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S •

OCTOBER 2005 • JNPLATINUM

Temple Emanu-El in Oak Park, where
she became a bat mitzvah, graduated
from Hebrew high school and was
involved in the North American
Federation of Temple Youth on
statewide and national levels. "While I
was attending public middle school, I
had already started to get involved
with the Jewish youth group at my
temple, and I spent my first summer
away at Jewish summer camp. But
when I got to high school, I realized
just how important that sense of com-
munity was to me the moment it was
taken away," she says.
"A lot of people thought that going
to a Catholic high school would be a
threat to my Jewish identity, but it
ended up being the exact opposite —
it made me realize how important a
sense of Jewish community was to me,
how great it had been, and how much I
had taken for granted going to school
with other kids who understood the
same cultural references.
"I think that's one of the reasons
Heeb is so successful. It resonates with
a people who, regardless of their reli-
gious identity, have a strong connection
to a cultural Jewish identity."
It vas photography, though, that ini-
tially led Bodzin to Heeb. And it was at
the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor
— where she earned degrees in both
psychology and women's studies — that
she became interested in photography,
having taken several classes there.
After graduation in 2000, she spent a
year in Israel with the Project Otzma
volunteer/study program and then two
years back home studying photography.
Locally, she also taught Hebrew school
and art at Temple Israel in West
Bloomfield and Temple Beth El in
Bloomfield Township.
Shortly after moving to New York in
2003, Bodzin attended a meeting for
potential photographers for Heeb, and
offered to be the art/photo editor's
assistant, ending up with an unpaid
internship. Less than two years later,
she is Heeb's managing editor, the mag-
azine's first full-time staff post.
Her main responsibility "is to gov-
ern the day-to-day goings on at the
magazine," she says, which means
overseeing interns, editors, copy edi-
tors, proofreaders; enforcing deadlines
and chasing down articles, artwork and

advertisements that are due; and main-
taining the office.
Heeb has three full-time and two
part-time staffers and a core of 10-15
unpaid volunteers, including editors,
contributing editors and art team mem-
bers — all of whom are referred to as
"Members of Our Tribe." Another 10-
15 individuals volunteer as support staff
on each issue, and a team of college
students, known as "The Conspiracy,"
are responsible for spreading the word
on their respective campuses.
"A lot of the day-to-day tasks fall
into my hands simply because I'm at
the office on a daily basis," Bodzin says.
"Things like packaging new orders,
mailing magazines at the post office,
responding to customer inquiries,
restocking office supplies, updating the
heebmagazine.com Web site.
"I've taken pictures for the maga-

"Heeb challenges mainstream
conceptions of Jewish identity
and tests the boundaries
between Jewish and popular
culture. In the spirit of a long-
standing Jewish tradition, Heeb
strives to break idols, providing
a forum for otherwise margin-
alized voices and a home for
progressive young Jews."

— Managing Editor
Jessie Bodzin

zine. I've posed for pictures. I've
worked the door at Heeb events, and run
errands all around Manhattan. I've pret-
ty much done everything at one time or
another."

WHAT'S INSIDE?

"Heeb is creating a new kind of commu-
nity for Jews in their 20s and 30s,"
Bod.zin says of the magazine, whose
readership has exceeded 100,000. "We
cover arts, culture and politics for a
young Jewish audience."
In a publication where absolutely
nothing is ordinary, recurring features
include Urban Kvetch, Honorary Heeb,
and Jewdar, a column listing Jew-