A B ST R A C T
Rob Epstein’s The Times of Harvey Milk (USA, 1984) and Gus Van Sant’s Milk (USA,
2008), the two major films that narrate the life and tragically dramatic death of gay
politician and activist Harvey Milk (1930–1978), are widely recognized as part of
the queer cinematic canon but are less often categorized as Jewish films. While
Epstein’s film adroitly presents a “Kosher-style” Milk, the Jewishness of Van Sant’s
Milk is less certain; however, a well-established pattern of gay and lesbian Jews
citing Milk as one of their own—what I term “Jewqhooing”—enabled a Jewish
reception of Milk. Querying and queerying the Jewishness of Milk (the man as well
as the movies that purport to represent his life and times) illuminate the complex
ways Jewishness continues to be cinematically conveyed or whitewashed as well
as the intersections between queer and Jewish film history.