Jerusalem's Only Gay Bar Closes After 14 Years

Video Bar in Jerusalem, which in recent years was considered the city’s last and only gay bar, will close at the end of June after 14 and a half years of activity. In a statement issued by the owners and nightlife figures Avi Goldberger, Roy Bar Tor and Hagai Sternheim, they wrote that they are “ending this chapter” and saying goodbye to a place that was, for them and for many others, “much more than just a bar.” The main reason for the closure is the series of years of the coronavirus pandemic and the ongoing wars since the October 7 massacre.

The bar, which operated at 1 Yohanan Hurcanus Street in the city center, became over the years one of the most closely identified places with Jerusalem’s gay nightlife, in a city where community life is much more complicated and charged than in Tel Aviv. “After 14 and a half years, Video Pub is closing its doors,” the owners wrote in their farewell statement. “At the end of June we will finish this chapter and say goodbye to the place that was, for us and for many others, much more than just a bar. It was a meeting place for community, friendships and memories.” According to them, “This was not an easy decision. The past few years have been challenging, but more than anything we feel it is time to move on.”

Behind the restrained wording stand difficult years for small businesses and nightlife in Jerusalem, the coronavirus pandemic, long periods of security instability, the war, the decline in tourist traffic and the ongoing difficulty of maintaining an independent entertainment venue in the city. But the closure of Video is not just the closure of another bar. For many in Jerusalem, it marks the end of one of the last spaces where the city’s gay community could gather openly, freely and on a daily basis.

The responses to the closure announcement showed just how much Video was for many people far more than a place to go out. “Thank you for a place that is home, a place that is the distillation of the Jerusalem I love,” one commenter wrote. Another said that even after leaving the city more than a decade ago, she was saddened to hear about the closure: “One of the places I most loved going out to during the stages of my religious deconversion. Liberal and free.” Another commenter wrote, “When people asked me about a good party in Jerusalem, I always answered ‘Video’ without blinking. A real shame. There is no place like it in the world.” Alongside the personal pain, some also saw the closure as a broader sign of the city’s condition. “One can only wonder what will remain standing in Jerusalem?” one commenter wrote. Another wrote, “The last remnant of the community in Jerusalem. Sad and worrying. There are almost no places left for the community in the country.” Another commenter summed it up simply: “My heart hurts. The place that was my home for so many years.”

The hidden place where Jerusalem allowed itself to let go

Inside an old Jerusalem stone building, behind a small gate and a staircase, Video opened in 2012 and quickly became one of the small but significant institutions in Jerusalem nightlife. Unlike large clubs or glamorous entertainment venues, it operated on an almost intimate Jerusalem scale, not visible from the street, a small bar, a dance floor, a terrace, pop and electro music, drag performances and a retro 1980s aesthetic.

Over the years, Video appeared in gay travel guides and international tourism websites, which described it as Jerusalem’s only dedicated gay bar and one of the few places in the city where clearly LGBTQ nightlife could be found. Its uniqueness was reflected in the unusual mix of people who went there, LGBTQ people, ex-religious Jews, closeted Haredim, Arabs, students, tourists from abroad, and straight patrons who found it more relaxed, less judgmental and more open.

On travel sites and in international reviews, it was described not only as an LGBTQ bar, but as a place with a rare sense of community in a city as complex as Jerusalem. Culturally as well, Video filled a broader role than a regular bar. It was a small stage for drag, music, performance and Jerusalem queer humor, in a place where the very visibility of the gay community is not a given. Travel guides noted the drag shows and parties at the venue as part of its alternative character, one that made Jerusalem freer and more distinctive.