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One-woman show explores Japanese-American actress' unlikely journey to Judaism
February 10, 2005
originally run by Liel Leibovitz
New Standard writer Susan Schubert contributed to this story

If you followed popular culture in the 1980s, Tina Horii's face is one you may recognize. She danced in music videos, accompanying such artists as Quincy Jones, Belinda Carlisle and Steve Winwood. She spent seven years on the chorus of a blockbuster Broadway play.

Yet her new play, being performed all over the country, including at Congregation Beth Jacob in Columbus Feb. 15, admits only women. That's because Horii is now Rachel Factor, an Orthodox Jew.

The play, J.A.P., is a one-woman exploration in song and dance of Factor's journey from her native Honolulu to Jerusalem, where she now lives with her husband and two infant sons.

And an unlikely journey it was: Factor, 36, was born to Japanese-American parents, who were, by their own definition, non-practicing Protestants. She moved to Los Angeles when she was 18 to pursue a career as a dancer and an actress.

Luck smiled on her. "It was the rise of the Asian theater," she said, referring to a brief wave in the mid-1990s in which Asian-themed productions were in vogue. Factor landed a role in one such production, a short-lived musical based on James Clavellç™þs epic tale of ancient Japanese culture, "Shogun," eventually working her way to the Broadway cast of Andrew Lloyd Weber's megahit, "Miss Saigon."

Still, Factor said, she felt as if something were missing. Anxious to connect with her heritage, she traveled to Japan several times and was disappointed, she said, to feel "nothing, no connection at all" to her ancestral homeland. Taking comfort in her burgeoning career, she continued to work, doing commercials and print ads and Off-Off Broadway productions of Shakespearean plays.

Then, in 2000, she met Todd Factor, a filmmaker and producer, and fell in love. The relationship quickly flourished, and soon she was presented with a decision: convert to Judaism, or part ways. Rachel Factor had no doubt as to what she should do; she must, she decided, break up with her boyfriend.

A thoughtful woman, however, she decided that her reasons for breaking up must be well argued. And so, she decided to look into Judaism, a religion she thought would have nothing to offer her.

"I looked into it with skepticism," she said, "but then I found out, wow, this is pretty cool. Everything about it struck me not only as beautiful but enlightened, intelligent, both ancient and progressive at the same time."

Conversion, then, was no longer out of the question, especially as her own mother seemed to support the move. "She said to me that Asians and Jews have a lot in common," Factor recalled with an impish smile. "She said they both had good values, good education, and were good with money. It sounded all good to her."

Factor began taking classes at the Upper West Side synagogue B'nai Jeshurun, with the intention of undergoing a Conservative conversion. Todd, now her fiance, attended with her, and together both grew closer to Judaism.

"We took on observances and found that they benefited us," said Factor. Although they did not yet keep Shabbat, they ate strictly kosher and tried to further explore the religion and its commandments.

In 2000, the two were married, and in 2002, their first son, Ariel, was born. The boy's birth encouraged Todd and Rachel Factor to take an extra step. Factor said she wanted an Orthodox mohel to conduct the baby's brit.

Eventually, the couple found a mohel and asked him to perform the ceremony. Although Rachel was not, according to Orthodox standards, a Jew, the man conceded, but not before telling Rachel that both she and her baby should consider undergoing an Orthodox conversion.

Trying to assess whether or not Orthodox Judaism had anything to offer them, the couple accepted an invitation for a Shabbat dinner from a neighboring Orthodox family. The experience, Rachel Factor said, left her overwhelmed.

"I saw amazing hospitality," she said. "I saw people living people living out their ideals, living for their community. The next weekend we kept Shabbat. And we haven't stopped keeping it since."

That was Sukkot; by Passover, Rachel and her son underwent an Orthodox conversion.

"Just before the conversion," Factor recalled, her eyes veiled by a thin film of sentimentality, "I had to go to all my agents and give up my former life. I realized that my career in the theater couldn't continue if I wanted to observe Shabbat and tzniut [modesty]. It so happened that all my agents were Jewish women, and they were all extremely supportive. I thought it would be a difficult day for me, a day of losing my identity, but instead I felt very liberated."

Now an Orthodox family, the Factors continued to seek more Jewish education. Todd, for his part, found it in a Brooklyn yeshiva, whose rabbi instructed him to leave everything behind and go study in Jerusalem's famed Aish Ha Torah yeshiva, if only for a few months.

Excited by the change of atmosphere, the family landed in Jerusalem's Rehavia neighborhood, where their second son, Shalom, was born. Three months made way to six, and the family eventually fell in love with the city and decided to stay.

All, it seemed, was perfect in Rachel Factor's life; all, save for one thing: she was an artist, and missed having a creative outlet. Being an Orthodox woman, however, she had little recourse but creating one herself: she revived a one-woman play that she wrote while still in the States, a play which she had to abort due to the Orthodox ban on men hearing a woman's voice.

In Jerusalem, she performed the play in neighbors' living rooms, inviting only women to attend. And they did: Factor was forced to move to bigger and bigger homes, until she eventually rented out a local theater; 200 women packed the room, and Factor sold out show after show.

The demand, she said, made her realize that there was a real untapped desire for art and culture among Orthodox women. "The women who came to see my show were excited to have kosher entertainment," she said. "They were also inspired to see someone who chose their life."

To repay her audience, Factor embarked on an ambitious 60-date North American tour, which arrives to New York this week. All proceeds, she said, will go toward the establishment of a center in Jerusalem that will provide a creative outlet for Orthodox women to experience theatrical arts.

Chaya Katz, who teaches at Columbus Torah Academy, said she'd heard of Factor from friends who had seen her show. Katz helped arrange for Factor to appear here. Beth Jacov will receive some of the proceeds.

"I'm very excited," Katz said. "Her performance is for teh broad spectrum, not just for Orthodox women alone. It will be nice for the girls from Torah Academy to see her, since they've been doing their own productions. The community at large will gain from her."

For ticket's to Rachel Factor's show, call (888) 256-1764, General seating is $25 and reserved seating is $36. There will be a 10-percent discount for advance purchases.

The preceding originally ran in the New York Jewish Week, which was reprinted by permission.

New Standard writer Susan Schubert contributed to this story