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November 3, 4 & 5
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November 10, 11 & 12
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'
media, like the recently published The
Big Book of Jewish Conspiracies (St.
Martin's Griffin; 2005; $13.95), a
humorous satire chronicling Jewish con-
spiracies through the ages by two Heeb
editors, David Deutsch and Joshua
Neuman; and the Web site where peo-
ple can, after reading about different
candidates named Schwartz, vote for
their favorite "Schwartz of the Month."
Heeb even has an online "kvetching
board" aka chat room.
An online store sells T-shirts with
logos, like a Jewish version of a
Superman tee; other shirts have slogans
such as "Honorary Heeb" and "Moses is
My Homeboy" and questions like
"What Would Barbra Do?" on a shirt
with Streisand's face across the front.
Ads for the magazine feature the
likes of Al Franken and Carrot Top
reading issues of Heeb.
Even before its first issue was on the
stands, Heeb had been covered in the
media, in publications from Punk Planet
and Gay City to Newsweek, Time and the
Forward — and in Hebrew in Ha'az-etz.
The Chicago Tribune listed it as one of
the "50 Best Magazines" last year,
describing it as "slick, sometimes sick
and often funny ... intelligent, provoca-
tive [with a] young and hip point of
view [and an] embrace of its audience's
inner-dweeb."
"Heeb challenges mainstream concep-
tions of Jewish identity and tests the
boundaries between Jewish and popular
culture," Bodzin says. "In the spirit of a
longstanding Jewish tradition, Heeb
strives to break idols, providing a forum
for otherwise marginalized voices and a
home for progressive young Jews."
A recent nod to the success of the
magazine actually didn't appear in the
publication. "It was having Heeb men-
tioned in one of Jon Stewart's opening
jokes on The Daily Show," Bodzin says.
"I'm a huge fan of the show and hav-
ing Jon Stewart give us a shout-out on
TV was more than I could have imag-
ined."
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sightings. Each issue also highlights
"the chosen," such as a "chosen film,"
"chosen art" or "chosen book."
Even newsy topics are offered with a
bit of impertinence. "Buschwhacked" is
described as a story of how New York
City "has the chutzpah" to sue the fam-
ily of Gary Busch, killed by the city's
police.
"Chosen Frozen" described a jail-
based interview with the "guilt-ridden
hitman" hired by Rabbi Fred
Neulander to kill his wife. Religious
issues, too, are given a bit of razzle-daz-
zle, like the story on ritual circumcision
with the promo: "To snip or not to
snip?"
But amidst stories like "Porn Star
Bar Mitzvahs" and "Jewfros: A Kinky
Hair Pictorial" emerges one of Bodzin's
favorites: an interview with the Beastie
Boys. "Partly because it's a great inter-
view, but also because it represents a
real turning point for the magazine,"
Bodzin says of the story — hitting
newsstands just before Chanukah last
year — whose cover catches the band
members tossing cash bets into a pile
during a game of dreidel. "We had
often gotten turned down when
approaching celebrities and their publi-
cists. But the Beastie Boys not only
agreed to appear in the magazine, they
approached us to make it happen."
Another milestone favorite is an ad
for Streit's matzah. "In some of the ear-
lier issues, we created fake ads advertis-
ing real products and this was one of the
best," she says. "It features an African
American man holding up a piece of
matzah exclaiming, 'Damn! That's a big
ass cracker!' The ad was fake, but
Streit's got so much positive feedback
from our readers that they ended up
buying the ad in subsequent issues."
While the magazine remains the
base of Heeb, Bodzin says, "our readers
have expressed the desire for more than
just a quarterly publication. We now
also have cultural events and social
gatherings like release parties and our
storytelling series in New York City,
with similar events in places like Los
Angeles, San Francisco, Kansas City,
Denver and Washington, D.C."
Heeb's new comedy event, "The
Chosen One," will be touring college
campuses this year. And the name has
expanded to include other forms of
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