Some 75 students ran naked through the Hebrew University of Jerusalem's Mount Scopus campus Monday night, as part of a tradition organizers say dates back to the 1930s.
Students who organized the "Naked Kilometer" event, which was held for the second consecutive year, drew their inspiration mainly from American teen movies, but, according to them, a similar happening took place annually in Jerusalem between 1931 and 1948, the year of Israel's
inception.
One of the organizers, a social sciences student, said the jog is not meant to send a particular message or advocate a certain cause, but rather to "revive the academic atmosphere in the city."
"A few of us were hanging out one Friday night – complaining about school and the routine. Then one of the guys said he had participated in a naked jog abroad," the student said. "It started out as a joke; we launched a website and sent out emails to people who initially thought the initiative was a hoax, but it quickly gained steam."
News of the unusual initiative spread by word of mouth, and the organizers even set up a special page on Facebook.
"The city is in need of an atmosphere that is slightly less serious, and it is important to give the feeling that it is okay to act foolishly every once in a while," one of the organizers said, "there is no ideology here. The idea is just to have fun. We're constantly immersed in our studies and politics; it's okay to loosen up a bit."
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