Rabbi Amichai Lau Lavie: Thought-Leader, Drag Queen, and Story Teller
The completely original and deeply moving documentary Sabbath Queen is everywhere this year. The film, directed by Sandi DuBowski, has screened everywhere from New Zealand to Washington state to critical and audience acclaim. It’s an understatement to say that Sabbath Queen is a hit.
Many viewers have found the film particularly poignant for the current moment, when, as we know, many American Jews are struggling to find a faith community that feels authentic to their modern beliefs and the way they actually live their lives. The remarkable thing about the film’s subject, Rabbi Amichai Lau-Lavie is that his understanding of this challenge is not new. He has been considering the same questions for most of his life.
Sabbath Queen is 21-years in the making, following Amichai and his drag persona, a brash blond named Rebbetzin Hadassah Gross. The Israeli Rabbi is the 39th generation of rabbis in his family, including a Holocaust survivor and a Chief Rabbi of Israel. Amichai is the first to be openly queer. Throughout the film, Amichai experiences many stages of life: the birth of his children, the death of his father, his acceptance to the rabbinate and his resignation shortly after officiating an interfaith marriage. In this intimate portrait, audiences have the opportunity to reflect on their own principles and how they relate to their faith.
After moving to New York in 1998, Amichai founded Storahtelling Inc., a ritual theater company that transforms traditional Torah reading into social political theater. He is also the Co-Founding Spiritual Leader of the Lab/Shul community in NYC, an “Artist-driven, everybody-friendly, god-optional, pop up, experimental community for sacred Jewish gatherings.” He completed his Conservative Movement rabbinical studies in 2016. He is also the author of the JOY Proposal, a 2007 project that discusses the current ethical and theological challenges of inter-marriage, and the on-going digital quest “Below the Bible Belt” where he questions, queers, and re-reads between the lines of all 929 chapters of the Hebrew Bible. The Rabbi is also an outspoken voice for peace in Gaza and women’s rights in the Orthodox community. Amcihai’s drag persona is also a voice of endless Jewish wisdom, through her strong accent and loud fashion sense. Rabbi Amichai Lau-Lavie said:
“I grew up with the shame of being silenced by my tradition, and I demanded at some point to talk back to this tradition. I demanded at some point to claim my rightful seat at the table. I turned the tables when that was needed, and then set the table. Better set, to include more of us.”
Rabbi Amcihai Lau Lavie has carved out a place for his insightful and individual theological voice. He has also used his experience to create communities that make other folks, Jews and non-Jews alike, feel welcomed. Instead of accepting the limitations of “what has been,” Rabbi Lau-Lavie is continuing to shape the future of what will be in the diverse tapestry of Jewish identity.
As a progressive Hebrew Center with a diversity of opinion and identity, we look up to Rabbi Lau-Lavie’s work. He has been, and continues to be, successful in building communities where newcomers are not only invited in but are excited to join. We are eager to laugh and cry with him during Sabbath Queen, to learn from “Radical Inclusion: A Moral Jewish Response to Divisive Extremes,” and take full advantage of his leadership at our shabbat services.
As Rabbi Amichai Lau-Lavie said at Pride Shabbat this June, “I hope that we can help each other feel more fully in ourselves, in our names, in our stories, in our choices, in our identities, in our rage, in our grief, in our hopes, in our resilience, in our courage, in our pride, in our life, and yes, our joy.”
We hope we can create this community with you.
Sabbath Queen Film Screening and Q&A
Monday, August 4th, 7:30 PM
In-person at the Hebrew Center
Rabbi Amichai Lau-Lavie’s epic journey as the dynastic heir of 3 generations of Orthodox rabbis including the Chief Rabbis of Israel is captured over 21 years of filming. He is torn between rejecting and embracing his destiny and becomes a drag-queen rebel, a queer bio-dad and the founder of Lab/Shul – an everybody-friendly, God-optional, artist-driven, pop-up experimental congregation. Amichai is on a lifelong quest to creatively and radically reinvent religion and ritual, challenge patriarchy and supremacy, champion interfaith love, and stand up for peace, ceasefire, and an end to the Occupation in Israel/Palestine. Following the film, join the Rabbi and producer Sandi DuBowski for a live Q&A.
Radical Inclusion: Bringing more people under the chuppa
August 7th, 7:30 PM
In-person at the Hebrew Center
Rabbi Amichai Lau-Lavie is the Co-Founding Spiritual Leader of the Lab/Shul community in NYC and the creator of the ritual theater company Storahtelling, Inc. Israeli born, he’s been living in New York since 1998. He received his rabbinical ordination from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America in 2016, the 39th generation of rabbis in his family — the first one to be openly queer.
Rabbi Amichai is the subject of Sabbath Queen, Sandi DuBowski’s award-winning documentary film, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in June 2024.
Rabbi Amichai serves on the Executive Board of Rabbis for Human Rights, is a co-founding member of the Jewish Emergent Network, a founding faculty member of the Reboot Network, and serves on the Advisory Board of the Sulha Peace Project for Israeli and Palestinian peacemakers, the Leadership Council of the New York Jewish Agenda, the Advisory Council for the Institute for Jewish Spirituality and as an advisor to Jerusalem Open House for Pride and Tolerance.
He’s been named “an iconoclastic mystic” by Time Out New York, “a calm voice for peace” by NPR, a “rock star” by The New York Times, and “one of the most interesting thinkers in the Jewish world” by The Jewish Week. In 2017 he was named one of America’s Top 50 rabbis by The Forward.
The Full Moon of Fearless Love – How We Rise from the Rubble and Resist Despair
Friday, August 8, 6:00 PM
In-person at State Beach
Know Hope: Life Lessons from Failed Leaders who Teach us How to Cope
Saturday, August 9, 10:00 AM
In-person at the Hebrew Center