Sex is a touchy subject – not least among Israel’s highly conservative ultra-Orthodox Jews. But a therapist in Jerusalem has written a sex guide aimed specifically at this community.
There used to be a sex shop on the way to Dr David Ribner’s office in central Jerusalem.
The sign is still there – with big red letters spelling out “Sex Shop, Sex, Love” – but you can barely read it because it’s been scratched out.
The shop went out of business. Now there’s just one sex shop left in Jerusalem. No surprise for a city brimming with the pious.
Things are quite different in Ribner’s discreet office. Here, there is a row of boxes packed with lubricants, vibrators and massage oils, and an unusual collection of books on the wall – The Joy of Sex and The Guide to Getting It On sit side by side with volumes of Jewish religious texts.
I tell Ribner I’ve never seen a bookshelf quite like it. “There probably aren’t any,” he says.
Ribner was born in the US. In New York, he received both rabbinic ordination and a doctorate in social work. Then he moved to Israel, where he has been counselling devout Jewish patients for the past 30 years. He also founded a sex therapy training programme at Bar-Ilan University in Tel Aviv.
He says publication of a sex manual for Orthodox Jews was long overdue.
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