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Summary:

"A letter to mother's tale of family disintegration and poverty serves as a metaphor for the displacements facing European Jews in 1939. One of the last Yiddish films made in Poland before the Nazi invasion, the film tells the story of a mother's persistent efforts to support her family. While her husband lives in America, Dobrish struggles to care for her three children in pre-WWI Polish Ukraine. After her family is pulled apart by severe poverty and the turmoil of war, Dobrish and her family make their way to New York and turn to the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS) in search of a brighter future. Released on September 14, 1939, two weeks after the German blitzkrieg over Poland, this film opened to packed audiences at the Belmont Theater in New York. Hailed by the New York times as one of the best Yiddish films to reach America, A letter to mother was the highest grossing Yiddish film of its time"--Page 4 of cover

Contributors:

Gehrman, Lucy, -1954 , actor

Gehrman, Misha , actor

Bozyk, Max, 1899-1970 , actor

Zayenda, Edmund , actor

Green, Joseph, 1900-1996 , director

Ellstein, Abraham, 1907-1963 , composer

Osherowitch, Mendl, 1889-1965

Green Film (Firm : Warsaw, Poland)

Sphinx Films Corp.

National Center for Jewish Film

Languages:

Yiddish
English

Language Notes:

In Yiddish with English subtitles.

Alternate Titles:

Title on container: Letter to mother

Subjects:

Hebrew Sheltering and Immigrant Aid Society of America — Drama

Jews — Ukraine — Drama

Jews — New York (State) — New York — Drama

Jewish women — Drama

Hebrew Sheltering and Immigrant Aid Society of America

Jews

Jewish women

New York (State) — New York

Ukraine

Genres:

Yiddish films

Fiction films

Feature films

Drama

System Details:

DVD-R, NTSC.

Performers:

Cast: Lucy Gehrman, Misha Gehrman, Max Bozyk, Edmund Zeyenda, Gertrude Bullman, Alexander Stein, Samuel Landau, Simche Fostel, Chana Levin, Itshok Grudberg, Irving Bruner.

Production Credits:

Photography, Seweryn Steinwurtcel ; music, Abraham Ellstein.

General Notes:

Originally produced as a motion picture in 1938.
Donated from the Rene and Jimmy Wisch Jewish Studies Collection.

Physical Description:

1 videodisc (106 min.) : sound, black and white ; 4 3/4 in.

Physical Characteristics:

4 3/4 in.

Audio Characteristics:

digital; optical; sound

Video Characteristics:

NTSC

Digital Characteristics:

video file

Call Numbers:

BRI 1938 DVD

ISBNs:

1585873160
9781585873166

Other Standard Numbers:

Universal Product Code: 800821033733
Universal Product Code: 8008210033733

OCLC Numbers:

213471183