Sandwiched between the Sheraton and the Hilton hotels on some of the priciest real estate in Israel, the building on Atarim Square was home to the Pussycat, an upscale strip club popular with the rich and powerful. But the club closed down this summer following a legal fight, leading to its radical transformation into a hub for Jewish learning and social activism.
The building that allegedly was a venue for prostitution and sex trafficking will now serve as a center for activism aimed at, among other things, empowering women from troubled backgrounds. The building that once housed the Pussycat has been transformed into a hub for Jewish learning and social activism.
They threw open the dark velvet curtains that hung on the seafront windows, exposing a hidden stairway system that the strippers used to move unseen across the 8, square feet of the former club. Another curtain, obscuring a mosaic of erotic posters, was left in place. Underground, the club had two windowless bedrooms with shower stalls. Police said those rooms, which echo with the drone of overhead traffic, were where strippers also working as prostitutes would take clients.
In a place that stood for exploitation, there will be assistance and empowerment to women. The repurposing of Atarim Square is, to some observers, part of a broader change in Tel Aviv, which is shedding its reputation as a hedonic paradise and becoming more family friendly and embracing of Jewish tradition. Young Israelis are trained by volunteers at the former club, Oct. A decade ago, Israel was a focus of international criticism as a center of sex trafficking, much of it centered in Tel Aviv.
In , the country was added to a U. State Department human trafficking watch list. But by , Israel had turned things around. The State Department had elevated it to the highest rating of countries working to combat trafficking. Israeli police cleaned up the streets around the old central bus station, which had become a haven for pimps and prostitutes.
