Peopling of New York City, Spring 2012

In From Ellis Island to JFK, Nancy Foner goes about discussing two of the largest waves of immigration in United States history. Her discussion – at least in the first chapter – seems to focus on analyzing the qualities of each of these waves of immigration and on making comparisons between the two. She provides numerous statistics – the number of people coming in during each influx, the number of countries represented, the quality of trades and professions represented, et cetera – to bolster her argument and provides the reader with a very clear quantitative picture of immigration. Unfortunately, even with all of this information about the immigrants, the reader has a difficult time figuring out the souls of these individuals.

Who were they really? What drove them to leave behind everything they had in the Old World and to embark upon the perilous journey – at least, it must have been slightly perilous during the earlier influx – to the New World? What did they hope to find in this bizarre foreign land that is so different from their places of origin? What did they find once they passed through the belly of Ellis Island and emerged on the other side? What struggles did they face?

The film Ellis Island is a little too “artsy” for my tastes at some points, but the imagery and the audio it employs accomplish what I believe the director hoped to accomplish – it humanizes the hordes of immigrants that had to pass through the tiny island on their way to America. It puts faces to the numbers. The film also shows a glimpse of some of the struggles these individuals have to deal with even before they officially step foot on American soil – the struggle to prove their worth, the struggle to preserve their identities, the struggle to convince the authorities that they can fit in.

These are struggles that are more clearly examined in Hester Street and The Jazz Singer – two more films that do an excellent job of humanizing the immigrant hordes. Each of these films feature at least one immigrant protagonist who clearly suffers from a crisis of identity – he is torn between continuing to uphold the traditions of the Old World and fully submerging himself in the “American” culture. In The Jazz Singer, Jakie struggles with making a decision between pursuing his lifelong dream of becoming the eponymous jazz singer and pursuing his father’s lifelong dream for him to become cantor in the synagogue. In the end, the film suggests that he can actually have the best of both worlds – he can remain romantically attached to his Jewish mother and to his gentile girlfriend.

Hester Street does not have the same type of “compromise” ending for its main male protagonist. In this film, Yekl decides to abandon his Jewish heritage for the more glamorous life of a Yankee. He leaves his wife – who continually refuses to completely forsake her heritage in the way her husband does – and marries Mamie, a dancer. In turn, Gitle marries Bernstein – a so-called “traditionalist” who is as eager as she is to preserve their shared Jewish heritage. However, Gitle does not confine herself to one extreme end of the spectrum, as Yekl did by completely forsaking his heritage and embracing “Americanization.” For her, even though she does marry a traditionalist, the ending is also one that embraces the idea of “the best of both worlds” – she has her traditions, but she also speaks English and shows her hair.

Some people might find these types of “compromise” endings unrealistic and dissatisfying, but I’m of the opinion that having the best of both worlds is an integral part of defining what America is all about. This is a country that was built by immigrants – by people who came from somewhere else and settled down here, for whatever reason. These people didn’t just abandon their traditions when they came here. They brought their traditions with them and these traditions are what eventually mixed and morphed to create a culture that is distinctly American. You can’t have an “American” culture without the basic components that make it up – without the tiny and not so tiny contributions from  the cultures and traditions of Jewish, Chinese, or Italian immigrants. Perhaps, you can forget that those components exist, but when you break our culture back down again – when you dissect it – they are plainly there to see.

Just as adolescents embark on an intellectual journey to discover their true identity, so do the characters portrayed in the films The Jazz Singer and Hester Street. For instance, in Hester Street Yekl undergoes a dramatic change in both his personality and beliefs when he arrives in America. While in America, Yekl switches his name to Jake and abandons his religion. Furthermore, Jake becomes involved in an extramarital affair despite being married to his wife Gitle. However, when Gitle immigrates to America she upheld her Jewish faith and remained loyal to her husband. Unfortunately, Jake fails to show any appreciation for his wife when she tried to change herself for him. In fact, Jake illustrated no remorse for his actions and was blindly in love with Mamie the dancer. Through Hester Street we can see the dramatic transformation Yekl has undergone and visualize that Jake now considers himself to be a true American at heart and not Jewish. I am surprised that Jake even brought back Gitl at all if all he was going to do was just abandon her and betray her with his deceit. I feel that the movie resolved the conflict between Gitl and Yekl well because Jake got what he desired and Gitl remarried to Bernstein and was still able to adhere to her religion without a problem. I actually was hoping that Yekl would go back to Gitl after she reluctantly went against her own will to make him happy. Sadly, this was not the case. I wouldn’t be surprised even if Jake becomes “Daddy Yankee” after witnessing how much he changed.

Also, in The Jazz Singer we witness the identity conflict depicted by Jakie Rabinowitz. For example, Jakie (who later refers to himself as Jack) has to decide whether to premiere in his first show or to sing at the Kol Nidre to fulfill his father’s last wish. Here, Jakie experiences a cultural conflict because he has ponder over who he actually is: A devout Jewish cantor or a Jazz singing individual? Luckily for Jakie, he gets the best of both worlds and is able to both fulfill his father’s wish and sing jazz later on in the film. Even though Jakie ultimately becomes the Jazz Singer, somewhere inside of him his religion is still important to him and this caused him to sing for his father at the Kol Nidre that day. Jakie may now be Jazz Singer and an American, but in actuality he is of Jewish descent and will always be. I believe that since American culture emphasizes on individuality and places no restrictions upon a person it was no surprise why both Jakie and Yekl assimilated so quickly. Knowing the strict doctrines of their Jewish culture, both of them decided to give rise to newer identities as Americans to be able to better express themselves.

Nancy Foner’s writings showed insight to why immigrants like Jakie and Jake actually came to America. The fact that most immigrants suffered economic hardships and persecution in their native countries explain why they came to America. For example, Foner states that the amount of money a person makes within a month in Brazil isn’t enough to buy a new television. However, the amount of person an individual makes in a week in America is enough to buy a brand new television set. Factors like these are reasons why immigrants want to travel to America to commence a new life and escape financial burdens in their native countries. Thus, it’s not surprising why Jake and Jakie had a passion to reside in America. They both wanted to earn a decent living and start life afresh without any religious restrictions or financial issues. While the movies Hester Street and The Jazz Singer focused the identity crisis’ its characters confronted, Foner’s writings gave us the literal sense of what immigration was like. For instance, many immigrants perished on their journey coming to America due to starvation, lack of sanitary conditions on the ship, and harsh conditions and treatment. The expedition to America wasn’t an easy one for all immigrants.

Overall, the movies Hester Street and The Jazz Singer and the writings by Nancy Foner gave me a better idea of the strife immigrants had to endure to settle in an entirely new country. It also exposed to me the religious conflicts Jewish immigrants and other cultures faced, such as whether to stick to their religion or to abandon it and begin a newer life as a different person.

Happy February Everybody!

First and foremost I would like to get some initial reactions off my chest (figuratively speaking of course)

• “You can’t pee up on my back and make me think it’s rain” was by far the best line in Hester Street, I can only describe it as epic as Raymond’s mother (Mrs. Kavarsky) completely stumped Jack leaving him agape.
• Ellis Island had extremely creepy “oooo” sounds, and while I was viewing the video my volume was quite loud so I was thoroughly spooked.

This motif of questioning one’s identity is an interesting notion that I never really considered before, yet it makes perfectly sense. If these men and women are choosing to leave their homeland and come to a new, strange land then they have the opportunity to re-invent themselves. This opportunity in turn brings about the internal conflict and struggle as they face the questions, “who am I?” and “which do I choose?” Interestingly I find it analogous to the question of identity faced by incoming freshmen. A lot of high school seniors decide to reinvent themselves when they’re in college. As they leave their high school world and friends behind, they enter a new world where they can cast away any previous inhibitions, reputations, etc. and start anew.

Although the films were all made in different decades they all depict this struggle of defining oneself. In The Jazz Singer, Jakie rejects his conservative Jewish upbringing and runs away embracing a secular, American culture. And since he practices black face you can argue he embraces the African American culture as well. But the question is why? Jakie loved to sing jazz yet his father and his Jewish upbringing wouldn’t allow him to pursue this passion. However, the African American culture is infamous for their love of jazz, which is why he ran away and embraced a new identity. Unlike Jake in Hester Street, Jakie still had his Jewish roots, which was evident in his flashbacks and his decision to sing the Kol Nidre. This dual identity is what brings out the sense of an unresolved ending.

Jake on the other hand, completely abandons his old ways when he comes to America. He changed his name, doesn’t really know Hebrew, and repeatedly refers to himself as a Yankee. Moreover, when he brings his wife to America he changes his son’s name to Joey and reacts angrily whenever his wife does something un-American. Jake turning his back on his old culture, religion, etc. is what helps bring this film to a resolution. The last shot of the two new couples (Mamie & Jack and Gitl & Bernstein) depicts this, the two made their choices and go on their own paths.

A pivotal scene in Ellis Island that portrays this motif is the lady teaching the immigrants; she might be teaching them English words but she’s really teaching them their new lifestyle and identities, like the man who entered Ellis Island as Elessen Rahmsauer and left Eli Lamb.

Foner’s article offered an interesting perspective on this topic as well. Specifically, the notion of how our perspective on immigrants has changed. Foner suggests that we used to see them as these “heroes who weathered hardships in Europe and a traumatic ocean crossing to make it to America” but now since many immigrants are undocumented they are “stigmatized and unwanted.” Since Foner’s book was written in the early 21st century it gives a more modern point of view on this topic, something the films simply cannot. For me, the films offered a much more engaging perspective to this topic because we got to see the story of these people and witness their struggle of identity, something Foner’s reading couldn’t do.

I think it’s pretty obvious that both The Jazz Singer and Hester Street revolve around crises of identity.  However, these two crises are seemingly superficially opposite as one deals with a protagonist wanting to leave behind tradition to pursue the new, exciting, and rebellious while the other centers around the resistance to depart from tradition and embrace the ways of the “new world”.  On a deeper level, however, I think that these two issues are actually very similar and work towards a common goal.  Both Jakie and Gitl face a time when they have to make a decision about their faith and how it defines them.  Both characters are forced to discover their identities and make difficult choices about retaining their identities and belief systems while shaping to the roles they are expected to conform to.  Both characters end up staying true to their faith identity in some way.

Though Jakie’s departure from the traditions of the Jewish faith to pursue his dream of becoming a jazz singer seems to be complete, I believe that there remained a part of him that expressed a desire to return to his Jewish roots and please his father.  These desires are clearly seen when Jakie is in the audience listening to the performance of the Kol Nidre.  Jakie is obviously affected by the performance and has flashbacks to his father singing it.  Jakie has similar flashbacks when he looks into the mirror in blackface.  This crisis of identity was bound to be resolved in the way that it was, with Jakie fulfilling his father’s dying wish to hear him sing the Kol Nidre.  Jakie’s life revolves around some kind of religious experience, whether it be the traditional Jewish faith practices he grew up with or a different kind of religion – the one he experiences while playing the role of a jazz singer.

These types of internal identity conflict are a common thread throughout the history of immigration, especially through the era of Ellis Island.   People who wanted a better life for themselves and their families experienced relatively traumatic passages into the United States, as Nancy Foner describes in her piece.  Among these people were my grandparents who immigrated separately in the mid 1950s from Italy.  At Sunday dinner, conversation centered, rather ironically, around my grandfather’s experience with both immigration and assimilation.  Knowing only his sponsor, Uncle Joe, my grandfather’s main concern was not whether or not “L’America” would treat him well, but how he would fit in.  He worked tirelessly, much like Gitl did, to learn the English language and slowly adopted “American” ways while retaining the values and traditions of his homeland – values and traditions that are still a very large part of his, and consequently my own, life.  This happy medium was not a quick or easy transition.  It was a hard struggle, as was portrayed most accurately in Hester Street.  I think that all three films that I watched this week depict this struggle in a way that Foner’s text does not really address.  While providing a nice description of the physical process and the reasons why this kind of process could occur, I feel that a lot of what comes next in terms of incorporating “American-ness” into the identity of the individual immigrant is missing and glossed over.

There was a pretty typical conflict of identity in The Jazz Singer.  Little Jakie has to make a huge lifestyle decision, based on the pressure that his parents place on him. According to them, he must choose to take on the identity of a Jazz singer or to stay loyal to his Jewish traditions and become a cantor like his father.  The scene that comes to mind is the scene where grown-up Jakie goes to see a show, and it turns out to be his father singing old-fashioned, Jewish songs. I saw a clear moment of question in his eyes when he smiles and reminisces over his childhood. The conflict of his identity arises from the clash of two cultures. He feels like he has to choose one of the I think this is why Jakie’s identity crisis is never really solved. It takes time for two cultures to learn to accept one another’s ways, so until that time, a young, developing adult will feel torn in his identity.

Then, there’s the second Jake that goes through an identity crisis. In Hester Street, Jake has the opportunity to create this second life for himself in America, which then, of course, leads to a new identity. It’s a similar culture clash to the one in The Jazz Singer. However, I think it’s an even more difficult situation, because Jake never thought he’d have to make an identity decision. To explain, I’ll bring up the scene where he finds out that his wife and son are coming to America.  It’s clear that his wheels start to turn once he finds out because he has to find a way to make his two identities mesh in one place. I believe he doesn’t know what he wants once his wife comes from overseas, because Gitle can’t do a thing to please him (changing her clothes, hair, language, etc.). And by the end, the identity conundrum isn’t really solved, because Jake ends up choosing one of his identities irrationally and aggressively, rather than calmly taking the time to figure things out with Gitl and consider how it might affect Yossele.

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.

Hi folks,

I will be providing you with a prompt each week to guide your thinking about the films and readings for the week.  My questions are designed to facilitate your engagement with the texts but if you have another compelling question or concern that you would like to raise, please feel free to write about it instead, provided you consider it relevant to the course material.

For this week, I would like to you think about Ellis Island (1981), Hester Street (1975) and The Jazz Singer (1928) in terms of questions of identity.  What conflicts of identity–and specifically racial and religious identity–do each of the films raise?  How does each film resolve these issues, if at all?  You might choose a scene from either film that you think makes the film’s strategy for depicting and resolving racial and religious conflict clear. Do you agree with Rogin’s reading of the function of whiteness and blackness in The Jazz Singer?  And what might Michael Rogin have to say about Hester Street or Ellis Island?  Finally, how might we relate the history of immigration that Foner describes to these films which engage with the same historical period in a more lyrical fashion than Foner’s text?  What is present in the films that is absent in Foner’s work–and vice versa?

Again you don’t need to answer all of these questions but please do engage with those that strike your interest.  Your answer should at least 300 words or roughly a page in length but may be as long as 3 pages.

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