I Want to Be a Mother

Fri, 05 Sep 2025 04:00:00 +0000

I Want to be a Mother is the cry of heroine Amelia (Hannah Hollander) in this Yiddish-language film. Raised to believe she is the daughter of a Bronx couple, Amelia is shocked to learn that she is the illegitimate offspring of her so-called aunt. Even worse, the father of Amelia’s husband is actually her own long-lost father! Under these circumstances, the prospect of Amelia having a child of her own seems out of the question — but the day is saved by a last-minute revelation provided by marriage broker Chaim Bok (Leo Fuchs). Though shabbily produced, I Want to Be a Mother is consistently entertaining.

Motel the Operator

Sat, 06 Sep 2025 04:00:00 +0000

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.

Yetta Zwerling – MRQE

I Want to Be a Mother

Motel the Operator