Report: Jews Still 'Hip' After 5769 Years of 'Jews Are Hip' Reports

In today's New York Daily News, Piper Weiss introduces readers to the city's "Heebster movement," which we are told is "led by local tastemakers hell-bent on pushing the boundaries of traditional Jewish culture." They wear "self referential T-shirts" (presumably with the word "T-Shirt" emblazoned on the front) and perform racy "Hasidic Strips" that have women "dressed up as Hasidic Jews, and [...] do a striptease to reveal Jewish star pasties and tightie whities."

After listing a series of events with pun-filled names like "Heebonism," Ms. Weiss concludes, "But don't call these events 'cool.' Identifying the Heebster movement may just be its downfall."

If that's the case, then this movement's been in decline since at least the late '90s when reporters began covering it.

Some samples:

KLIGMAN'S LIST IN HER HIP 'ZINE, BARBARA KLIGMAN KVELLS ABOUT POP-CULTURE MENSCHES AND TAKES AIM AT ANTI-SEMITISM, by Lenore Skenazy, The New York Daily News, December 28, 1997.

The Other Philadelphia Story: Jewish Punk Rock Ethos Infuses Arts Festival During Next Week's Republican Convention, by Daniel Belasco, The Jewish Week, July 28, 2000.

Pushing the Envelope, Pursuing an Audience: Mags Target the Young and Restless, by Jeremy Hamburgh, The Forward, July 27, 2001.

UNORTHODOX JEWS ; YOUTHFUL WRITERS TAKE AN UNFLINCHING LOOK AT THEIR RELIGION IN A BRASSY NEW MAGAZINE; HEEB MAGAZINE, by Tara Weiss, The Hartford Courant, February 9, 2002.

New generation finds it's hip to be Hebrew, by Paul Harris, The Guardian, December 14, 2003.

For a generation of Jews, it’s kosher to be cool, by Carol Eisenberg, The Los Angeles Times, March 3, 2004.

A Happy Hipster Hanukkah, by Stephanie Rosenbloom, The New York Times, December 15, 2005.

Hipster Jews: Are they helping or hurting American Judaism?, by Rachel Zoll, The Associated Press, January 28, 2006.

NEED A NEW SPIN OF THE DREIDEL?, Sarah Schmerler, The New York Post, December 1, 2007.

For Some Jews, It Only Sounds Like ‘Taboo’, by Kate Torgovnick, The New York Times, July 17, 2008.