Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes

At the end of October 1985, Rabbi Isidor Chemelwitz (played by Hannah) eulogizes at a small Jewish funeral for a woman named Sarah Ironson. He is the resident rabbi at the Jewish nursing home where Sarah lived her last days. Isidor speaks over her casket which, in accordance with traditional Jewish burial rites, is a humble pine box. Reading from his notes, the rabbi lists names of her family, admitting that he did not know Sarah, as she kept to herself, but he understands that she was a Jewish immigrant. Immigrants like Sarah and himself journeyed across the ocean and carried their identities and culture with them. Sarah built her family out of the ancient clay of Jewishness, and therefore her descendants are not American but the progeny of Sarah’s journey and heritage. The rabbi calls Sarah a dying breed, as “pretty soon… all the old will be dead” (17).

Joe Pitt, a law clerk, sits and waits in Roy Cohn’s office for his attention. Roy is a fictionalization of the historical Roy M. Cohn, a politically powerful New York lawyer. Roy is energetic, gleefully juggling phone calls and alternately schmoozing, cursing, and wittily insulting the clients and judges on the lines.