Knesset Member Resists Planned Naked Dead Sea Shoot
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
A conservative Knesset member is attacking the “culture of Sodom and Gomorrah” that might bring thousands of naked Israelis to the shores of the Dead Sea.
Zevulun Orlev, a member of the religious HaBayit HaYehudi party, has asked Israeli legal authorities to prevent a planned photo shoot by Spencer Tunick, an American artist who has, according to his Web site, “been documenting the live nude figure in public” since 1992. Tunick, who has staged similar mass-nudity “installations” across Europe, the United States and South America, hopes to carry out his Dead Sea photo shoot later this year, having already raised funds in excess of his $60,000 budget.
Orlev, a former minister of welfare and social services, has objected to the project, calling it a “harmful and shameful production” that violates Israeli laws on public decency. The legislator’s opposition is unlikely to halt Tunick’s plans; the photographer has already gone to court in other countries, including the United States, to defend his art on grounds of free speech, among other legal tactics.
Tunick’s photo shoot already has a Tel Aviv-based “curator,” Ari Fruchter, who in a promotional video says the project would draw attention to environmental issues at the Dead Sea, as well as social issues. Already dubbed “Naked Sea,” the project appears to be Tunick’s first in the Middle East.
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover. All donations are being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
