Was Yenta A Madame?
From a NYMag article about Jason Itzler, NYC’s premire pimp for high-price escorts:
Jason has consulted his prison rabbi, who presided over the recent Passover ceremony during which Itzler got to sit with recently arrested madam Julie Moya (of Julie’s) during the asking of the Four Questions. The rabbi told Jason that as a Jewish pimp who sold women to Jewish men, he was liable for the crime of kedesha. The rabbi did not, however, think this transgression necessarily prevented Jason from becoming a shadchan, or a traditional matchmaker.
How any times does that article mention that this guy is Jewish? If he was black, do you think it would go on about it? I mean, its bad enough that he IS Jewish; does it have to be shouted from the rooftops?
OK, so I got obsessive compulsive: I decided to answer my own question: here are the mentions:
1. As Jason doesn’t mind telling you, he has known many women since he lost his virginity not too long after his bar mitzvah at the Fort Lee Community Jewish Center, doing the..
2. Not yet 40, Jason Itzler has a story that is already a mini-epic of Jewish-American class longing, a psycho-socio-sexual…
3.“It was like having my own clubhouse,†says Jason now, relishing the evenings he presided as esteemed host and pleasure master. He remembers discussing what he called a “crisis in Judaism†with a top official of a leading Jewish-American lobby group….
4. It was Feldman who, years before, had given the young Jason Itzler a copy of Budd Schulberg’s all-time delineation of the Hebrew hustler, What Makes Sammy Run? “Read it,†Feldman said. “It’s you.â€
5.Jason has consulted his prison rabbi, who presided over the recent Passover ceremony during which Itzler got to sit …..
To NY metro: I mean, enough already. Is this a zoo, and we animals? To which I suppose a lot of them would answer: yes. We are all animals in a zoo. Thank you, no.
(/rant)
Actually, the Jewish aspect is what really attracted Mark Jacobson to the story in the first place (at least mostly, and at least that’s what he told me). I don’t think NY metro is going after Jews when it was a Jew who wrote the story. And, yes, I think a big part of the compelling nature of the article is the fact that this “nice” Jewish boy is really a sociopathic pimp.
I don’t think NY Metro is going after Jews at all. If that’s what I was communicating, my apologies. I found the story copmpelling too (I mean, look: I went through it picking out the comments). Its just ….I though the emphasis was a bit much. This isn’t a magazine that is only going to be read by Jews and philosemites. I’m not advocating a whitewash, either. This just looks like a bit too much dirty laundry to me.
I think this is great story. It’s good because it makes Jewishness look hip and cool. Some Jews are rap stars and some Jews are pimps and ho’s. We’re not all doctors, dentists and lawyers anymore.
“It’s good because it makes Jewishness look hip and cool. ”
And that’s the whole point, isn’t it? Would the great Jewish historical figures be more appalled at the idea that’s it’s so important to be “hip and cool”, or that some tawdry low-life could be perceived this way?
No doubt this was the most amazing part of the article. I’d say, no.
Well some of Julie’s customers were Jewish (as were Itzlers & Paulinos) Just look at this guy:
http://www.pornspaces.com/gridney
We are all people who choose to cross the line and we did. I think Jason Itzler always crossed the line in things he did. As for myself ,I feel prostitution should be legal. If a woman can have an abortion and do what she thinks she should because it is her body then why can’t do as she wishes. She is not killing any body, in fact she is offering a service.