In her office above Dupont Circle, Debra Katz shows me a newspaper clipping about her father, Herbie Katz: “Rhumba Hep Cat ‘El Gato’ Achieving Local Success” reads the headline on a profile of a handsome fellow who improbably had found his way into New York’s Latin music scene—a job he pursued from the late 1940s until he had a second child in the ’60s and joined the family box-making business instead.
Herbie’s bongos are among Katz’s prized possessions, a way to remember her dad, who died in 2019. But during President Trump’s second term, the drums—as well as a shofar, a trumpet crafted from a ram’s horn, used in Jewish rituals—have even deeper meanings for Katz, a prominent employment and civil-rights lawyer whose clients have included Brett Kavanaugh’s accuser Christine Blasey Ford, former NIH official Jeanne Marrazzo, and Andrew Cuomo accuser Charlotte Bennett. Here Katz reflects on the meaning of these objects to her.
“My dad was a working-class kid from an immigrant family who grew up in the tenements in Brooklyn. His Russian grandparents would tell us, in their heavy Yiddish accents, ‘No Jewish children are Latin drummers!’ Despite that, my dad just fell in love with Latin music. His stage name was El Gato—the Cat. He played up in the Catskills in the age of the Borscht Belt. His band sometimes played before Lenny Bruce performed, and on occasion he played with Tito Puente.
“I keep my dad’s bongos in the living room, on my bookshelf. After he died, I took a few lessons—it turns out that playing the bongos is a lot harder than it seems. There’s something very sweet about touching the skins and knowing my dad’s hands were on them.
“His bongos help me stay strong during the dark period of history we’re in. I believe that finding pleasure in the midst of all of this is crucial. Growing up, I was taught about the obligation of tikkun olam, an important concept in Judaism that means ‘repairing the world.’ Listening to Latin music—a constant in our home when I was growing up—is a salve for me and a reminder that it’s our duty to protect our neighbors.
“I also have a shofar on my desk, given to me as an award by a social-justice group called T’ruah, after I represented Christine Blasey Ford before the Senate Judiciary Committee. The other day, T’ruah organized a loud and boisterous demonstration outside ICE headquarters in DC that I attended to protest the excesses of ICE and the killing of Renee Good and Alex Pretti. Rabbis came from all over the United States, and many played their shofars. The piercing sound of the shofar is a call for justice and a call to work to make the world whole.
“Music, my dad’s bongos, and this shofar—they all remind me to wake up, get out of my slumber, and do what I can. We can’t all do everything, but all of us can do something. That’s what I’m trying to stay focused on.”
This article appears in the April 2026 issue of Washingtonian.
Andrew Beaujon joined Washingtonian in late 2014. He was previously with the Poynter Institute, TBD.com, and Washington City Paper. He lives in Del Ray.
