Sabbath Queen Tells the Unconventional Tale of a Gay Drag Queen Rabbi

A radical fairy drag queen rabbi officiates a gay Jewish-Buddhist interfaith wedding...

It may sound like the start of a cancelable joke or an unhinged Fox News segment, but this is the reality Rabbi Amichai Lau-Lavie lives and Sandi DuBowski documents in the new documentary Sabbath Queen. The film follows Lau-Lavie's circuitous journey from traditional Orthodox roots to a progressive and inclusive understanding of worship.

Deviating from 38 generations of Orthodox rabbis, Lau-Lavie charted his own path in New York City when he established Lab/Shul, "an everybody-friendly, God-optional, artist-driven, pop-up experimental congregation."

DuBowski began documenting Lau-Lavie's unconventional journey back in 2003. "The film begins after 9/11 and goes past October 7th," says the director. Along the way, he captured the fallout of the rabbi's traumatic outing, his cultivation of a boundary-pushing drag persona, and the founding of his unconventional congregation. In anticipation of the film's theatrical release in South Florida, New Times spoke to Lau-Lavie and DuBowski about Sabbath Queen and its long journey to the screen.

Lau-Lavie and DuBowski met in the late 1990s, as the director prepared his first documentary, Trembling Before G-d. "I was looking for people to be in my film, which was about Hasidic and Orthodox Jews who are lesbian or gay," says DuBowski. "I went to Jerusalem, and everyone kept saying, 'You've got to meet this person, Amichai, because his uncle is a Chief Rabbi of Israel, and Amachai is gay.'" Lau-Lavie declined to participate in the film — Trembling Before G-d was about the struggle of queer individuals who wanted to stay inside of Orthodoxy, but Lau-Lavie already defined himself as "Flexidox or Paradox." He was waiting for his own film.

Lau-Lavie's brother describes the decision to leave Orthodoxy as a "choice" that freed his brother of all the "rules." But, as outlined in the film, the start of Lau-Lavie's journey is more complex. The victim of a very public outing, he says he left Orthodoxy "because to do otherwise would have been to lie, or to choke." Eventually, he found his way to New York City, where he discovered the politics of radical fairies and found love, family, and a new form of faith.

Part of that journey included cultivating Hadassah Gross, his drag persona, described as "an ageless rabbi's wife and Holocaust survivor." Lau-Lavie has used the alter ego as a means of questioning what he perceives as the patriarchal oppression of women in Orthodoxy and countless organized religions.
The film and its subject tackle numerous thorny issues in Sabbath Queen, from Palestine (Lau-Lavie is seen protesting against Israeli occupation) to the status and rights of women and queer individuals in the Orthodox and larger Jewish communities. At times, DuBowski’s prodding questions elicit heated responses from a frustrated Lau-Lavie. "Sabbath Queen is raw and human and fearless about complexity," says the director.

That complexity is on display even now, two decades after the duo began filming. DuBowski says he views Lau-Lauvie’s work and the film as a sort of time capsule of "the experience of 21st-century Jewish spirituality," and what that entails is still up for spirited debate.

The film first screened in South Florida during the Miami Jewish Festival, which DuBowski commends for "its scope, its breadth, and its willingness to take risks" — he notes the film was rejected from other Jewish film festivals in the state. He regards the Miami screening as a success, saying he witnessed only a "tiny, few walkouts" for addressing "the war and Amichai's pro-peace perspective."

Lau-Lavie points to another personally meaningful screening. His "mother, siblings and their wives, nieces, and nephews sat in Jerusalem for the first time" recently to discuss his sexuality and religious choices; an experience he describes as "quite moving." Both viewings met Sabbath Queen's stated goals: to "inspire conversations, questions, and connection."

Sabbath Queen. 1:15 p.m. Sunday, February 9, at Coral Gables Art Cinema, 260 Aragon Ave., Coral Gables; 786-472-2249; gablescinema.com. Tickets cost $15.75.