Playboy comes to Israel with its first Hebrew-language edition

Playboy is hitting the Holy Land — with Israel getting its very own Hebrew-language edition.

Publisher Daniel Pomerantz launched the mag in Tel Aviv on Tuesday, promising it would be "a complicated and beautiful" publication "for a complicated and beautiful country."

Playboy Israel will be the first version to be read from right to left, and will feature local models and articles by Israeli writers.

Its debut issue, which hits newsstands Wednesday, features reality star Nataly Dadon — who said opinions have been divided over the launch — on the cover.

Inside, there's an in-depth interview with Home Front Defense Minister Avi Dichter.

Pomerantz, a U.S. emigre, said at the launch: "Our target is men who want a taste of the good life and also women who are curious about the tastes of the men in their lives.

"I believe that the special formula that has brought Playboy to a rare level of success throughout the world will continue to succeed in my new home, Israel."
layboy founder Hugh Hefner gave the magazine his blessing in a pre-recorded message where he said he was "proud" to see his empire expanding.

Hefner added: "I am equally pleased so many of the core values of the magazine are also the core values of the country, and the society that has so graciously invited us to be a part of its cultural landscape."

Observers are now waiting to see how the adult publication, which was first launched in the U.S. in 1953, will be received in Israel.