Jane Seymour's
Artistic Face •,

Music, Laughs
in Aid Of 'Israel

. . 78

Former Detroiter
Rekindles Klezmer

80

NAOMI PFEFFERMAN
Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles

Mark, a British
man with AIDS,
abandoned Orthodoxy
after being kicked out
of seven yeshivot.

I

n Sandi Simcha DuBowski's sear-
ing new documentary, Trembling
Before G-d, David, a handsome,
Orthodox Los Angeles doctor,
describes his struggles to "change" his
gay sexuality.
"Remedies" included a psychothera-
pist prescribing aversion therapy —
and a rabbi advising him to recite
psalms and to eat figs.
"I would have tried anything," David
says.
The movie also introduces Devorah,
an Orthodox mother who requires
anti-depressants to stay in her mar-
riage. And Israel, who was confined to
a mental hospital, then banished by his
. family because he was gay.
Shot over five years in Brooklyn,
Jerusalem, Los Angeles, San Francisco,
-Miami and London, Trembling Before
- G-d focuses on Orthodox Jews who
come Out" as homosexuals and are
forced to reconcile sexual orientation
with religious tradition. Filmmaker
DuBowsld documents their struggles

44

I

1)0( ,UNILNITARY FILM ""fREMBLING BEFORE G-D,"
FI
PRINIFWING IN DETROIT, DEPICTS ORTHODOX GAYS
DEALING WITH DESIRE DEEMED "AN ABOMINATION. "

— and shatters a wall of silence.
"I have to be this shaliach, I have to
be this messenger, for all these people
that are too scared to speak," he said.
Trembling Before G-d premieres in
New York Oct. 24, but will be pre-
viewed locally 730 p.m. Wednesday,
Oct. 17, at the Jewish Community
Center in West Bloomfield.
After the movie, Rabbi Steven
Greenberg, a senior teaching fellow at
the National Jewish Center for
Learning and Leadership (CLAL) and
the only openly gay Orthodox rabbi,
will lead a discussion on the conflict
between religious beliefs and sexual
identity. Rabbi Greenberg served as an
adviser to the filrn and appears in it.
The one-time showing is a prelude
to next spring's annual JCC Lenore
Marwil Jewish Film Festival, April 28-
May 5, and is presented in cooperation
with the Southfield-based Michigan
Jewish AIDS Coalition (MJAC).
Prior to his presence at the movie,
Rabbi Greenberg will appear at two
other MJAC-sponsored events. On
Tuesday, Oct. 16, he will be at an hors
d'oeuvre and dessert reception at the
home of Linda and Henry Lee to raise
funds for MJAC's ECHO (Educating
GAY BEFORE G-D on page 74