Drag queen story led us to family
On May 21, J. ran a story about drag queen Sasha Velour’s Berkeley performance debut (“Jewish drag superstar ready to sashay into Bay Area for her ‘Big Reveal’”).
With the catchy headline and with her love for the arts, my grandmother, Jane Emanuel, read the article. It referenced Mark Steinberg, Sasha’s father. Because of her genealogy work, she recognized Mark as the son of Norman Steinberg, my grandfather Roger Emanuel’s first cousin.
Jane had been in touch with Mark’s sister over the years and called her immediately in hopes of coordinating a first-ever meetup of the Bay Area family members with Sasha and Mark while they were in town.
Imagine my surprise when I received an email with the subject line “Your Third Cousin.” Then again, this is not the first time I have been spontaneously introduced to a distant relative.
On June 11, we went to the Berkeley Rep performance, and Mark brought us to the pre-show meet and greet. In all of her glamor, Sasha called out an exclamatory “The Emanuels!” and hugged all seven of us: two third cousins, four first cousins twice removed (two by marriage) and one second cousin once removed.
Scene 1 of her show and Chapter 1 of her memoir illustrate Sasha’s upbringing — how performance and dress-up were the activities of choice for Sasha and her grandmother, Dina, while Papa Norman was the cameraman. It was like receiving a family ancestry presentation, with visuals, in a theater with 300 audience members. Family is central to Sasha’s story, which made the night all the more special.
As I write to you, I reflect on how amazing intergenerational and cross-lineage relationships are. It opens us up to new experiences, people and connections.
Thanks to the J.’s feature, we have a new familial connection and an extremely unique story that will shine in our memories for years to come.
Natalie Rachel Jenkins
San Francisco
A Stockton salute to Capt. Weber
The story about the history of Stockton’s Temple Israel was heartwarming (“Stockton’s Gold Rush-era congregation shines after 175 years,” June 3). I was a little surprised to see no mention of Capt. Charles Weber’s generosity in giving the nascent Jewish community a plot of land for a cemetery very soon after the Gold Rush began.
According to the late, much-lamented Robert Levine, historian of the Jews in the West, a deputation of Jewish miners waited on the captain in 1851. A few of their number had died up in the hills, and they had no consecrated ground in which to bury their dead. The Bavarian Catholic owner of the old Spanish rancho, which became the city of Stockton, was touched by their plight and gave them a tract for the purpose. His only stipulation was that it would never be used for anything else. It was an example of a true ecumenical spirit.
Judith Taylor
San Francisco
The price we will pay
I mourn for the Children of Israel, and especially for Israel’s children. I mourn because the next generation will be traumatized not only by the horrors of Oct. 7, but by the vicious Islamist campaign to wipe out not just Zionists but all Jews. The damage is incalculable.
As we sit here far away in the comfort of our peaceful surroundings, it’s easier to bask in the unimaginable success of Israel’s military might against cruel enemies. What we may not fully comprehend is the price we, and especially Israelis, have paid and will continue to pay for decades to come.
This price is the alternative to being wiped out by people who are infinitely worse than the Nazis, who knew when they were beaten and had to stop. Fortunately, there were other people who felt threatened enough to fight against the Nazis and destroy their sadistic world. But let’s face it: They didn’t do it to save the Jews. They did it to save themselves.
After 1948, the project for Jews in the diaspora was to help build Israel. The next project will be to reassure Israelis that their awful sacrifice wasn’t for naught, by showing them our love and support like never before. Am Yisrael Chai.
Desmond Tuck
San Mateo