Are you a Valentine’s Day lover or hater? Jewrotica is joining forces with the One Billion Rising campaign in their fight against domestic violence and sexual abuse. Check in tomorrow for a post on OBR’s work and a less traditional Valentine’s Day story from one of our Jewrotica writers.
Today we asked our Jewrotica staff to share some of their thoughts on V-Day:
Question #1: What was your most memorable or most awkward Valentine’s Day?
Ayo: When I was in 6th grade and my older sister was in 8th grade at the same school, one of her friends walked through the halls wishing everyone a Happy Valentine’s Day and giving out Hershey’s Kisses. This was a tremendous treat, especially to a chocolate lover like me! But moments later, our chocolate saint was reprimanded for the mere mention of Valentine’s Day at our Orthodox Jewish day school. The 8th grader dutifully walked to the start of the hallway and took back each Hershey’s Kiss before mischievously returning each chocolate to its owner with a gleeful “Happy Wednesday! Happy Wednesday! Happy Wednesday!”
Tamar: I once got dumped the day after Valentine’s Day, which kind of soured me on the holiday at age 16. Fun fact: the same guy broke the news of my aunt’s death to me via facebook message. Because he is a dick (okay, fine, I might be a little bitter).
Larisa: The one and ONLY time was when I went out to dinner and it was laughable how many girls wore red and how many guys tried to swoon them in hopes of getting laid. So odd…
Limor: My high school boyfriend took the amazing effort of asking my upstairs neighbor to use her window as a leverage and sent down a rose with a love letter… Sweetest thing! Can’t think of an awkward one.
Leora: I’ve always been a VDay hater. I used to get genuinely angry if a boy spent money on such a bullshit holiday…….until 3 years ago, when my boyfriend made it his personal goal to change my mind. I came home on Valentines Day to a dark apartment with a candle trail in my bedroom. On my bed, he had arranged 300 cupcakes (I worked for a bakery at the time) in the shape of a heart, with my nickname spelled out in the middle. Needless to say, we had a LOT of fun with icing that night, and I’ve loved Valentine’s Day ever since.
Karalyn: A guy I was dating in university showed up with a big box of Reese’s chocolate peanut butter hearts. I was so excited and happy. Having grown up Orthodox, I’d never celebrated V-Day before, and was always secretly jealous of people who had. He then took me to a bar, where, unbeknownst to me, he had told two other girls who had nothing to do on Valentine’s day that he would meet them there. I was furious and embarrassed both for me and them. Some romantic date. I walked out on him and needless to say, we broke up. That night.
David: As an always dutiful boyfriend, and despite the fact that I am not a Valentine’s Day person, I’ve had numerous memorable V-Days where I did the right thing for my significant other. This includes innumerable fancy meals, both home cooked and at nice restaurants, slogging through stormy weather to get just the right kind of roses, SO many flowers, you name it, I’ve done it. But the most memorable Valentine’s Day? Well, one of our employees had his birthday on Valentine’s Day. He was a good guy and we decided to have a birthday blowout for him at the office. It was memorable because I don’t actually remember much of what transpired given the amount of intoxicants we had consumed. All I remember is walking around with a Valentine pinned on my chest and telling each person I met “In honor of Valentine’s Day, I have a heart on for you!” True story.
Celebrating 10 Years & Marking the End of An Amazing Project
Celebrating 10 Years & Marking the End of An Amazing Project
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!
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!
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 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.
I love the inclusiveness – there is something for everyone, in and out of the Jewish community.
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
The people behind Jewrotica are quite quality! I have confidence that any project these folks take on will be equally quality.
You may not tell your mom that you’re going to a live Jewrotica reading (or whatever clever name you will dub these events) but you will tell your friends. However, both would be jealous if they find out that they missed it. I think it will only be a matter of time before Jewrotica helps us reclaim the term “Dirty Jew” the way rap music has done for “The ‘N’ Word.” I know I am now proud to be a Dirty Jew!
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 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!
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