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Sex
The Latest
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The Schmooze Dr. Ruth’s New Sex-Free Endeavor
Dr. Ruth Westheimer has a new project — and it has nothing to do with the bedroom. The pint-sized 82-year-old sex expert is in Tel Aviv researching a PBS documentary on Israel’s Circassian Muslim community, the Associated Press reported on August 18. Those who know Westheimer for her tips on intimacy and sexual literacy may…
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The Schmooze Israeli Couple Arrested for Loud Sex
Israeli satirist Ephraim Kishon once said Israel is surrounded by enemies “yet its inhabitants’ ulcers are caused by the neighbors.” In a country of extremely opinionated people, disputes and yelling matches are common-place. Though, they’re usually about wild pets and teenagers drumming, not loud moans coming from the neighbor’s bedroom. But at 5am last Thursday,…
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Life Sex and Women’s Pleasure Debated in the Orthodox Sphere
It seems that sex is on everyone’s minds this week. (“Just this week?” The cynic replied.) It’s not just on The Sisterhood that sexuality in Jewish life became a focus, but also elsewhere on the Jewish Web. Asimon, “Israel’s Women’s Site,” for example, announced that in honor of “May is Masturbation Month,” they are holding…
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Life The Problems With Religiously Sanctioned Sex Positivity
I read with interest Debra Nussbaum Cohen’s post about the struggles of Sara Diament, author of a book on sexuality education for young girls — a book targeted towards Orthodox Jews. I’ve had religion and sex on the brain this week. “Religious sex” was the name of a now-departed fetish boutique on St. Marks place,…
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Life Mary Gaitskill’s Liliths
Guggenheim Fellowship recipient and writer of fiction about women, strip poles and sexual guilt, Mary Gaitskill read a story at Franklin Park bar in Brooklyn on April 12 in which cuckolded political wives Silda Spitzer and Elizabeth Edwards become the Eves to Ashley Dupré’s and Rielle Hunter’s Liliths, and in doing so they take a…
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Life Sex and Drugs or the Immigrant Experience?
In New York tonight the battle is joined between East and West, downtown Heeb on the East and uptown Columbia University on the West. Will New York’s dwindling Jewish population plump for a night out with Shana Liebman leading a panel of contributors in discussing the new Heeb book “Sex, Drugs and Gefilte Fish” at…
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Culture Offbeat Israel: Sex Gum, Sports and the Separation Wall
Hamas has come up with some pretty bizarre conspiracy theories about Israel, but this one surpasses them all. Israel is bringing aphrodisiac chewing gum in to the Gaza Strip in order to corrupt its residents. Of course, encouraging Gazans to hook up and make more little Gazans is clearly an integral part of Israel’s strategy…
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Life What Rabbi Eliyahu’s Comments Say About Men
Debra’s point in the previous post that Chief Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu’s statements regarding modesty says “far more about the way the rabbi views men than it does women” warrants further discussion. The view of men that I think Debra is suggesting Eliyahu’s statement implies – that they are likely to be aroused by the slightest…
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