly entirely different in cultural values and customs, and both face whether to “completely” assimilate or to return to their mother culture. I emphasized “completely” because I’d like to raise the question on whether it is really possible to fully assimilate into a culture that is known to be an eclectic fusion of immigrant cultures?

In The Jazz Singer, Jakie struggles with his identity as a young boy. Being raised by Orthodox parents, Jakie is not allowed to indulge in his passion for jazz music, which he does without the permission of his parents. As an adult, he breaks away from his mother culture by becoming a famous jazz performer, but seems to have the nagging urge to please his Orthodox father and cantor the Kol Nidre. In the end, he acknowledges his Jewish culture, but continues to do what he loves. In Jakie’s case, he accepts that the two sides of him can coexist if he really wants to.

On the other hand, in Hester Street, the protagonist, Jake, completely rejects his immigrant background. As a “Yankee” he adapts to the American-ness and avoids having to identify himself as a Jewish immigrant. When his wife, Gitl, arrives with his son, Yossele (whom Jake renames Joey), from Russia, he is taken aback by her orthodoxies and tries to force her into becoming something she is new to and someone she is not. Personally, I found his character to be annoying, even though he was essentially giving her more “freedom.”  Jake acted violently and wanted to completely forget he was a Jew and also find faults in his wife because he didn’t love her. The story concludes with Jake and Gitl divorcing and marrying people they actually love and that are suited for the lives they want to live. In this case, Jake completely forgets his old life and starts anew as an American. However, I would argue that, like Jakie, he would eventually re-embrace his culture in one way or another.

Immigration has founded a large part of history of New York City. Yet, it would be more accurate to say that New York City has influenced immigrants greatly rather than immigrants have influenced New York City. From the films “The Jazz Singer” and “Hester Street,” we can see that the conflicts of cultural and religious identity are inevitable as a result of the integration of various cultures in New York City. We know very well that nothing is absolutely good from every perspective. While the integration of different cultures can certainly help to build a more harmonious New York City, conflicts among people from these cultures would certainly exist because they all want to create their own identity that would be accepted in the mainstream culture. In other words, the conflicts of identity among immigrants are the result of the clashing between the “old” and “new” cultures. They are essential steps for immigrants to adapt their new lives in the new country and culture.

“The Jazz Singer” portrayed a typical example of the conflicts between the young immigrants and their parents. Unlike adults, children can accept new things more easily. They wouldn’t determine what is right or wrong based on certain rules. They can only determine things they like or don’t like. This was why little Jackie didn’t think it was wrong to sing jazz songs. Of course, his religious parents would think he has done something wrong since singing jazz songs would blaspheme against their religion. They should not be blamed for the conflicts since they are the result of the clashing between two cultures. Because Jackie is so immersed into the American culture, which greatly emphasized on individualism, he would always think he was right about following his dream. However, his father thought he should follow the family tradition as he and generations of family members did. Yet, at the end when Jackie sang for his father on the holiest religious day, it shows that no matter how the cultures have changed, the roots are still there. Even if Jackie is the best blackface actor on stage, underneath his make up and costumes, his Jewish roots would still influence him.

“Hester Street” showed the typical struggles of immigrants. When immigrants came to America, they wanted to earn money and get accepted into the mainstream culture. Jake was one of them. He wanted to earn plenty of money so he worked in the sweatshop everyday to earn money; he wanted to get accepted among his friends so he betrayed his wife and courted with the Polish girl. He abandoned his culture and religion because he wanted to be a real American. Jake always said to his wife that America is an educated country. In our view, America is characterized for its tolerance of different cultures and religions. We may think it was a little silly when Jake implied to his wife that in order to be educated, she needed to give up the religious traditions. Again, we have to understand the cultural barrier that the immigrants have to overcome when starting their lives all over again in a new country. It is perhaps the only way we can understand Jake’s decisions and struggles.

The Nancy Foner’s book “From Ellis Island to JFK” presented the essential facts of the history of immigration of New York City. These facts are important for us to understand the historical context of the films. From her work, we learned that many Jewish people immigrate to America to escape anti-Semitism in Europe and many other facts. However, we cannot learn about the stories behind these immigrants from these facts. Films can help us to learn about the stories of immigrants. Each immigrant has his or her own stories that are different from the ones a native-born American has. “The Jazz Singer” and “Hester Street” give us a more realistic and humane insight of immigrants’ lives. We can actually “experience” immigrants’ difficulties and struggles through the films. Foner’s book cannot provide us with these insights. Yet, her book gives us numerous resources to help us better understand how the American society has shaped the immigrants’ lives, and to clarify the misunderstanding we have toward immigrants. Both the history and the stories are essential for us to understand the cultural and religious conflicts of identity among immigrants.

The identity of a person can be shown in many forms. For example, a person’s name reveals where the person is from. In addition, the physical features a person has and the clothing someone wears also reveals aspects of their identity.  In Ellis Island, The Jazz Singer and Hester Street, these features of the characters give the viewers pieces as to who the character is.

As Foner stated, “the reasons why millions have left their homelands to come to America are complex and multi face.” Whatever those reasons may be, in the 1920s, people from Europe travelled great lengths in order to come to New York City. However, that trip came with a price, a price in which some happily paid and some who did not wish to pay it. Most people who came to New York at that time went through Ellis Island. There they had to prove their worth by getting rid of some aspects of the culture they grew up in. One of those aspects is their name; this is clearly shown in the movie Ellis Island. A man walked in with the name Elessen Rahmsauer and entered the United States with the name Eli Lamb. Whether that man was happy about losing his birth name, it is unclear for the shot showed his back-not allowing the viewers to see his facial expressions. The main characters in The Jazz Singer changes his name from Jackie Rabinowitz to Jake Robin in order to throw his old identity away. Being raised in a orthodox Jewish household, he was unable to pursue his passion of jazz singing. In order to separate himself from the traditions his family upheld, he changed his name. The same can be said about the main character in the movie Hester Street; he changed his name to Jake and transformed himself into a “Yankee”.

Besides changing their name, people also learned English. This is depicted in all three movies. In Ellis Island, there were scenes in which a group of people dressed in Eastern European clothing were sitting in a classroom repeating the words a teacher spoke. (What was interesting about that though was that the viewer does not hear the immigrants speak. The viewer merely sees their mouths form the words, leaving the viewer to choose the voices the students have.) In the movie Hester Street, Jake’s son and wife immigrate to the United States and soon begin to learn English. There is a scene in which Jake’s son is rewarded for being able to say the word “horse” and another scene in which his wife starts stating the names of kitchen appliances in English. As the movie progresses, these characters start to converse in mostly English. This shows how they are losing part of their identity. In The Jazz Singer, Jackie speaks in English everywhere except when he is in the synagogue. However, this can be seen as a preservation of identity, for instead of going through the performance, he took over his father’s place in singing the hymns.

People should learn the language of the country they live in, even if they live in self-sufficient neighborhoods consisting of people who speak the same native tongue as them. These self-sufficient neighborhoods are shown in The Jazz Singer and Hester Street. Whenever the characters stepped onto the streets, it would consist of people of the same religion, Jewish, conducting business, working and enjoying drinks together. These ethnic neighborhoods are a way that people wish to preserve this part of their identity, the traditions they uphold because of their religion. Woman would wear plain, dark clothing that covered them. Men wore black hats and grew out their beards. Most of the people in these movies had similar physical features. A person’s facial features give away their nationality. This is clearly shown in Ellis Island; there is a scene in which a woman writes “Serb” on the glass in front of a person looking at the camera. Also in that movie, there was a scene where the viewer saw the side profile of a woman and that a hand drew a circle on the glass in front of her. This circle brought the viewer’s attention to the woman’s nose. In Hester Street, Jake’s wife has certain unique characteristics that Jake’s lover did not have. This was apart in the scene where his lover came over his house to find out that Jake is married and with a little boy.

However, those that wished to remove themselves from their old identity-such as Jake-do not fit in. Jackie has shaved off his beard and cut his hair to look like a modern American. Jake also makes fun of the person who just came to America in the second scene where he, his lover, and two of his friends are sitting around a table in a restaurant. Jackie, however, took a somewhat extreme approach: he put on a mask. Being a “cultural schizophrenic,” Jackie wishes to hold onto his old self and his new self: a jazz singer. (Rogin, page 426) However, a Jewish man at the time could not be a jazz singer, thus in order to obtain fame and fortune, he put on a blackface. This mask allowed him to be free “from paternal, old-world constraints” and allows him to follow his dream of using his voice to sing jazz. (Rogin, 419) “Blackface is the instrument that transfers identities from immigrant Jew to American.” (Rogin, 434) Through this mask, Jackie is able to live the way he wants: that is, until his father falls ill. Then it becomes an internal conflict between his religion and what he sees himself doing with his life (which has become part of his identity). The scene that best reflects this internal struggle is when he is looking in the mirror (with his costume on) and in the reflection the viewer sees his father singing in the synagogue. In the end, he gets to keep both identities: a cantor of his synagogue and a jazz singer.

Jake did not have this choice. His wife and child represent his old identity and his lover represents his new identity. In the end, he decides to keep his new identity and get rid of his old one. Thus in the end of the movie, he divorced his wife and married his Polish lover. This signifies how Jackie decided to be an American and starts life anew.

Jakie’s refusal to become a Cantor evidently points to the concept of identity. As seen within the movie, The Jazz Singer, Cantor Rabinowitz’s strict ruling tries to disintegrate the identity of Jakie. However, Jakie fights against the tradition of his family, refusing to carry on the five generations of the Rabinowitz being Cantors. Years passed after Jakie, (now Jack Robin) had run away from home. The issue with his father is still standing after all these years. However, when he is presented with a situation to clear his name in the eyes of his father, he does so, and to this I disagree.

Not only do I disagree with this, I also disagree with parts of the shocking critique of The Jazz Singer presented by Michael Rogin. First and far most, I was intrigued when he said that the movie had done ‘no favor to blacks.’  As stated on page 419, paragraph two, “The Jazz Singer’s protagonist adopts a black mask and kills his father.” However, I beg to differ with Rogin’s view. I believe that Jakie’s choice to run away from home and pursue his dreams of being a jazz singer should have no bearing on his father’s death. Cantor Rabinowitz was already ill and on his deathbed. This brings me back to Jack’s decision of performing for the Atonement. Why must it take a death to reach out for someone and make amends? Especially family? Personally I feel that the father should have done more for Jakie and not wait until he was about to pass away.

Aside from this point, I do agree on Rogin’s view regarding the function of whiteness and blackness. Jakie uses his blackface in order to create a new him, a body to take on a new form. In this new form, he freely expresses his voice by singing black music, jazz. This side allows Jakie to find his identity as a singer, not just for the synagogue, but also for jazz. This is Rogin’s point, that the whiteness and blackness experienced by Jakie enables him to heal his ‘divided soul.’  The union of his divided soul is seen at the end, as he is both a Cantor and a jazz singer when Mary says “[He’s] a jazz singer – singing to his God.”

After watching Ellis Island, I feel that Michael Rogin could have said anything about the film. His critique on The Jazz Singer had commented on subtle events, making it difficult to predict what he could say about a film like this. Either way, the film contrasts the present day (of when the movie was made) to the Ellis Island from the past. In the past, the immigrants had tried to assimilate into the American culture, as they learned English and New York landmarks. Clearly, they were by far more identified by their background and in a sense, still not American. This is demonstrated in the one scene where there was a ‘profiling’ of the immigrants and one of them was labeled ‘SERB’. This black and white scene, in comparison to the tour of Ellis Island, shows how the film is resolved indirectly. By comparing these two times, we see that the laws for immigration have changed and the bare conditions which were endured by immigrants so long ago (as seen in the panoramic view in the beginning of the film) are no longer present. Indeed there are challenges, but if anything the conditions have improved for the immigrants nowadays, and their descendants back then; given that the people who are taking the tour are the descendants.

This is also seen on Foner’s account. According to Foner, as many of us will agree, “A hundred years ago, immigrants arrived at Ellis Island dirty and bedraggled, after a long ocean journey in steerage; now they emerge from the cabin of a jet plane at John F. Kennedy International Airport, often dressed in designer jeans or fashionable attire.” Foner’s account is filled with statistics relating the immigrants who have come here, and why.  However, the emotional aspect present in films such as Ellis Island is absent in Foner’s book. Yes, there are tragic events which Foner mentions such as anti-Semitic violence, but reading about one does not have as much empathy as seeing one.

Finally, I would love to end off on the ironic note expressed in Hester Street. Jake says, “Bernstein, you wished you had a son like my Joey, eh?” Of course, Berstein does become Joey’s stepfather at the end, a perfect reversal of the tables for our protagonists, Bernstein and Gitl with the antagonists, Jake and Mamie. At the heart of the situation between Jake and Gitl is the question of identity. Jake, who thinks he knows who he really is, does not; thus creating the barrier between him and his ex-wife.  While Gitl prefers to live the way of life as she knows it, Jake does not. His want for his former bachelor life and freedom that he got when arriving in America masks his identity; and ultimately drives Gitl away with abuse and animosity. Clearly, Jake’s identity has changed; he has went from the caring and loving Yekl (as described by Gitl) to the playboy Jake.