Carmel Jewish Film Festival: In Partnership with the Center For Spiritual Awakening: SABBATH QUEEN

Filmed over 21 years, Sabbath Queen follows Rabbi Amichai Lau-Lavie, heir to 38 rabbinic generations, who reinvents Jewish ritual as a drag queen, queer father, and founder of Lab/Shul. The film challenges tradition while redefining spirituality and inclusion for a new century.

Special Guest Speaker
Rabbi Eli Cohen, spiritual leader of Chadeish Yameinu, the Jewish Renewal Community of Santa Cruz, will join this screening for a post-film discussion.

Rabbi Cohen grew up in a Conservative Jewish home infused with Yiddish language and culture, attended a Jewish day school, and has always been actively involved in synagogue life. He came out at age 20 and became active in the gay rights movement. He is married to Akiva, who was born and raised in Europe, with family roots in West Africa.

Rabbi Cohen holds a Bachelor of Arts in psychology from SUNY Binghamton and a Juris Doctor from Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco. He received smicha (ordination) in January 2005 from Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi and the Aleph Rabbinic Program in Boulder, Colo. In the lineage of his teachers, he brings a strong commitment to bridging religious and progressive values, and to carrying the depth and joy of Jewish spirituality and practice into the emerging paradigm.