Friday, October 08, 2021
Jews, drugs and rock ’n’ roll: The Jewish stories behind a heavy metal cult classic film
The Star of David pendant comes exactly 15 minutes into the 16.5-minute documentary.
It bounces against the chest of a guy with big hair who's prancing in front of his girlfriend, who has equally big hair. He's wearing suspenders over a bare torso, and he has something to say about this moment in 1986, in a suburban Maryland parking lot, where fans of the rock band Judas Priest are waiting to get "f**ked up," as several documentary subjects and one of the filmmakers put it.
"Let's rock, OK, all right!" says the big-haired guy, as the Jewish symbol bounces in and out of the frame.
Thirty-five years later, that man, who was once known as Robbie Ludwick, has a different take.
"When I listen to heavy metal, I don't see the hand of God," says Zev Zalman Ludwick, a member of the Breslov Hasidic sect who lives a quiet life in the Maryland suburbs. Instead of pregaming in parking lots, Ludwick now mends damaged violins and tends koi fish in his backyard about a 20-minute drive from the long-demolished Capital Centre, where he saw Judas Priest perform on Memorial Day weekend in 1986.
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