Director: Joseph SeidenBased on a play by Chaim Tauber
Music by Sholem Secunda
Cast: Chaim Tauber, Malvina Rappel, Yetta Zwerling, Jacob Zanger, Joseph Schoengold, Gertrude Krause, Seymour Rechtzeit, Cantor Leibele Waldman and Joel Feig's famous choir.
88 minutes
B&W Yiddish with English Subtitles
This classic melodrama captures the sentimental, emotional characters and the convoluted plots and fantastic coincidences which dominated the Second Avenue Yiddish theaters. Focusing on a labor dispute in the garment district of New York City, the film survives as an important historical document highlighting the hardships of the Jewish immigrant experience in America.
Motel, a poor laborer, loving husband and new father, leads cloakmakers in a strike for better working conditions. When he is severely injured by strikebreakers, his wife, Esther, and infant son are left destitute. Desperate to save her starving child, Esther gives him up for adoption to a wealthy couple, and then commits suicide. The richly-rendered beautiful Yiddish songs are a good example of the bittersweet melodrama in the finest tradition of the Yiddish theater.

Please note: These classical Yiddish Movies have been electronically enhanced to get the best possible video and sound quality. Due to the age and condition of the original movies, it was not always possible to have perfect results.