L.J. Goldstein is a New Orleans-based photographer and attorney who, in 1996, founded Krewe du Jieux as a satirical and free-spirited parading organization committed to deflating the stereotypes that have historically been aimed at the Jewish people. The krewe’s signature throw is a custom-decorated bagel. Krewe du Jieux is now about to embark upon its 26th anniversary parade as an innerkrewe of krewedelusion, which will take to the streets on Saturday, February 11, on the same route as Krewe du Vieux.

What brought you to New Orleans?

Freedom. Since I was a teenager, I always wanted to visit New Orleans. It had a reputation for a special kind of laissez fare that I didn’t fully understand at the time, but that resonated with me. I tried to come down several times with friends over the years, but something always got in the way of the trip until I finally just got on a Greyhound bus, skipping a graduation for a post-baccalaureate pre-medical program, and decided to move to New Orleans to become a photographer. I arrived on May 11, 1993, with two cameras, a change of clothes and the certain knowledge that I did not want to become a physician.

How did you get involved in Carnival culture? 

New Orleans is a costuming city and the only place in the world I know where it is not uncommon for people to have a costume closet or at least a part of their home that is dedicated to this special kind of personal transformation. My first job here was working in the kitchen at Molly’s at the Market and my first experience of Carnival was watching the level of costuming increase in splendor as Mardi Gras day approached.

I would say I got involved in costuming culture and parading culture, not Carnival culture. It was through my photography that I recognized the power of second line parades and Black Masking Indians who use the streets of our city as their preferred public venue for musical performance, community dancing and deeply personal self-expression.

How did you come up with the concept for Krewe du Jieux and what was public reaction? 

Well, I told my boss at that first job I would work the whole Carnival season, but I wanted Mardi Gras day off. Early that Tuesday morning I wandered up Decatur Street to St. Charles Avenue with some friends and stumbled upon the Zulu parade. It was 1994 and I had never seen anything like this before: hundreds of African Americans wearing blackface, Afro wigs, grass skirts and handing out spears and coconuts. It was simply mind blowing. And then, to bring one of the greatest juxtapositions I’ve ever experienced into the remnants of my sleep-deprived consciousness, a klezmer band came parading down the street with about 15 or 20 revelers. It was the New Orleans Klezmer All-Stars having a renegade procession that had somehow made its way onto the Zulu route! I jumped into that parade and followed it all the way to the end, and that was my first Mardi Gras day.

That was a divine cross-cultural experience for me and the catalyst for Krewe du Jieux which came from an idea I had in the midst of this parade, refining it for months to follow. I became convinced that the act of costuming and parading could sway hearts and minds and could become a pathway for true, revolutionary cultural and systemic change that would usher in a grandiose era of world peace for “Jieuxs” and “non-Jieuxs” alike. Our second year as an organized parade, the House of Blues came to New Orleans and for our parade we were, “The Jieuxs Brothers… and their Mothers,” and of course, to bring this grandiosity to the fore, we let the world know that “we were on a Mission from G-d.” I think the initial public reaction to all of this was that we were highly successful but also highly controversial, and I’m sure it greatly depended on which segment of the public you asked.

What was the inspiration for the decorated bagels?

A gold bagel throw from Krewe du Jieux, a Jewish Mardi Gras parade, is one of the thousands of artifacts on displayed in the Museum of the Southern Jewish Experience in New Orleans. Photograph courtesy of L.J. Goldstein.

That was a no-brainer, it seemed the obvious throw and of course was derived from learning about Zulu’s coconuts. There is probably no other item more associated with stereotypical cultural Jewishness than the bagel, and at the time, probably no throw more coveted than a Zulu coconut. When I brought up the idea for a Jewish krewe at a Passover seder in 1996, someone asked what we call the krewe and what we would throw. Uproarious laughter ensued when I said Krewe du Jieux, and we would throw decorated golden bagels. Someone from Krewe du Vieux happened to be present at the meal to suggest we might propose the idea to their mother krewe, and a few months later the idea became a reality when the Jieuxs were unanimously voted in by its other sub-krewes.

How did krewedelusion come to be and what distinguishes it from other Carnival parades?  

After Katrina, Krewe du Jieux left Krewe du Vieux to become the Wandering Jieuxs and a few years later, krewedelusion was formed with other small marching clubs like ours that wanted to band together and have a special parade of their own. What distinguishes it from other parades is to us complicated, multifaceted and probably humbly deserving of a doctoral thesis.

New Orleans is one of the most solipsistic cities on the planet and krewedelusion embraces that with its mission to Save the Universe, from the Center of the Universe, New Orleans! While most krewes have royalty who preside over the pomp and circumstance of the parade and ball, krewedelusion is a dictablanda that appoints a benevolent ruler, embraces transparency and has a safe word. It empowers its ruler with ultimate authority over absolutely everything. The Times-Picayune nailed it when it described krewedelusion as “taking the time-honored conceit of Carnival royalty and following it to its most literal and absurd endpoint.”

Quite simply, parades have the potential to be a transformative experience for all who participate, whether they are observing in the audience or marching in the procession. krewedelusion’s core belief is that if the world became a bit more New Orleans-ized in this way, and if all of humanity devoted a portion of their time, energy and love to preparing for parades and parading together then we could usher in a different kind of consciousness and truly save the universe. That is the core delusion anyway, and by following it, krewedelusion has become one of the city’s most diverse and inclusive parades.