Friends,
I enjoy using this column as an outlet to let you in on the development of Jewrotica, and bring you along with me to witness the continuing evolution of the project. Today I’ll give you a glimpse inside my mind, and share some of the hopes and fears that I – and many social innovators and entrepreneurs – experience.
The past six weeks have offered tremendous highs and achievements. The project launch was a marked success with an influx of submissions, a swath of positive press coverage and tens of thousands of visitors. The press, submissions and visitors all continue to pour in and, as of this week, Jewrotica has scored a solid Google ranking as well. People who want to follow in these footsteps may want to audit your website to help along the way, but it is a tremendous achievement for anyone to manage.
That said, starting any project can feel a bit like an emotional roller coaster and there have been moments in the past weeks where I have dealt with doubt. What is Jewrotica? What are we doing here? What are my goals? How do I handle the fact that while some people absolutely love us, others think that the project is base? By taking on a project this bold and by making Jewrotica a part of my portfolio, am I limiting my potential to work with other organizations in the future?
These questions are compounded by the fact that many of my friends and family members are quite conservative. One of my very best friends was conflicted about Jewrotica at first, but eventually came around and saw tremendous value in it… until I posted the first XXX piece. And my immediate family is marvelously supportive in private, but do they tell friends at the Shabbat lunch table what their daughter / sister is working on? Not exactly.
I recently had a conversation with my quite-religious mother during which this gem emerged:
“Mom, some people are making me feel like I’m off my rocker. Have I gone totally crazy?”
My mom paused for a moment to think, and then thoughtfully replied: “Hmm… No. No more than usual, sweetie.”
I took a strange comfort in being reassured that I was keeping up with a longstanding personal tradition of pushing boundaries and thinking out of the box.
Celebrating 10 Years & Marking the End of An Amazing Project
Celebrating 10 Years & Marking the End of An Amazing Project
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.
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
Jewrotica is awesome. It expands the mind and for people who were raised with narrow views on sexuality. Whether you are Jewish or not, or in different sects of Judaism like Orthodox, Conservative or Reform, no matter what your background or where you’re from, Jewrotica gets you to see Judaism and how it relates to sexuality in new ways. I really appreciate Ayo being here and helping us learn different ways to connect with our sexuality.
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
While many people fear the “sex talk,” Jewrotica offers an opportunity for writers and audiences to speak about sexuality in a open and safe space. When I attended a Jewrotica reading, I heard stories that reminded me that love takes many forms, and that expressing it is a vital part of who we are as a people.
What an incredible night Jewrotica was!!!! There was this fantastic moment, in a sea of Jews of all sexualities, ages, backgrounds and denominations, that I realized we were all in this together! I hope that there are many more events coming to Austin soon!
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!
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!
I’m Heshy Fried from Frum Satire and I am very, very frum. And I completely support Jewrotica – it’s doing a service to the frum community. We need some sort of kosher sexual education. Jewrotica even has a system that allows frum filters to filter out certain things to make it PG for us. It’s mamish Torah. It’s like The Little Midrash Says for sex.
The people behind Jewrotica are quite quality! I have confidence that any project these folks take on will be equally quality.
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Built with Love and Mischief.
Designed by Ayo Oppenheimer and
David Abitbol
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