Distraught patrons mourn closure of Jerusalem’s only gay bar: “There are populations that need this”

The bar's owner says it's time for a new chapter.

Jerusalem’s LGBTQ+ community is mourning the closure of the city’s only gay bar, which bid farewell to patrons at the end of June.

Video Pub has been a haven for LGBTQ+ Israelis and tourists for the past 14 years, but its owner, Avi Goldberger, believes it’s no longer needed.

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

He added he doesn’t believe a place like Video Pub is needed in Jerusalem anymore, between the lack of tourism fueled by wars and the pandemic, and the overall increased acceptance of LGBTQ+ people.

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But patrons disagree.

“This place is a home,” 31-year-old Ido Zangen told Haaretz, adding, “It’s a safety net that I’m not sure is going to exist now.”

Another patron, a Palestinian woman who chose to remain anonymous, said she has always felt accepted at Video Pub despite being from Palestine. “It was a safe space for me,” she said. “Here, they get you.”

Her girlfriend, Mimi, added that in conservative Jerusalem, Video Pub was a place where homophobia was not a concern.

A 28-year-old woman named Hani, who defines herself as ex-religious, also spoke about finding her chosen family at Video Pub.

“There was no such thing as me being non-straight, not marrying a man and not having children. Here I discovered the light that exists in Jerusalem. It’s a place where you can let out energy without shame or guilt, as a community.”

Hagai Kerner, an anthropologist who wrote about Video Pub as part of his master’s thesis on queer Jerusalem, said the bar “has cultural and symbolic significance.”

“It’s a pretty small room, in which you see the entire city – its history, its people, the places where it exists as a bubble and permits a kind of liberation for the many people who need it.”

Kerner said the bar is special for its rich diversity, which is “perhaps a result of a lack of choice, and therefore this place necessarily contains more – because everyone ultimately needs to coexist in the same place.” He said the bar’s closure makes him fear “there won’t be another place that allows for this thing.”

“There are populations that need this defined, safe place to explore and feel liberated in a city that can be wonderful but also difficult. A place where queer visibility is perhaps not a given, and where it sometimes gets comments and even violence.”

Video Pub’s owner, Goldberger, currently owns two other bars in the city with two partners. He told The Times of Israel that HaTaklit Bar and The Cassette are “totally open to everyone, friendly to everyone.”

“I get that people are sad, a lot of people loved the place and visited there and were connected to it,” he said. “But we open bars all the time.” He said he and his partners will be transforming the Video Pub space into something new.

“We’ve been doing this for 30 years and will keep doing it. You have to be optimistic,” he said.

But those who have found a home in Video Pub are struggling to see the bright side. Former Video Pub bartender, Sky, told Haaretz she has been going to the bar since the first day it opened.

“Video isn’t just a bar. It’s a place to meet people you can identify with, to feel for the first time in your life that you can be yourself, to say what you want and dance how you want – to just be a free person, and that’s not easy in this city. I can’t imagine Jerusalem without this place.”

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