“Do you want something to eat?”
“No, thank you.” He pushed the newspaper away from him and pointed to the refrigerator, where Uncle David had taped a picture from the last family reunion. “Who are those people?”
I pulled the picture off of the refrigerator and put it on the counter between Sami and me. “That’s my uncle, and that’s my mother, and that’s their sister Beth.” I pointed as I spoke, “And that’s my grandmother. Over on the left is my father, and my brother, and that’s me.”
“That’s you?” Sami picked the photo up to look more closely. “How old were you?”
“Thirteen, maybe? I could have been fourteen, but I think it was before my birthday.”
“And that’s your brother?” He pointed at Ari.
“Yes.”
“How old is he now?”
“Now? He’s twenty-one.”
“How old are you?”
“I’ll be nineteen in two months.”
Sami exhaled at that, and put the picture back on the counter.
“How old are you?” I asked, although I thought I knew, roughly.
“Twenty-five,” he said and looked at me. I shrugged, and pointed back at the picture, realizing his age had never even occurred to me as being problematic.
“And that’s my Aunt Beth’s husband, Jack, and their son Joel.”
“You only have one brother?”
“Yes.”
“And no sisters?”
“Just me.”
Sami was quiet, and looked back down at the picture. “Where was this picture taken?”
“In California, where my grandmother lives.”
“You don’t live in California?”
“No, I live in Chicago.”
“With your brother and your parents? But not your uncle or your grandmother?”
“Right.” We were quiet for a minute, and the coffeemaker clicked and whispered behind us. “Do you have brothers and sisters?”
Sami laughed. “Yes. I have three sisters and five brothers.”
“There are nine children in your family?”
He laughed again. “Yes. I’m the oldest.”
“Wow. So tell me about them.”
“About my sisters and brothers?”
“Yeah.”
“Why?”
“I’m interested.” I smiled and leaned towards him slightly, amazed at how easy it was to flirt, how naturally it came with this man who was strange to me.
“Tell me about your brother.” He was smiling back at me, but his eyes were confused, or worried.
“You go first,” I said, and brushed some hair behind my ear, watching his gaze follow my fingers.
He told me about his family. Twin sisters who liked dancing, and a younger brother who wanted to be an architect. The brother just younger than him who wanted to study law, the sister who hated school, and the mute brother who had been silent for all of his fourteen years. We drank our coffee and moved to sit on the couch in the other room. The music continued for a while, and then, after a rousing version of ‘Tuxedo Junction,’ the room was suddenly quiet.
“Where do you live?” I asked, resting my chin on the heel of my hand.
“In the Old City.” Sami scratched the back of his neck and then looked at me, waiting for my reaction.
Celebrating 10 Years & Marking the End of An Amazing Project
Celebrating 10 Years & Marking the End of An Amazing Project
My opinion on Jewrotica is: It’s sexy. It’s awesome. It’s Judaism to the next level. It’s what we should all be getting into!
I love the inclusiveness – there is something for everyone, in and out of the Jewish community.
I had a great time deejaying at the Jewrotica event at Columbia University. The live readings were hilarious, informative, and in some cases, deeply moving. I know that I, along with many of my AEPi fraternity brothers, loved being able to connect our Judaism and our sexuality in a way that made all of us feel comfortable and welcome. I look forward to being a part of this again in the future!
I attended and participated in last month’s Jewrotica event. The engaging performers and Ayo, our inviting host, inspired the audience to feel like one big community. What a great way to inspire our community to embrace sex as a beautiful thing that can be fun, exciting, sacred, sensual, ridiculous, scary and everything in between!
At Jewrotica’s Evening of Bedside Readings, students declaimed monologues on sexual encounters that had a Jewish twist. At Columbia/Barnard Hillel, the speakers pushed their own boundaries by performing a range of explicit narratives that challenged how the audience thought of the relationship to Judaism and sex. During the speakers’ preparation, the arguments about which narratives would be appropriate forced students to take a stand and voice their opinion on their own beliefs about Judaism an… Read more
Such an amazing experience! The Sarah Lawrence Jewrotica workshop was more than I could have ever expected – a comfortable, safe, sultry environment where participants clearly felt good about sharing or listening to each other’s intimate experiences and relating them to sexy stories from the Torah. From the moment the workshop began, Ayo had a sweet presence that was kinetic and spread around the room; her storytelling abilities had everyone enraptured and made the conversation topics relata… Read more
Jewrotica was everything I had dreamed of and more: sexy attendees, tantalizing confessions, and well-written literature to boot! More importantly, it empowers us Jews to reach inside and own our sexy selves and heritage!
Jewrotica is something that the community has needed for a long time so that people can actually learn, express and share and have good relationships without having to stumble through life. Check out the site and learn something. Have fun!
Learning about sex and what’s right and wrong when it comes to sex from a Biblical standpoint was an eye opening experience. I completely enjoyed it and think something like this could be a very cool thing to bring to even high school aged Jewish youth groups.
Jewrotica rocks. It’s funny, it’s informative, it’s sexy, it’s interesting. Check it out!
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