{"id":87252,"date":"2021-07-07T17:05:25","date_gmt":"2021-07-07T15:05:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/?p=87252"},"modified":"2021-06-27T09:34:31","modified_gmt":"2021-06-27T07:34:31","slug":"07-00-66","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/?p=87252","title":{"rendered":"The Other Side of Summer Weddings"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>The Other Side of Summer Weddings<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/h5>\n

ROKHL KAFRISSEN<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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Rokhl\u2019s Golden City: Mock marriages, drag brides, and the dangers of dancing<\/strong><\/h5>\n

ORIGINAL PHOTO: JILL FREEDMAN\/GETTY IMAGES<\/em><\/span>
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Once upon a summertime, we didn\u2019t have streaming video in our pockets or a PS5 controller in our hands or endless Spotify playlists cupped snugly around our ears. Back when it was a lot harder for folks to amuse themselves over long summer days, the mock Jewish wedding was a thing. A wedding, after all, is a highly choreographed piece of theater. It\u2019s got a beginning, middle and end. It\u2019s got dancing. It usually even comes with a catered meal, if not an open bar. And pretty much anyone can take part.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mock Jewish weddings can still be found at\u00a0summer camps<\/a><\/strong><\/span>\u00a0and on\u00a0Jewish day school<\/a><\/strong><\/span>\u00a0curricula. The mock wedding isn\u2019t something I grew up with, although it makes sense to me as an immersive way of teaching the Jewish life cycle. But while I was researching\u00a0queer Yiddishkayt<\/strong><\/span><\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/span>in 2019, I\u00a0started to dig into a much stranger tradition<\/a>:<\/strong><\/span> the mock wedding in drag, once a staple of Catskills entertainment.<\/span><\/p>\n

Right before Klezkamp brought the klezmer revival to the Catskills in the mid-1980s, Peter Davis was there with his camera, capturing the end of a different era. In his 1983 documentary\u00a0The Rise & Fall of the Borscht Belt,\u00a0<\/em>we get a peek into the kind of entertainment one might\u2019ve expected at the smaller, less expensive hotels, namely the mock drag wedding. I knew\u00a0Rise & Fall\u00a0<\/em>might be an uncomfortable watch. I didn\u2019t think it would border on horror. But the film\u2019s particular aesthetic choices, combined with a poor-quality print, made a lighthearted summer\u2019s day activity appear darkly foreboding, like the prelude to an unspeakable evening of horrors.<\/span><\/p>\n

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