Hester Street: A Yiddish Kino & Shmues

Please join us for a screening of the postwar indie classic Hester Street (US, 1975), set on New York's Lower East Side. Adapted by director and screenwriter Joan Micklin Silver from Abe Chahan's 1896 novella Yekl: A Tale of the New York Ghetto, this is the first Yiddish feature by a woman director and deals frankly with immigration, marital unhappiness, money, and divorce in the first large wave of Ashkenazi migration to the United States.

In the 1890s, Gitl (the glorious Carol Kane, nominated for an Oscar for this role) is a young Jewish mother crossing the ocean to join her husband. When she arrives in New York, she is humiliated to find that Yankel, her child's father, is now Jake -- a clean-shaven American who speaks English, is ashamed of her dress and speech, and is seeing the glamorous Mamie. Can Gitl find happiness and security in New York, with or without Jake? And what will happen to Mamie?

The film (93 min, in Yiddish with English subtitles), will be followed by an hour of relaxed, peer-led shmoozing in Yiddish.

Sunday, November 15th from 2-5pm

Kirman Library at the Peretz Centre

6184 Ash St., Vancouver, BC V5Z 3G9​

➤   How to Get Here / Building & Accessibility Information

Free parking is available on the street or in the underground parkade.

This event is for Yiddish learners and speakers of all levels (one course in Yiddish or the equivalent is recommended). Vocabulary for shmoozing about the film will be provided.

Registration is required in advance as space is limited (max. 12 people). Priority registration is reserved for Peretz Centre members.

This program is sponsored by the Shaya Kirman Memorial Fund for Yiddish Culture. Stay tuned for more!