Gene Simmons’ Family Jewels in Israel

March 27, 2011 - 9:07 AM by David

Gene Simmons courts the press at the David Citadel Hotel in Jerusalem

It’s not too often that royalty visits Jerusalem – no, not Queen Elizabeth or Jordan’s King Abdullah, don’t hold your breath for either of them – but Gene Simmons and Shannon Tweed.

Alright, it’s tabloid pop culture royalty, but anyone witnessing the scene last week at the swanky David Citadel Hotel would admit nonetheless that it’s royalty – even more so than the visit which ended the day before Simmons arrived of Sarah Palin who stayed next door at the Mamilla Hotel (after reservations were changed when news was leaked she’d be staying at the David Citadel).

The Israeli-born co-founder of rock giants Kiss and his Playboy playmate girlfriend indeed cut a glamorous cloth around the hotel as they arrived along with Nick, one of their two children, to film episodes of their US reality show “Gene Simmons Family Jewels.”
Simmons moves more slowly than the days when he was regularly breathing fire and spitting theatrical blood onstage as the front man and bassist for Kiss, rock’s biggest spectacle in the 1970s. But speaking respectable Hebrew from the nine years he lived as a youth in the small town of Tirat Carmel, Simmons takes over whatever space he’s in with a long mane of black hair, a dark sports coat and sunglasses. And he had a great story to tell.

His mother had been in Auschwitz and witnessed most of her family go to the gas chambers. Arriving in Israel after the Holocaust, she married and gave birth to Simmons (born Chaim Witz), but in 1960, left her husband and took her young son to a new life in Brooklyn. Witz became Gene Klein and eventually Simmons, now a household name.

Proclaiming to be ardently pro-Israel, Simmons never returned to his homeland until last week, and that was only after the Tourism Ministry helped to foot the bill for his entourage of producers, camera men and assistants who took up eight rooms at the hotel.

“As an American, there’s no choice but to be supportive of Israel,” he said. “This is the Holy Land, and it’s no secret that everybody in America perceives Israel as it’s only real friend in the Middle East – who else are you going to rely on?” said Simmons during a round of interviews at the beginning of his week-long visit which is taking him to Jewish and Christian holy sites around the country.

He told AP that he’s ridden a camel and enjoyed watching Tweed float in the Dead Sea.

Israel last week survived a terror attack in the capital, the Jerusalem Marathon and the sentencing of its former president for rape. Will we be able to survive Gene Simmons and his family jewels?

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