c. 2006 Religion News Service
NEW YORK _ Round midnight last Christmas Eve, Joshua Neuman killed any doubts he had about the success of Heebonism 2005, the party-like-you-mean-it bash his Jewish cultural magazine throws every Dec. 24.
About 1,500 sweat-drenched scenesters were mobbing the dance floor and he was squished into a corner with a blow-up Hassidic Jew doll.
This Yuletide eve, Heebonism _ with performances by DJ Russell Simins from Jon Spencer Blues Explosion and The Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs’ Nick Zinner _ drops at the 2,000-capacity Chelsea club BED New York. And once again, Heeb is expecting a sell-out.
The event, like at least a dozen others from now through Dec. 25, responds to what many describe as the overwhelming pressure to cheer all things Christmas.
“From our standpoint, it’s the most Jewish night of the year,” says Neuman, editor and publisher of the New York-based Heeb magazine. “It’s the only time of the year where Jews really feel like outsiders.”
From Manhattan’s Financial District to Chicago to Los Angeles, thousands of young Jews will dig deep and not so deep for their heritage this December at parties like the third annual Heebonism and irreverent theatrical productions. The mostly 20- and 30-something crowds are buying into the so-called new Jewish hipster movement that’s spawned T-shirts with slogans such as “You Had Me at Shalom,” and MTV’s “So Jewtastic” special _ prompting many to ask what it means to be Jewish.
Hanukkah, which began Dec. 15 and ends on Saturday (Dec. 23), is the perfect, low-pressure time to catch the “it’s-cool-to-be-a Jew” train because the holiday isn’t one of the more somber observances, organizers say.
Many of the events, like a show featuring drag queen Hadassah Gross, factor in high kitsch quotients. Rob Tennenbaum and David Fagin also go goofy in the rock duo, Good for the Jews.
Good for the Jews, whose tour also romps through Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago and Milwaukee before Christmas, finds lyrical inspiration from Jdate.com, the Web’s largest Jewish dating network, where “everyone’s funny and everyone’s smart and three inches shorter than they say they are,” according to the band.
“Good for the Jews appeals to a sort of disenfranchised group of young Jews who definitely feel Jewish and are aware of being Jewish, but maybe aren’t too comfortable going to synagogue,” says Tennenbaum, who created the “So Jewtastic” special for MTV last year. “Sometimes I think that one of our shows is kind of like being in temple because you’re surrounded by other Jews. You have a feeling of community. The difference is, at our shows you’re encouraged to drink beer.”
Of course, some traditionalists object to the so-called new brand of Jewish humor. In 2004, the Anti-Defamation League as well as the Catholic League blasted Heeb for its winter spread “Back Off, Braveheart,” mocking Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ.”
Still, many culture vultures seem to realize today’s Jewish showmen are following legends like Lenny Bruce, Jackie Mason and Woody Allen. Today’s vanguard _ actors Sacha Baron Cohen and Sarah Silverman and “Daily Show” host Jon Stewart _ are just carving their own paths, Altman says.
“There’s an aggressive, brash, politically aware and also politically incorrect sensibility,” says the 30-something Altman, whose Jew-themed variety show, “JEWMONGUS,” performs two shows on Christmas Eve in New York.
JDUB records, the Manhattan-based boutique label behind Hasidic rapper Matisyahu, will present a series of Jewltide parties around the country, hitting Washington, D.C., Chicago and Boston before reaching Brooklyn on Saturday and Sunday (Dec. 23-24). Artists such as the gold-album charter Matisyahu, plus Klezmar/hip-hop maestro SoCalled and the folk/electronic outfit Balkan Beat Box, will entertain Jewish trendsters as they shake their tuchus on the dance floor.
Altman said comics of his parents’ generation were more likely to portray Jews as nebbishy complainers with a victim mentality. “This new crop of comics, of which I’m pleased to be in along with Heeb magazine, it’s more in-your-face: `We’re Jewish and we’re proud.’ We wear it openly and strongly.”
KRE/JL END REIFER
(Jodi Lee Reifer writes for The Staten Island (N.Y.) Advance.)
Editors: To obtain photos of Altman, SoCalled and a recent party hosted by Heeb magazine, go to the RNS Web site at https://religionnews.com. On the lower right, click on “photos,” then search by subject or slug.
