My Grandma Lena Weingast
by Debbi Honorof

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I had a mystery photo that my Grandma Lena was in and I had no idea where, when, or why she was in the photo. I didn't recognize anyone else. It looked like a wedding photo but it seemed like the bride was male and the groom was female.

One night, I was watching a webinar, hosted by The Forward, about the history of Jewish comedy in the Catskills and one of the speakers was from YIVO. He described the first known incidence of Jewish comedy in the Catskills, which was a mock drag wedding in 1913. It sounded like the photo might have been from that event, so I emailed it to him and he said it was definitely from that event and it was the only known photo of it. I donated the photo to YIVO and it ended up being used in an online Jewish Comedy course. I also got a translation of the original Yiddish article. He asked me to write a short bio of Lena.

Debbi Honorof



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