"Nobody ***** in Jerusalem," says my friend Josh*. "They bring redemption.
"You’ve heard of Jerusalem Complex? People go to the Wall and they think they’re the Messiah? They go to Israel and they think they’re some Biblical character. Everything has such huge overtones when it is done in Jerusalem.
"There was this whole pick-up scene after davening on Friday night. People would hang out on the streets and then they’d go to Shabbat dinners and then they’d get carried away by the holiness of the Shabbat and they’d hook up. But they didn’t think of it sex. It was messianic. It was healing the shattered vessels. It was connection with cosmic consequences.
"There were all these American LUGs – Lesbian Until Graduation. A lot of them became Conservative rabbis.
"There was something in the air in Jerusalem. The holiness was tangible. A girl would be giving me a handjob and she’d start meditating. You don’t find that in Los Angeles.
"Things that seemed impossible anywhere else seemed possible in Jerusalem. You’d hook up with people, you’d marry people, you’d never do anywhere else because you got caught up in Jerusalem fever. It’s easy to destroy your life if you are not grounded."
"I used to hit the alternative scene in my kipa. And it was totally accepted because everyone in that world was tattooed and pierced. They accepted it as like a piercing. And I’d hook up with people while wearing my kipa. It wasn’t that I went down to "hook up", I was involved in the scene there so despite the kippa I had regular friends and even lovers despite the kippa. I was meaning something very benign, in most of those cases it was never intended to be sexual, just that it was welcoming there. "
