Jews and Sex

By Nathan Abrams

Five Leaves, 2008, £12.99

In the mid-1990s I worked as a research assistant for Jewish Continuity, the short-lived organisation that sought to ensure the continuity of Judaism in this country. One of its major concerns was preventing intermarriage and, in order to do so, great pains were taken to research the lives of British Jewish single young adults. Notwithstanding the naivety and crudity of some aspects of Jewish Continuity’s ‘anti-intermarriage’ agenda, a detailed picture emerged that contributed to the understanding of British Jewry. But I couldn’t help feeling then, as now, that something was missing — we didn’t investigate what young Jews thought about the prospect and the reality of sex with other Jews. Was intermarriage partially a result of young Jews finding other Jews a sexual turn-off? Are non-Jews more sexually alluring to Jews (and visa versa)? What, in short, is the ‘sexual economy’ of British Jewish life?

It struck me then as now that the topic of Jews and sex is a crucial one if we are to understand Jewish behaviours and attitudes, particularly towards assimilation and intermarriage. So I was eager to read the unambiguously-titled collection Jews and Sex edited by British-Jewish scholar Nathan Abrams. The book has its roots in Abram’s essay on Jews in the porn industry, published in the Jewish Quarterly in the winter 2004/5 issue, and the nude cover photo of Jewish porn star/performance artist Annie Sprinkle suggests a welcome openness about sexual matters.

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