When Life's a Drag: A Look into the History of Jews & Cross-Dressing

Every year on Purim, Jews around the world stage shpiels, or plays, that not only feature people in costumes, but cross-dressing as well. These Purim events have allowed Jews to participate in drag throughout history, and have opened the door for other traditions like cross-casting in theater. In this episode, we'll hear from scholars Golan Moskowitz and Naomi Seidman, former drag queen Rabbi Amichai Lau-Lavie, and host Erin Phillips about Jewish historical examples of drag, Jewish contributions to the art and culture of drag, and how Jews have used drag to explore trauma, identity, and belonging.

You can listen to When Life's a Drag: A Look into the History of Jews & Cross-Dressing online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

When Life's a Drag: A Look into the History of Jews & Cross-Dressing is an episode from Adventures in Jewish Studies Podcast by Association for Jewish Studies.

This episode is 36:49 long.

This episode was published on Mar 10, 2025.

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