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STREIT'S: MATZO AND THE AMERICAN DREAM Send This Review to a Friend
You don’t have to eat matzos to be interested in this documentary saga directed by Michael Levine. As the title says, the American dream pursued by a family through generations on New York’s lower Eastside is at the core of the story following the trail of the matzo bakery and what has happened to it in the wake of neighborhood change. It is a very personal story—yes, clearly a plug for Streit’s—and one in which we get to know those still carrying the torch.
It was in 1915 when an Austrian immigrant opened the matzo factory on Rivington Street, an area then populated largely by Jewish immigrants. It has persisted through the years, with aging matzo-making machinery and its loyal customers. Employees interviewed in the film reveal the long years during which they have held jobs there.
But time and gentrification has caught up with Streit’s. Despite the effort to keep holding on in the same location, changes in the area finally persuaded the current operators to decide to move to suburban Rockland County, New York, with new machinery replacing the creaking old machines that have been kept going with repairs. The conditions may be different, but the aim is to keep Streit’s matzos the same. It is appropriate that the film is opening (In New York at the Film Forum on April 20) in time for Passover, when the demand for matzos is at its peak.
What gives the film heart is meeting the three cousins who operate Streit’s and one especially important workman. There is the oldest of the cousins, Alan Adler, the grandson of Irving Streit and great grandson of founder Aron Streit. Aron Yagoda, the middle cousin, is the grandson of Jack Streit and the great grandson of the founder. The youngest cousin is Aaron Gross, with the same lineage.
They are very vocal in telling how much the matzo business means to them in terms of holding on to their heritage. To hear them tell it, the work is more than just manufacturing and profit.
It is especially moving to hear from the most senior worker Anthony Zapata, who began his job at Streit’s in 1983 when he was 19. As he tells it, Jack Streit saw him walking along Rivington Street, and called out, “Hey, Italian kid, you want a job?” (He’s really Puerto Rican). He quickly said yes. The move to Rockland County presents a problem for him—the commute—but, according to the film, he and the other workers have been promised jobs in the new venue. However, as of the making of the film, Zapata’s future was in doubt. Zapata is extremely colorful in the way he talks about work at the place and his pride in turning out the product.
There is considerable comment by Elissa Sampson, a lower East side historian, and the film is replete with old photos and clips reflecting what the area was like in its immigrant heyday. The film could use some trimming, as the talk of the wonders of matzo making and the family tradition grows repetitious, but this is an absorbing story waiting to be told, and it folds into the lore of the Jewish experience in America, religious and otherwise. A Menemsha Films release. Reviewed April 18, 2016.
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