Mazal tov

Today, Cool Jew is No. 5 on Amazon's bestseller list for Humor/Religion titles. Mazal tov all around!

The Latest Updates

There's so much happening with Cool Jew! Plenty of speaking gigs, festivals and fun press. Both the Canada Jewish News and OyChicago rolled out the red carpet coverage for Purim. And the Jewish Journal ran a really "Uncool" piece.

Not to neglect Pesach, this month's Costco Connection magazine shared an article I wrote with its more than 3 million readers about how Costco has become part of Passover.

And now... We're back on the road for Spring Tour. It's been a whirlwind already with our debut on XM Satellite Radio and an in-depth interview -- yet to air -- on Shalom TV. Still ahead: The Conney Conference on Jewish Identity and the Arts at the University of Wisconsin, Madison April 22nd, an encore performance at Breathe Books in Baltimore May 5th, LeHigh Pennsylvania May 6th and... more!

Meanwhile, CoolJewBook.com and ModernTribe.com have teamed up once again to help rock your holiday! We’re offering one lucky winner the following Passover accoutrements, all boxed up and ready to give to your favorite Afikomen lover.

The Hip Hop Seder Box features

* Cool Jew
* Moses Action Figure
* So Called Seder Hip Hop Hagaddah CD
* Zelda’s Marshmallow Passover Chocolate-Covered Frog

To win, visit either site and enter your email in the “Giveaway” box. You will be joining our email lists. Be sure to enter to win between Friday, March 27th and Monday, March 30th.

Thanks for entering! We’ll announce the winner on Tuesday, March 31st to make sure your Hip Hop Seder Box arrives in time for the first night of Passover on April 8th. Enter now!

With the "Four Questions in Four Tongues" (see p. 112-113) and much, much more, Cool Jew makes a great holiday gift and Afikomen prize. Order now to get yours in time for seder!

Visit my new 'zine, Tolerant Nation, which celebrates diversity, multiculturalism and cross-cultural dialogue.

Rockin' Passover Giveaway

CoolJewBook.com and ModernTribe.com have teamed up again to help rock your holiday! We're offering one lucky winner the following Passover accoutrements, all boxed up and ready to give to your favorite Afikomen lover.
The Hip Hop Seder Box features

* Cool Jew
* Moses Action Figure
* So Called Seder Hip Hop Hagaddah CD
* Zelda's Marshmallow Passover Chocolate-Covered Frog -- A tasty plague, indeed!


To win, visit either site and enter your email in the "Giveaway" box. You will be joining our email lists. Be sure to enter to win between Thursday, March 26th and Monday, March 30th.

Thanks for entering! We'll announce the winner on Tuesday, March 31 to make sure your Hip Hop Seder Box arrives in time for the first night of Passover on April 8th. Enter now! And rock on, Heebsters!

The Big Time

Wednesday, tune into the author of Cool Jew on XM Satellite Radio Channel 156 and Sirius Satellite Radio Channel 195 at 5 am, 1pm, 7pm EST. The show will air again Sunday at 7am EST.

If you're not a subscriber, never fear. For a free trial subscription (no credit card required), visit http://www.xmtrial.com/oprahlp_free/index.jsp

Visit Oprah.com for more information about Oprah Satellite Radio Channel 156 and the Dr. Maya Angelou Show.

Thursday: In-studio taping at Shalom TV in Fort Lee, New Jersey.

Stay tuned for more deets of the Cool Jew Spring Tour!

Spring Tour and Amazon

Hallelujah! We dropped a few hints that we were going back out on tour and Cool Jew has sprinted to No. 3 on Amazon's bestseller's list for Humor/Religion books.

First stop on the Spring Tour:

Deets: Center for Jewish Life/ Hillel at SUNY RCC
Tuesday, March 24, 2009, 7:30pm - 10:30pm
RCC Student Union 3214
145 College Road
Suffern, New York

More info: 845-574-4422
doliver (at) sunyrockland (dot)edu

Book Tour Resumes

Just when I thought book tour was over, it begins again!

Requests have been coming in from around the country so we're now building the
Cool Jew Spring Tour. Stay tuned for deets!

Meanwhile, at this moment in time, Cool Jew is No. 7 on Amazon's humor/religion list.

Rock on, Heebros!

Mazal Tov!

It's not every day you can snag free Heebster swag. But this week, CoolJewBook.com and ModernTribe.com chose one lucky winner of the Cool Jew Gift Box. The winner was chosen based on the cool ways they celebrated Purim.

The Gift Box includes

* Cool Jew, a 2008 National Jewish Book Award Finalist.
* No Limit Texas Dreidel, the Standard Edition game for up to four players
* Dreidel Hustler keychain doll, Heeb magazine’s Dreidel Hustler in 3D!
* Two 2.5 oz bags of kosher goodies to symbolize mishloach manot, the mitzvah of sending food to friends
* Masquerade Mask to “Recycle, Reuse, Reshmooze” any time you go undercover
* All boxed in hip packaging (unlike those mini laundry baskets)

The winners of the Cool Jew Gift Box are Victoria and Ron Gindick of Valley of the Sun, Arizona. As part of their Purim festivities, the Gindicks used their solar oven to bake whole grain breads with fresh ground flour to ship overnight to their mishpocha in New York.

Shabbat Shalom and mazal tov all around!

Tonight!

Purim starts tonight, March 9th at sundown! In honor of the holiday, Cool Jew: The Ultimate Guide for Every Member of the Tribe has teamed up with ModernTribe.com to create the Cool Jew Gift Box.

The Cool Jew Gift Box contains

* Cool Jew, a 2008 National Jewish Book Award Finalist.
* No Limit Texas Dreidel, the Standard Edition game for up to four players
* Dreidel Hustler keychain doll, Heeb magazine's Dreidel Hustler in 3D!
* Two 2.5 oz bags of kosher goodies to symbolize mishloach manot, the mitzvah of sending food to friends
* Masquerade Mask to "Recycle, Reuse, Reshmooze" any time you go undercover
* All boxed in hip packaging (unlike those mini laundry baskets)

Available exclusively at ModernTribe.com, this package is valued at $54 but ModernTribe is offering a special holiday price of $45 for this bonanza of fun!

Wanna win a Cool Jew Gift Box for free? E-me! Email lisa (at) cooljewbook.com about all the cool ways you're celebrating Purim this year! We'll choose one lucky winning post and announce it here, at Modern Tribe's blog and at Jewlicious.com on March 12th, the day after Shushan Purim in Jerusalem. So start clicking and enter to win!

Uncool Jew

Never thought I'd be so happy to see that headline in connection with my name, but David Suissa, an opinion writer at the Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles, worked it out. Thanks so much, Heebro!

In other happy news: today Cool Jew is No. 6 on Amazon's bestseller's humor/religion list.


Uncool Jew
By David Suissa


“Where are you from?” is a simple enough question. But when I asked Lisa Alcalay Klug the other day, she did everything she could not to answer. At first she tried to change the subject, and then she just smiled and said, “Right outside of Los Angeles.”

“But where outside of Los Angeles?” I wanted to know. What was she trying to hide? Was her coyness connected to her new coolness? Many of you might know that for the past few months, Klug has been traveling the country promoting her new book, “Cool Jew,” which has put her right up there on the Jewish hip-o-meter. So, was her hometown not in keeping with being a cool Jew?

Apparently so, because she finally blurted it out: “San Bernardino.”

Ouch. Is there any place less cool than San Bernardino? No wonder she kept stalling. Out of sympathy, I mumbled something about San Bernardino having a cool Chabad rabbi, but that didn’t get me far.

Eventually, after our long morning conversation at Delice café last week, I discovered the real reason why Klug was hiding the identity of her hometown. It wasn’t because San Bernardino is not a very hip place. Rather, it was because that was the place where she was introduced to that ancient malignancy called anti-Semitism, where, growing up, the attacks of “dirty Jew” she heard in school had to compete with the teaching of “proud Jew” she heard at home.

Both sides left a mark on her. more...

It's Almost Purim!

Purim starts this Monday, March 9th at sundown! In honor of the holiday, Cool Jew: The Ultimate Guide for Every Member of the Tribe has teamed up with ModernTribe.com to create the Cool Jew Gift Box.

The Cool Jew Gift Box contains

* Cool Jew, a 2008 National Jewish Book Award Finalist.
* No Limit Texas Dreidel, the Standard Edition game for up to four players
* Dreidel Hustler keychain doll, Heeb magazine's Dreidel Hustler in 3D!
* Two 2.5 oz bags of kosher goodies to symbolize mishloach manot, the mitzvah of sending food to friends
* Masquerade Mask to "Recycle, Reuse, Reshmooze" any time you go undercover
* All boxed in hip packaging (unlike those mini laundry baskets)

Available exclusively at ModernTribe.com, this package is valued at $54 but ModernTribe is offering a special holiday price of $45 for this bonanza of fun!

Wanna win a Cool Jew Gift Box for free? E-me! Send your thoughts to lisa (at) cooljewbook.com on all the cool ways you're celebrating Purim this year! We'll choose one lucky winning post and announce it here, at Modern Tribe's blog and at Jewlicious.com on March 12th, the day after Shushan Purim in Jerusalem. So start clicking and enter to win!