Jewish drag is on the rise as more and more observant Jews come out of the cross-dressing closet.
In fact, there’s a burgeoning and proudly Orthodox drag scene, writes Rachel Delia Benaim in The Guardian, where 28-year-old Yudi K, an interior designer performs as Silvia Sparklestein, “a 39-year-old big blond Jewish mama from Queens” who parodies Jewish holidays in songs like “All I want for Christmas is Jew” and excels at Jewish guilt — “think Woody Allen meets Bubbe,” as Benaim puts it.
There’s also drag newbie Lady SinAGaGa, who in real life is 22-year-old Moshiel, a day school graduate from Woodmere who spent two years at a Jerusalem yeshiva before becoming a student at the School of Visual Arts and hitting the drag queen stage.
Jayson Littman, who founded Hebro, a community of gay Jews who celebrate both parts of their identities, tells The Guardian that the growth of Jewish drag culture “shows that our community has come so far that not only have we dealt with many of our issues surrounding coming out, but now we can proudly put on a drag performance with Jewish identities to showcase our alternate Jewishly exaggerated personalities.”
Read the full article here.
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