What It's Like to Be Young, Gay, and Jewish

Contents:

• A YOUNG HASIDIC MAN LEADS A GAY DOUBLE LIFE BLACK HAT
• WHAT IT'S LIKE TO BE YOUNG, GAY, AND JEWISH
• A GAY JEWISH READG LIST

A YOUNG HASIDIC MAN LEADS A GAY DOUBLE LIFE BLACK HAT

So, Shmuel (Adam Silver) leads a double life -- prayg at the synagogue and managg a dry cleang bs by day, and then traversg gay bars by night -- at least while his wife and children are out of town. However, Shmuel's two liv unnscly bleed together when he leav his hat at a gay bar. Wrer, -producer, and gay Jewish man Phillip Guttmann explaed some of the challeng ultra-Orthodox Jews face.

As JW3, the Jewish muny centre north London, lnch GayW3, celebratg the liv of the LGBTQ muny throughout history to the prent day through film, theatre, mic and discsn, and upliftg Brish-Israeli documentary Who’s Gonna Love Me Now?, backed by the BFI, prepar for s cema release, now is a great time to look back at the bt of Jewish and Israeli LGBT cema. Gay Jewish characters have been the subject of great films om around the world, and the list below featur films om the UK, France, Germany, the US, and, of urse, Israel. A number of Brish films jt missed the list, cludg Sunday Bloody Sunday (1971), which Jewish doctor Peter Fch enjoyed Brish cema’s first male-on-male kiss; award-wng short film Sidney Turtlebm (2008), starrg Derek Jabi as an elrly gay Jewish pickpocket and nman; and Lisa Gornick’s latt film, The Book of Gabrielle (2016), a funny and sharp study of a Jewish lbian whose sexualy is thrown to turmoil.

The 10 films foc on culturally Jewish films featurg gay and lbian protagonists, almost all of which were directed by Jewish filmmakers.

WHAT IT'S LIKE TO BE YOUNG, GAY, AND JEWISH

His adaptatn of Mart Crowley’s play, about a group of gay men who gather for Harold’s party, rultg a cel eveng of sadistic gam and sabotage, me at the wrong time – as the gay liberatn movement tablished s voice the early 1970s, negative or prsg pictns of gay men the media were seen as archaic and obstctive to progrs. While Michael, the pathetic protagonist, is ed an unlikeable and self-pyg monster, the other characters are far more sympathetic, while the glor Harold, utterly unashamed of his homosexualy and wh nothg to hi, emerg om the rnage unsthed. Friedk would go on to make a far more dub gay film – the notor S&M killer thriller Cisg (1980).

Torch Song Trilogy (1988)Harvey Fierste is bt known for his stage work, particularly for wrg the books for the stage mils La Cage x Foll and Kky Boots, jog Stephen Sondheim and Jerry Herman as Broadway legends who happened to be both gay and Jewish. It hasn’t dated a jot – more’s the py, as ristance to effemate men and gay adoptn still prevail today.

A GAY JEWISH READG LIST

The star of the show, though, is Fierste, who mak Arnold a lovable, vulgar and believably human figure who challenged the perceptn of drag queens as sexls clowns shamg the gay muny. Amazg Grace (1992)Gay men don’t se much the cema of Amos Guttman. He kicked off his short reer wh Driftg (1982), a grim, semi-tobgraphil tale of a gay filmmaker tryg and failg to fd love and fundg for his next film.

Amazg Grace, ma nearly a later, is a much stronger piece of work, about two gay men – one an nocent teenager om a troubled fay, the other an HIV patient – who fall for each other after meetg Tel Aviv. In Man Is a Woman, he brgs all his nsirable charm and charisma to the role of Simon, a gay Klezmer mician who is offered 10 ln ancs om his tradnalist uncle if he agre to marry a woman. Is the meang of the film’s tle, explaed at the vibrant Jewish weddg that starts the film, a homophobic nonsense?