COMMUNITY
At Purim, Esther’s Coming Out Story
Congregation Beit Simchat Torah’s holiday celebrates an LGBTQ role model
BY MICHAEL LUONGO
The crowd might have
been smaller than in
years past, what with
the coronavirus on the
loose, but no less enthusiastic in
its March 9 celebration at Congregation
Beit Simchat Torah, CBST,
New York’s LGBTQ synagogue.
Purim, the celebration of Queen
Esther, with its lessons on coming
out and revealing one’s true identity,
is a tale with special meaning
for the LGBTQ community. The
story takes place in the Babylonian
era, after Esther, raised by her
wise uncle Mordechai, is chosen
as a bride for the King. She keeps
her religious identity as a Jew hidden
until she realizes she needs to
tell the King her truth in order to
save the Jews from a plot by the
evil royal advisor Haman.
The Book of Esther is known as
the Megillah, a long and winding
tale, and where the phrase, to make
a Megillah of something, comes
from. Part of the joy of the holiday
at CBST is that congregants read
passages in a variety of languages,
from Yiddish to Hebrew to English,
Latin, Esperanto, and more. The
celebration was livestreamed this
year, so those who stayed home
from coronavirus worries could
still watch.
Sometimes called the Jewish
Carnival, Mardi Gras, or Halloween,
the holiday has a long tradition
of participants dressing up in
costume, drag especially. This being
the Jewish year 5780, CBST’s
Purim theme was the 1980s, and
there were plenty of people with
big heavy metal hair wigs in the
crowd. These included Rabbi Sharon
Kleinbaum herself, the leader
of the congregation, who looked a
little like Cher in the 1985 movie
“Mask” in her ensemble.
The rabbi had earlier told Gay
City News of the holiday’s special
resonance for LGBTQ folks in her
congregation and elsewhere.
“Esther means hidden,” she said,
explaining that “the story plays on
this question when do we — for our
own safety — need to be hidden,
and when must we come out for
the sake of ourselves and to save
our communities?”
She emphasized, that these
choices “are different for everyone,”
and depend on the situation.
The rabbi also added, more playfully,
“We don’t need Purim for drag
anymore,” another aspect that has
changed overall, from the era when
the holiday, as with Mardi Gras,
was a safe time for such experimentation
before Stonewall and
other advances in LGBTQ rights.
Of course, this old tradition was
still there that evening, in the form
of Mae West, interpreted by long
time congregant Rick Landman.
He was especially sultry when
reading the Megillah, including
recounting how Esther touched
the King’s scepter, evoking the
blonde bombshell’s intonation and
pauses, which made for intriguing
double entendres within the sanctuary.
Landman, the descendant
of Holocaust survivors, told Gay
City News that Purim held special
resonance for himself as his Hebrew
name is Mordechai Sophia,
a name that includes that of the
Purim uncle, via his grandfather,
as well as his great grandmother,
murdered by the Nazis.
“My great grandmother was
killed at Theresienstadt and I have
no children and no one is named
after her,” Landman said, explaining
why he chose the combination
for his own baby naming at CBST.
He added that his grandmother was
named Esther and his grandfather
Mordechai, further solidifying the
Purim tradition in the family. His
grandfather had also brought over
three Torahs and a Megillah from
Germany in 1946 after they had
survived the war, immigrating to
the United States.
“Purim on that one level, the
family and the history, I have that
name Mordechai,” Landman explained,
adding that over time,
as one of the earliest congregants
since the 1973 founding of CBST,
he has witnessed the changing
holiday tradition there. At its
MICHAEL LUONGO
Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum in s 1980s wig at Congregation Beit Simchat Torah on Purim.
MICHAEL LUONGO
Rick Landman interprets Mae West and poses with fellow longtime congregant Shep Wahnon at
CBST’s Purim celebration.
➤ PURIM AT CBST, continued on p.25
MICHAEL LUONGO
CBST congregants read the Megillah on Purim.
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