“A Journey to Jewish Joy”; “Trembling Before G-d”

Now available in home video, the 2001 “Trembling Before G-d” The 2001 documentary by Sandi Simcha Dubowski dealt with gay and lesbian members of the Orthodox and Chasidic communities struggling against all odds to be accepted.

Mazursky’s documentary, which premieres tomorrow at Lincoln Center as part of a May 4 - 10 film festival honoring the 77 year old actor and director, follows him on a visit to the village of Uman in the Ukraine, where thousands of Chasidic Jews make a pilgrimage each year during the week of Rosh Hashanah in order to pray at the grave of Rabbi Nachman, one of their most revered leaders who died at the age of 38 in 1810. For the Chasidic sects, this is like Moslems going to Mecca. As became more and more obvious to me when watching Mazursky’s amusing documentary, this is not the only similarity between Jewish and Islamic fundamentalism.

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Paul Mazursky trying on Chasidic haberdashery

For fans of Larry David’s “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” Paul Mazursky will be instantly recognizable as Mel Brooks’s partner in the episodes when David becomes cast in the role of Max Bialystock. As a running gag, the always frowning Mazursky keeps arguing unsuccessfully to Brooks that Larry David would a disastrous choice. He doesn’t know at the time that Brooks chose David because he was tired of being involved with the show and expected David to ruin it, a reference of course to the plot of “The Producers”.

"Be There Or Be Square"

Mazursky’s film is little more than a home movie, costing only $50,000 to make. However, it is extremely funny and engaging. Since I am not sure it will ever make it into the theaters, I urge New Yorkers to consider seeing it tomorrow especially if the “Jewish Question” intrigues you, just as it did Karl Marx, Karl Kautsky and Abram Leon.

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"It's A Thumbs Up"

Mazursky was persuaded to make the trip to Uman by his observant Beverly Hills optometrist, who accompanies him there. Mazursky makes it clear at the beginning and at the end of the film that he is totally secular and unreligious. This does not prevent him from enjoying the experience. He obviously feels little identification with the religious Jews but tries to make the viewer and implicitly himself, understand their beliefs. I once went through a similar experience about ten years ago when I went to Bahai services in New York. I never took the whole idea of worshipping God seriously, but I found the Bahais engaging in their own way. I never got used to the idea, however, of their belief that homosexuals were beyond redemption–shared by the clergy in “Trembling Before G-d.”

The Great Yiddish Comedians Are Dying Off

Mazursky’s generation is dying out now. These are the men and women who came up in the Catskill resorts, Hollywood and Broadway musicals and 1950s television variety shows. Virtually none of them were religious, but their sensibility was quintessentially Jewish. This was expressed most of all by their sense of humor. In one scene after another, we see Mazursky cracking up a bunch of Chasidim with a vintage joke.

Some Of The Greatest Jokes

Cohen meets Schwartz in New York’s old garment district and Cohen says, “I heard about the fire.” Schwartz puts his fingers to his lips and whispers, “Shhhh, tomorrow.”

For the benefit of non-Jews, the joke goes back to the Depression days when businessmen facing bankruptcy set fire to their shops to collect the insurance.

What Would Momma Say

By contrast, “Trembling Before G-d” is no laughing matter. It profiles a number of deeply religious Jews who have been ostracized by their community for the “sin” of homosexuality.

A number of the interviewees have their faces hidden since they have not come out yet. Those with the courage to show themselves come across as much more ethical than those who hold them in judgment. Two women who live together are shown preparing a Friday night dinner, which is a kind of ceremony in Jewish households. Neither woman’s parents will have anything to do with them.

Will His Synagogue Forgive him?

A gay man from Los Angeles is seen in a discussion with a rabbi that he holds in very high regard. He tries to explain to the rabbi that his desire for other men is just as natural as his desire for his wife. The rabbi can only respond that the only way that the man can remain a Jew is if he represses his desires.

As director Dubrowski put it in an interview with indieWire, the rabbis tended to be Jewish versions of Jerry Falwell on such questions:
When you actually went to the Rabbis, how did you find the ones who would talk on camera?

Dubowski: At one point, I took a trip to Israel specifically to talk with Rabbis. It was a very difficult trip with about six weeks spent making as many phone calls as possible and following up on as many contacts as possible. I went to see the former chief Sephardic Rabbi of Israel. You wake up at 4 AM and sign your name on a list and wait for seven hours until finally you are in the doorway. There are all these people pushing behind you. You get inside the chamber and you have two people on either side of you and he is sitting above you with a crown on his head. I went up to the Rabbi and said, “You know there are so many people I have met over the past 7 years who are in pain.” I told him stories briefly of the people in my movie and asked him, “Is there anything you can say to help them?” He said to tell them two words: “animalistic and abomination.” I pushed my way back and said to him: “You know these are Torah Jews. They know the prohibition. What can you say to them to ease their pain?” And he answered: “Say the first ten chapters of the Kabbal, aloud. It will be eradicated.”

It should not come as any great surprise that gay and lesbian orthodox Jews are using the anonymity of the Internet to make connections with each other, just as dissidents in a dictatorship would. Websites such as GayJews.org and The World Congress of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Jews are challenging homophobia in organized Jewry all over the world, often using a deep understanding of scripture to buttress their arguments. As is typical in a world steeped in Talmudic disputation, there are often genuinely inspired interpretations. For example, at GayJews.org, Kevin J. Saunders explains that gay sex might be acceptable if it is seen in the same terms as the Hilchot Shabbat, where “Rav Noivert and the Tzitz Eliezer specifically permit someone who is diabetic and insulin dependent to regularly violate the Sabbath in order to puncture the skin and a vein to inject the insulin.” So, if penetration can be life-saving, why can’t it be fun as well?

When I watch ultra-orthodox Jews in such documentaries, I am reminded of why difficult it is for me to romanticize political Islamic. Religions that are so obsessed with sin and guilt are really not my cup of tea. When I was a religion major at Bard College in the early 1960s, I found myself much more interested in Bacchic rites than in the self-abnegating “sky religions” with their stern father figures.

Of course, I never really felt right about such things until I put religion behind me entirely.

Peter Grimm

Judicial Index