Rabbi Amichai Lau-Lavie, star of ‘Sabbath Queen’ appears at screenings with director

By ALAN SMASON, Special to the CCJN

Rabbi Amichai Lau-Lavie, a rabbi whose family of rabbis extends back a millennium and the subject and star of the documentary “Sabbath Queen,” is enjoying the relaxed atmosphere of New Orleans this weekend.

Rabbi Amichai Lau-Lavie speaks at Tulane University on Wed., Oct. 14, 2026. (Photo by Alan Smason)

Following stops on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, the rabbi appeared Tuesday night for a screening of “Sabbath Queen,  a 21-year-old documentary that chronicles his journey from a drag queen to an ordained Conservative rabbi. He appeared with the director of the film Sandi DuBrowski at Tulane University’s Freeman Auditorium as a guest of the Jewish Studies Department.

Department chair Golan Moskowitz  served as the host and moderator of a talkback session with students, faculty and members of the public who saw the film early in the evening.

Both Rabbi Lau-Lavie and DuBrowski planned on spending Shabbat with Tulane students at the Goldie and Morris Mintz Hillel Student Center tonight. The film will be shown once again there at 8 p.m. tonight.

The film depicts Lau-Lavie first as a young Israeli man who identified as a member of the  LGBTQ community. It spoke to his seeking spirituality in unusual ways and noted his close family ties, among them his father and mother, who were Holocaust surivors, and his brother, who also eventually became a rabbi.

Like all the members of the family, his uncle, who was saved by Lau-Lavie’s father on multiple occasions during the Holocaust, settled in Israel and went on to become the Chief Ashkenazic Rabbi of Israel from 1993 to 2003. Lau-Lavie’s cousin David was also the Chief Sephardic Rabbi in Israel.