by Joanne Palmer for Jewish Standard
Given that it was filmed over 21 years, it’s not surprising that “Sabbath Queen” is complex.
It’s the story of Rabbi Amichai Lau-Lavie, the founder and leader of Lab/Shuls and of Storahtelling before that, and of Rebbetzin Hadassah Gross even before that.
It’s the beautifully photographed work of Sandi DuBowski, the director whose memorable 2001 documentary “Trembling Before G-d,” about the tensions gay Orthodox Jews and their communities confront, made a difference in many lives.
It will be shown at both the Rutgers Jewish Film Festival and the Teaneck International Film Festival this week; it will open in theaters at the end of the month. (See below.)
Mr. DuBowski tried to include Mr. Lau-Lavie, as he was then, in his film, but he was rejected; Rabbi Lau-Lavie thought that his own story didn’t dovetail neatly with the others, but if filmed at all should be at the heart of another film. The two men became friends, and Mr. DuBowski began filming Rabbi Lau-Lavie. So that means that we, the audience, are able to watch a real person as he grows and changes, as he becomes visibly older, as he assumes more and more responsibility and as those responsibilities etch themselves into his face.
There are ways in which the film is a study of brothers. Amichai Lau-Lavie’s brother, Binyamin Lau, is a well-known, highly respected Orthodox rabbi in Jerusalem; interviews with him are at the heart of “Sabbath Queen.”
The brothers’ father, Naphtali Lau-Lavie, was an Israeli diplomat who became his country’s consul-general in New York, where Amichai spent part of his childhood. Naphtali’s brother, Yisrael Meir Lau, has been, among other things, the Ashkenazi chief rabbi of Israel and the chairman of Yad Vashem.
The younger generation of Lau-Lavie brothers is the 36th in an unbroken line of rabbis.
“Sabbath Queen” tells many stories. It includes the extraordinary way that Naphtali ensured that Yisrael survived Auschwitz, the way Amichai rejected his background, came to New York, came to terms with its inescapability, became a figure of wild spirituality and great depth, was an inescapably Jewish drag queen, founded Lab/Shul, became, of all things, a Conservative rabbi, because pragmatic realism and the belief that change must come from the middle fueled him, and then became an advocate of interfaith marriage and openness, and of the need to leave tribalism without leaving Judaism, because “this is a moment that requires change,” as he says in the film.
It’s the story of a man who constantly questions his place in the world, but always assumes leadership in whichever part of the world he’s in, and who has such charisma that he can do that.
