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Why ‘Hester Street’ meant so much for Jewish women (and for Yiddish)

JL;DR SUMMARY The 1975 film "Hester Street," directed by Joan Micklin Silver, holds significant cultural and historical value as it portrays Jewish immigrants in New York and is one of the first American films to feature substantial dialogue in Yiddish. A way out west there was a fella, fella I want to tell you about, fella by the name of Jeff Lebowski. At least, that was the handle his lovin' parents gave him, but he never had much use for it himself. This Lebowski, he called himself the Dude. Now, Dude, that's a name no one would self-apply where I come from. But then, there was a lot about the Dude that didn't make a whole lot of sense to me. And a lot about where he lived, likewise. But then again, maybe that's why I found the place s'durned innarestin'.

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Tags

FilmYiddishJewish RepresentationCultural IdentityJewish WomenImmigrant ExperienceHester StreetAssimilationJoan Micklin Silver1975 Film

Places mentioned

New York, United States
"Based on Ab Cahans 1896 novella, A Tale of the New York Ghetto, the film tells the story of a Jewish Eastern European immigrant called Yankl (played by Steven Keats) whos eager to assimilate into American society, quickly replacing his Yiddish name with a less ethnic equivalent, Jake."
Miami Beach, Florida, United States
"In it, a newly-married Jewish couple spend their honeymoon in Miami Beach, where the groom immediately regrets having married his very identifiably Jewish wife and chases after a beautiful, blonde-haired WASP-y college student."
Austin, Texas, United States
"Itzik Gottesman, a Yiddish folklore expert and former Forverts editor who teaches the language in the University of Texas at Austin, shows Hester Street each year to his Yiddish class and to the students in his course on Jewish-American immigrant culture."

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Retrieved 2025-08-30 05:31:28 UTC
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