Paradise in Harlem

Eli Eli

Mendel and Hannah Shapiro, an elderly Jewish couple who run a small farm in New Jersey, must get money to meet their mortgage payment to the bank by the next day to keep their farm. Mendel calls their children, Mollie, in Philadelphia, and Morris, in New York, to come right away. His neighbor Michel believes that most children do not properly care for their parents and insinuates that Mendel's children would not come to visit if they knew that their parents needed money. Mendel, however, assures Michel that children are the best investment one can make.

Motel the Operator

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 by Sholem Secunda featuring Cantor Leibele Waldman and Joel Feig's famous choir are a good example of the bittersweet melodrama in the finest tradition of the Yiddish theater.

Three Daughters

David Gottlieb, a longtime accountant at a New York firm run by Abe Zablinsky and his partner, is concerned about the future of his three daughters and worries that he might lose his job if he makes a mistake.

The Yiddish King Lear

Setting off from Vilna to spend his last days in the Holy Land, an arrogant old man spurns the youngest of his three daughters and leaves his fortune in the wrong hands.

The Eternal Question

Pierre Felix, a couturier, makes a $25,000 bet with Ralph Courtland that he can take a girl from the streets, dress her appropriately, and within three months have her accepted into society.

My son

This dramatic tale of immigrant hardship highlights some of the traumatic problems of the immigrant experience, including alcoholism, separation and poverty. The child star, Jerry Rosenberg (Ross) gives a memorable performance as the son Benny and the film introduces two European stars Fannina Rubina and Gustav Berger. The plot centers on the story of a stage couple that develops marital problems due to the demands of the theatre. The husband, whose career is failing, insists that the wife stay home to tend their young son. The subplot focuses on the plight of a woman who chooses her career over family obligations.

Love and Sacrifice

The tale of a middle-class matron who shoots the man who compromises her, Love and Sacrifice is a prime example of "shund," the melodramatic, theatrical, escapist entertainment of the Yiddish theater.

Her Second Mother

A young woman tries to repay her adoptive parents' kindness by shielding their biological child, who has gotten involved with an embezzler, from the police.

Kol Nidre

Famous for their role as young lovers two years previous in The Dybbuk, Polish husband-and-wife team Leon Liebgold and Lili Liliana are reunited as stars in Kol Nidre, a surprising mashup of romance, melodrama, comedy, and musical. The film tells the story of a girl (Liliana) who is torn between two lovers, using this premise to comment on the expectations surrounding gender, marriage, and the family in a time of generational uproar.

Sex Madness

A young beauty queen travels to New York to further her modelling career, but contracts syphilis after being tricked into a sexual encounter. She is torn between the prospect of a slow, intensive but proven therapy and a supposed miracle cure.

Stars on Parade

Small radio station, about to lose its last sponsor, gets reprieve when its manager unknowingly helps a performer who is friends with all the major pop radio stars, who come to put on a show of shows.