"hot° b "am. SPOSA BRIDAL ATELIER EVENING 2005 Fall Trunk Shows Homa Bridal Accessories October 26 & 27 •oo hoto b Kennet Kenneth Pool November 3, 4 & 5 Couture Bridal Collection Monique Lhuillier November 10, 11 & 12 Couture Bridal Collection ' Badgley Mischka and Introducing Exclusively for Roma Sposa Elie Saab Emanuel Ungaro & Valentino ' 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." hot° b Bad 1-y 1, AMEN 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 Tiaras, Headpieces, Veils & Jewelry Meet the Designer! 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