
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.

as Motel Friedman

as Esther Friedman

as Benjamin Rosenwald

as Rebecca Rosenwald

as Jack Rosenwald

as Jacob 'Joseph' Frumkin

as Chane Belle 'Annabella' Frumkin

as Ruth Frumkin

as Doctor

as Boss

as Jacob 'Jack' Rosenwald

as Benjamin Rosenwald


as The Cantor