Hester Street deftly delves into Jewish emigration to the US just before the turn-of-the-century. Hester Street is a sort of mobile ghetto as Eastern European Jews pour in and go in for their Americanization before moving on to other NY boroughs or to further west US climes.
Adapted from Abraham Cahan’s story Yekl, it concerns Jake who has gone in for Americanization. He sends for his wife and son but their arrival first fills him with shame at their old world clodishness. However, the wife cannot keep up with her husband’s ways as she goes another way towards becoming an American. Joan Micklin Silver displays a sure hand for her first pic.
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