New generation finds it's hip to be Hebrew

[T_i_B]

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,1106699,00.html

It all started with a T-shirt. Young New Yorkers often emblazon shirts with fashion statements such as 'sexy' or 'porn star', but this one was different. It read: 'Jewcy'. Now the Jewcy slogan has become a cultural icon and a brand name on its own. The jewcy.com website promotes Jewish theatre and clubbing nights and has been at the forefront of a reinvention of Jewish identity by young US Jews.

'It is a kind of Jewish Pride,' said Jon Steingart, who co-founded the Jewcy label as a joke. 'I think we just tapped into the zeitgeist of what was going on with young people. We just applied Jewishness to having a young, hip style and it took off.' Potshots are taken at all aspects of Jewish culture,. Jewcy's best-selling T-shirt reads: 'Shalom motherfucker'. 'It is flying off the shelves,' said Steingart.

Meanwhile, US bookshelves are bulging with new-generation Jewish fiction such as Myla Goldberg's Bee Season and Gary Shteyngart's The Russian Debutante's Handbook . But, unlike previous Jewish bestsellers, these books have characters who revel in their Jewishness rather than shun it.

But the vanguard of young Jewish America is a trend-setting magazine, Heeb, an old yiddish insult for a Jew. Started by Jewish writer Jennifer Bleyer, Heeb now sells nationwide. Its content is an irreverent mix of every aspect of Jewish culture. Its last issue contained features on 'Sexy Israeli expats' and an obituary of German film-maker Leni Riefenstahl that concluded: 'You are Heeb's new favourite dead Nazi-lover.'

[eyesroll]

1. I like Heeb

I caught a copy in the magazine section of a hobby store.
The issue featured Joe Lieberman paper dolls, with all of the outfits (surfer, astronaut, Florida retiree) he could wear after he lost the election. (Heeb, like most younger liberal Jews, does not care for Lieberman.)