California Literary Review

Lisa Alcalay Klug: Releasing Your Inner Heebster

By Kelly Hartog

To say that Lisa Alcalay Klug is incredibly busy right now would be an understatement. With the publication of her first book: Cool Jew – The Ultimate Guide for Every Member of the Tribe, Klug is suddenly caught up in a whirlwind of sneak preview parties, book launches, readings, and, of course, press interviews.

Born into what she says, “In the old days they referred to as a ‘mixed marriage’” (“My mother’s Sephardi, my father’s Ashkenazi”), Klug, whose father is a Holocaust survivor, says her parents are “incredibly proud Jews,” who raised their children in a traditional Jewish home.

She also has an impressive Jewish heritage, with her mother being a descendant of Sephardic Jews from the Balkans, including the Chief Sephardic Rabbi of Sarajevo – Yehuda Alcalay, who was credited with influencing many of Theodore Herzl’s ideas regarding the establishment of the Jewish State. (More)