Our spring film series concludes with Sabbath Queen, a powerful and intimate documentary. Please join us for an in-person screening, followed by a Q&A with the film’s subject, Rabbi Amichai Lau-Lavie, and director Sandi DuBowski. The screening will take place on Monday, April 27, at 6:00 p.m., location TBD.
Filmed over 21 years by Sandi DuBowski, director of the groundbreaking documentary Trembling Before G-d, this absorbing documentary follows Rabbi Amichai Lau-Lavie’s epic journey as the dynastic heir of 38 generations of Orthodox rabbis, including a Chief Rabbi of Israel. Torn between rejecting and embracing his lineage, Amichai becomes a drag queen rebel, a queer bio-dad, a founder of Lab/Shul—an everybody-friendly, G-d-optional, artist-driven, experimental congregation in New York—and, most unexpectedly, a rabbinical student. Sabbath Queen profiles Amichai’s lifelong quest to cultivate Jewish community and reimagine the future of Judaism.
(105 minutes; English, Hebrew, & Yiddish with English subtitles)
Social activist and storyteller, writer and community leader, Rabbi Amichai Lau-Lavie (he/him) is the Co-Founding Spiritual Leader of the Lab/Shul community in NYC and the creator of the ritual theater company Storahtelling, Inc. He was born in Israel and has 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.
Sandi DuBowski is an activist filmmaker. His award-winning work, including Trembling Before G-d and Sabbath Queen, has screened at the Sundance, Berlin, Tribeca and Toronto film festivals, has been theatrically released in 150 cities, and has been broadcast on ZDF/Arte, BBC, Channel 4, and PBS. Sandi has worked as the Outreach Director of Doc Society’s Good Pitch, nurturing other social justice documentaries, and is a co-founder of The Creative Resistance, a media collective responsible for award-winning political ads and design.
*Guests must register by Thursday, April 23, to be approved for campus access; unregistered guests will not be permitted on campus. Each guest must register individually using a unique email address.
Supported by the generosity of the Radov and Kaye families.
While all IIJS events are free and open to the public, we do encourage a suggested donation of $10.