Items in this column:
* ‘Some Like It Hot’ provides perspective on drag queen controversy
* Mayoral candidates express concern over guns, scooters
* Cantors Weiss and Bromberg featured in L’Chaim San Diego Magazine
* Please keep those e-mails coming, folks
Some Like It Hot provides perspective on drag queen controversy
CHULA VISTA, California – There was considerable hullabaloo over last week’s Drag Queen Storytime held at the Chula Vista Public Library with opponents denouncing the session as an attempt to sell LGBTQ lifestyles to elementary school aged children, according to Peter Rowe’s story in today’s (Sept. 15) edition of the San Diego Union-Tribune. On the other hand, Lillian Faderman, curator of the LGBTQ exhibit at the San Diego History Center in Balboa Park and author of The Gay Revolution: The Story of the Struggle, told Rowe that instances of men playing females have long been considered family entertainment. Furthermore, she said, “Some of the highest paid drag queens in the past have identified as heterosexual. It has nothing to do with sexual behavior. It has everything to do with entertainment.”
All of which brings to memory that the 1959 Billy Wilder film, Some Like It Hot, one of the most celebrated movies ever to be filmed at the Hotel del Coronado, starred Marilyn Monroe as a member of an all-girl band that Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon joined, in drag, in an effort to escape from some gangsters.
Who can forget Lemmon and Curtis trying to pass themselves off as women, all the while falling in love with Monroe, who supposedly was “clueless” about their real gender identities?
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Mayoral candidates express concern over guns, scooters
Out on the campaign trail, mayoral candidate San Diego City Councilwoman Barbara Bry has been focusing on such issues as controlling short-term rentals, which she says removes needed units from the city’s housing supply, preventing commercialization and parking fees at Balboa Park, and regulating “the controversial scooters that now criss-cross and litter the San Diego cityscape,” according to a report by Patricia Mooney in the September issue of the Mission Times Courier about Bry’s recent appearance before the San Carlos Area Council .
Her mayoral election opponent, State Assemblyman Todd Gloria, meanwhile, has been trumpeting the legislative passage of his bill (AB 893) that would ban gun shows at the Del Mar Fair. “I am proud to have taken a stand against the NRA and the gun lobby,” Gloria proclaimed in a news release. “But the fight isn’t over yet—the gun lobby is already organizing hard to pressure the Governor into vetoing the bill. AB 893 would keep hundreds of assault weapons from being sold in our community and keep our streets safer in San Diego County.”
Bry and Gloria are both Democrats.
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Cantors Weiss and Bromberg featured in L’Chaim San Diego Magazine
L’Chaim San Diego Magazine has a pair of feature stories in its September issue introducing Cantor Cheri Weiss and Cantor Caitlin Bromberg who are each leading San Diego County congregations.
In a cover story by Deborah Vietor, Cantor Weiss, who was ordained by the Academy for Jewish Religion in Los Angeles, tells of developing the non-denominational San Diego Outreach Synagogue since 2018.
“I have spoken to many people who want to engage in Judaism, but for one reason or another have not found a place to do so,” she told Vietor. “Some feel uncomfortable in a traditional synagogue because they don’t understand the language or the prayers. Others are part of an interfaith family and have felt discouraged by their non-Jewish spouse’s lack of inclusion in traditional prayer services. Some had a negative experience in the past, while others just don’t want to pay thousands of dollars in dues. Yet, something in their souls is searching for meaning, for their spirits to be uplifted and to be – on some level – a part of a contemporary Jewish community, especially in the current climate when our lives and our society seem to be spinning out of control.”
The congregation meets at different venues that are able to accommodate its Outreach Band, whose members include L’Chaim San Diego’s publisher Diane Benaroya as a keyboardist, along with bassist Rocky Smolin and the cantor’s husband, Dan Weiss, a guitarist. Cantor Weiss said she believes “music elevates prayer, which is why it is the foundation of our services and other events.”
In the same issue of the magazine, Rachel Stern writes about Cantor Bromberg, who grew up in an Irish Catholic family, became a Jew-by-choice after being exposed to Judaism by Jewish folk musicians in New York City, and went on to study in the cantorial school of the Jewish Theological Seminary, which is affiliated with the Conservative movement. Before joining Temple Etz Rimon, Cantor Bromberg served as an interim rabbi at Ner Tamid Synagogue in Poway.
She was asked what advice she would give to girls who might want to follow in her footsteps. Her reply: “Learn to be a song leader at camp, get involved in your synagogue, and study. Ask your local cantor to coach you, pursue vocal and musical education as well as advanced Jewish studies.”
Both stories may be found by visiting the L’Chaim San Diego website.
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Please keep those e-mails coming, folks
You may have noticed that this column is called “Our Shtetl San Diego County” and I would like to emphasize “Our.” This is a column in which we would like our fellow San Diego Jews to share your achievements, awards, simchas, humorous family stories, and photos, so that we can pass them on to other members of our community.
Please don’t be shy, please send in your stories to me at the email listed below.
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Harrison is editor of San Diego Jewish World. He may be contacted via donald.harrison@sdjewishworld.com