(JEWISH GROUP) A gala for Jewish Queer Youth celebrates untold, queer Jewish stories
Jewish Queer Youth honored a storyteller Monday who, as a seventh grader in Metro Detroit, dreamed of a musical that would celebrate the overlooked figures of the suffrage movement.
Rachel Sussman, the Tony-winning producer of Suffs and Alex Edelman’s Just for Us, was the inaugural recipient of the Queer Jewish Icon award from JQY, a Manhattan-based organization serving young queer people from Orthodox and Conservative communities with mental health support and a place to be themselves.
The gala event at the David Rubinstein Atrium at Lincoln Center boasted a kosher sushi conveyor belt and Broadway stars belting showtunes. A theme of the evening aligned with the central one of Suffs, a march toward progress and the pioneers too often forgotten in the struggle.
“When I saw the show, it was like, ‘Oh my God. How many other people are there like this? How many other stories are we missing?’” said JQY Executive Director Rachael Fried, who fell in love with Suffs last year. “And that sort of inspired: ‘How many other queer Jews are there that no one’s talking about?’”
more...