Sabbath Queen 

Featuring a Q&A with director Sandi DuBowski moderated by filmmaker Danielle Durschlag 

Dir. Sandi DuBowski. 2025, 105 mins. U.S. DCP. Shot over the course of 21 years, Sandi DuBowski’s documentary follows Amichai Lau-Lavie, an Israeli descended from an unbroken line of 38 rabbis stretching back a thousand years. Newly arrived in New York in the late 1990s, Lau-Lavie is a deeply curious and wildly creative young gay man using performance art to challenge patriarchal orthodoxy. A captivating camera subject, Lau-Lavie performs in drag as the widow Rebbetz in Hadassah Gross, who represents the wisdom of the divine feminine. Nevertheless, Lau-Lavie shocks his community when he decides to become a rabbi himself, in the Conservative tradition of Judaism. Powerful, funny, and beautifully shot, Sabbath Queen confronts complex questions about the embodiment of contemporary Judaism.  

Tickets: $17.50 / $12 senior and students / $10 youth (ages 3–17) / free for MoMI members at the Senior/Student level and above. There is a $1.50 transaction fee per ticket for all online purchases. The cost of admission may be applied toward a same-day purchase of a membership. 

Order tickets. Please pick up tickets at the Museum’s admissions desk upon arrival. All seating is general admission.