Canadian Jewish News

CANADIAN JEWISH NEWS, Oct. 16, 2008

Defining the hipster Jew for the new generation

By ANDY LEVY-AJZENKOPF
Staff Reporter
On Sept. 1, award-winning U.S. journalist
and proud Heebster maven Lisa Alcalay
Klug released her book Cool Jew: The Ultimate
Guide for Every Member of the Tribe
(Andrews McMeel Publishing).
Described as “a field manual for 21stcentury
Jews and the people who love
them, [it] decodes contemporary Judaism
and its hippest forms of cultural expression,”
Cool Jew is 250 pages of new
Jewish lingo and imagery and has been
on Amazon.com’s Top 10 bestseller list
for humour/religion since its release. It’s
now in its second print run due to heavy
demand, according to Klug.
Though she’s been living out of a suitcase
for the last month while promoting
the book on a whirlwind North American
tour, Klug kindly took time out for an
e-mail Q&A last week with Heebonics to
kibbitz about how it came together and
her thoughts on the new Jew. Now that’s
menschkeit.
And before you ask, Klug has decided
to coin the term “Heebster,” defining it as
such:
Heebster \heeb-stur\, noun (circa now) :
1 : A cool Jew.
2 : An honorary Member of the Tribe.
3 : Those who not only know what it is to be
Jewish, they know it, flaunt it, dig it and love it.
***
Heebonics: Why write Cool Jew?
Klug: I wrote Cool Jew because I love being
Jewish and I care passionately about how we
relate to our identity, tradition and community.
H: How did you go about researching it? How long
did it take?
K: About 15 years crammed into two. I’ve been
collecting and noticing fun and innovative forms
of Jewish expression for a long time. I spent a
much shorter period actually writing the book,
gathering images, working with an illustrator,
designing the cover and working on the layout. I
share the design credit on the book. (more)