The Emerging World of Jewrotica By Jaq Greenspon Photograph by Erin Trieb
“T
his is not just erotica with a menorah thrown in,” says Ayo Oppenheimer. “Jewrotica is bringing the sex to Judaism, but also the Judaism to sex.” “Jewrotica” is a brand-new dot-org website (founded by Ms. Oppenheimer), which went live last October and has been slowly, but steadily, gaining notice and page views. People will hear about the site through friends, family, their religious leaders or various articles published around the world. “There was a Russian relationship or sex site that wrote about us,” Ayo says with a laugh. “So for weeks we were having insane traffic from the former Soviet Union.” In the past eight months or so, Oppenheimer has traveled from her home in Austin, Texas, to places as far flung as Jerusalem and Orange County, Calif., from Sarah Lawrence College in New York to Texas State University in San Marcos, all to promote a new idea, one she was surprised no one had tapped before her. “There’s a lot of different topics that interest me. I’m constantly bristling with ideas for cool products and things that I can do, but this was one where I thought, ‘How does this not exist yet? How is there not a hub for Jewish sexual expression?’ ” So she started one. Growing up in New Jersey as part of a small Orthodox Jewish family, Ayo always has felt the need to make her world a better place. A self-styled social innovator, she shies from the entrepreneur label. As she puts it, “If I (were) doing my projects to make money, I would be doing different projects and running them quite differently.” In high school she saw a need for peer tutoring and peer counseling programs, and did what
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