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

Contents:

• A YOUNG HASIDIC MAN LEADS A GAY DOUBLE LIFE BLACK HAT
• A GAY JEWISH READG LIST
• WHAT IT'S LIKE TO BE YOUNG, GAY, AND JEWISH
• ORTHODOX, CELIBATE, GAY AND THAT’S OK
• THE GAY ORTHODOX UNRGROUND

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. Over 500 gay Jews (and those who love them) partied the night away at Serlic, the Passover Party, prented by saw Pharoah and Mos rne and drk MAN-ischewz all night long on Saturday at New York's Hudson Terrace.

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.

A GAY JEWISH READG LIST

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.

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

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. 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. 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, 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.

ORTHODOX, CELIBATE, GAY AND THAT’S OK

An attempted kiss at a New Year’s Eve party velops to a passnate romance, but the vlently homophobic and antisemic world of wartime Berl threatens their happs.

THE GAY ORTHODOX UNRGROUND

Few gay and lbian survivors were alive to tell their stori when Rob Epste and Jefey Friedman ma their important documentary Paragraph 175, whose tle riv om the German act of law prohibg gay sex, which ntued to exist to the 1990s. Rather than producg a para of cshed victims, the film foregrounds the sharp mentary of Gad Beck, a Jewish gay man who helped refuge pe; the wistful memori of love lost om Hez F., still too guard to reveal his full name; and the undiluted anger of Pierre Seel, who was tortured by Nazi officers.

Luckily, Heather Juergensen and Jennifer Wtfeldt, who wrote and star as said let’s-give--a-whirl ‘lbians’, have w and chemistry on their si and create the neart cema has e to a gay Woody Allen movie. The nflict between homosexualy and Orthodox Judaism has been explored a number of excellent documentari, cludg Tremblg Before G-d (2001), Keep Not Silent (2005) and Jesalem Is Proud to Prent (2008).

Yossi (2012)Eytan Fox is one of Israel’s foremost directors, and all of his films foc on gay characters, often g homosexualy to ment on a wir theme, such as self-realisatn Mossad thriller Walk on Water (2004) or the Israeli–Paltian nflict The Bubble (2006).