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.
somehow i doubt most daily news readers already knew about the heebster movement so yr slamming makes no sense
Agreed. The point isn't the content but the readership. Believe it or not, the milliosn of people who read the Daily News do not actually spend their days combing through back issues of the Hartford Courant. You should, however, be making fun of the NY Times' increasingly retarded styles section.
I don't normally read the Daily News, but your article made me go read Weiss' article and I have to say that I found it really interesting. Sure, it's not cutting edge news, but it is relevant to me. As a senior in high school in 1997 I only knew 2 Jewish people. 11 years later I am promising my boyfriend that we will raise our children Jewish.
If your boyfriend wants Jewish children he should marry a Jewish woman. As non-Jew it's impossible for you to raise Jewish children. Under Halacha law children of non-Jewish mothers are not Jewish. Being Jewish is not just about religion. It's about a peoplehood. You are not familiar with Jewish culture or tradition. It's like asking a Jewish woman to raise German Mormon children.
Your children will be Gentiles and if your boyfriend doesn't like it he's delusional. Jewish men can't have Jewish children without a Jewish mother. End of story!
haha - that last anonymous comment took the previous anonymous comment so seriously. awesome. but seriously, i don't think the daily news was, or is for that matter, ever trying to introduce a new trend. instead, it accepts the fact that it's a couple years late without drawing too much attention on that fact.
on a different note, they should do an article on how this year's sarah palin halloween costume is last year's amy winehouse. no?