So SO grotesquely offensive, on multiple levels, & indeed not only to Jews 🤬
Dex Chait Grodner has performed in places like the Royal Court. In 2018 he was described as “up & coming” for deciding that what European-origin Jewish women of the C19/20 needed was a man to tell a crude amalgamation of stolen fragments of their stories. Making his creation “queer” (AND a gay icon AND abandoned by their husband [who’s run off with another man]) is just a tiresomely predictable piece of self-obsession. It’s not any of it about the women whose stories have been plundered other than in the sense of exploiting them. They are a resource to Grodner.
Obviously it’s well-known there are lots of people who consider themselves to only be culturally Jewish; & that members of said group may still celebrate Hanukkah. At a Museum event like this you might also get people of other faiths (& none) who want to learn more about the festival. However, the fact remains that Judaism is monotheistic. The Shema makes this abundantly clear. So someone whose work uses Jewish and pagan rituals to explore themes of money, biological and chosen family and the life cycle really has no business at an event like this. Twit about doing your super-edgy & über-deep if you’re a GCSE Drama student performances if you really must; but to lack the basic respect for observant Jews in this way? Ugh.
Judaism has suffered from TRAs determinedly misrepresenting it as supporting the notion that sex is not binary (as per this Reddit discussion). [Orthodox] Jewish women & girls are amongst those most impacted by the loss of single-sex spaces - like the Hampstead Heath Women’s Bathing Pond for example. This absolute clown is yet another insult - & I’m using the word advisedly, as it does seem there’s been shift in booking entertainment (or indeed edutainment) for children at events like this from clowns to Drag Queens.
As PikesPeaked said, at least at Purim there is an actual tradition not simply of dressing up, but of cross-dressing, within which a drag artist’s performance would make contextual sense. (NB Acceptability - or otherwise - of cross-dressing at Purim has been a source of rows for centuries. Now featuring the angle that [so-called] “cis” people shouldn’t do it because “gender expression is not a costume” and “it harms trans people”.) You’d still have all the usual issues with drag + [small] children; but it wouldn’t have been so glaringly out of place. Listening to & retelling the story of Esther on Purim is a mitzvah, too - & it doesn’t have to be at the synagogue, as per this Time article: again, if the Museum has an actual Jewish Drag Queen Requirement they need to fulfil, Purim would make sense. It just highlights how little actual thought there is “Jewish Drag Queen Story Time for our Jewish event? OMG we win at diversity! Please someone tell me they’re disabled!” Did they consider whether that would alienate some people, I wonder? Running an event about Judaism & Jewish History that arguably deliberately seeks to exclude some Jewish people? I mean, that’s all kinds of wrong.
The museum has Dr Michal Nahman in charge of their Sephardi Hanukkah Supper Club event. Apparently they’ve consulted their Faith and Culture forum in putting together the exhibition parts. (According to the Museum’s website: The Faith and Culture forum is made up of people from the local community, specialists and Museum staff.
It aims to increase the visibility of diverse cultural heritage and faiths in the Museum's collections, programmes and audiences.) Somehow, though, they’ve still decided that what their Hanukkah Family Celebration needs is a Hanukkah Drag storytelling musical performance with Chanukah Lewinsky and Irving Sheffield.
Telling the Hanukkah Story for wee children? Lovely. Zero need to have a Drag Queen do it. A giant Mensch On A Bench would actually be a better option; & I think those & their elfspiration are creepy wee feckers 😶 That said, the Zebra from Zion, Mitzvah Moose & Dreidel Dog are actually quite cute - no surprise the Snow Mensch is reduced though, because it is the stuff of nightmares. Yet arguably still more an appropriate narrator for the Hanukkah Story at a Museum’s family activity day!