Video Pub, Jerusalem’s sole gay bar, holds its final drag show on Wednesday before shuttering its doors for good at the end of the month. But owner Avi Goldberger is offering a positive spin on the difficult decision to close.

“People are making a big deal out of it,” said Goldberger. “But you don’t need bars anymore that are just for gay people; most bars are open to everyone.”

Goldberger and his two partners own two other Jerusalem watering holes, HaTaklit Bar and The Cassette, which are “totally open to everyone, friendly to everyone,” said Goldberger.

He also noted other local bars and night spaces that are currently marking Gay Pride month with events for the LGBTQ community.

As part of a final series of events to mark its closure, Video Pub will host “Allah Nash,” the city’s lone troupe of drag queens for a final hurrah on Wednesday night.

“I said we’d do it one last time there before Video closes,” said Yossele Ziv, the Jerusalem native who founded the group and its first home at Video Pub, also known as Video, located about a 10-minute walk from the Old City walls.

Ziv moved his act in 2018 to Nocturno, a restaurant and performance space in downtown Jerusalem that offers more space to expand his audience.

“I’m there every month with my solo act,” said Ziv, who works as a hairdresser by day. “Everyone says the city is becoming more ultra-Orthodox, but I see all kinds of people at my show, religious people and secular and really every kind of person. They come out to see me.”

Nocturno has become his new home, but Video helped Ziv and his fellow drag queens find their feet.

“I took my first steps there,”........

© The Times of Israel