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!
Monday, March 9, 2009
Tonight!
Friday, March 6, 2009
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...
Thursday, March 5, 2009
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!
Friday, February 27, 2009
Jewlicious
That rockin' annual festival of all things Jewish begins today!
We're there, of course, sharing the love by giving away hundreds of copies of Cool Jew.
LA Blueprint described the Festival in these words:
Whatever flavor of Jewish-ness you consider yourself, you’re likely to have a rockin’ time at the Jewlicious Festival 5.0, Feb 27 – March 1 2009, in Long Beach, California, dubbed “an event unlike any other weekend in Jewish history”. Will it compare to the splitting of the sea? I can’t say for sure, but from the music lineup and endless list of activities and programs, it does stand a good chance. Essentially, a Jewish Woodstock, Jewlicious Festival is a three-day gathering to unite Jews from all backgrounds to share a gigantic Shabbat sleepover complete with inspiring discussions and yummy food, rock out with the biggest names in the Jewish music scene, and celebrate all things Jewish.
And the Jewish Journal of Los Angeles, which also published an amazing piece this week about my work by David Suissa -- thank you so much, David! -- wrote this about the festival:
When the first Jewlicious festival, Jewlicious @ The Beach, launched in April 2005, co-founder Rabbi Yonah Bookstein and his team rented out a few rooms at the Alpert Jewish Community Center in Long Beach to host about 100 participants. Four years later, they are booking the entire facility to hold Jewlicious 5.0, which is expected to attract 800 Jewish students and young professionals… At the Saturday night concert, Y-Love, a black Orthodox rapper, will be spitting rhymes on the same stage as Moshav, a Los Angeles-based alternative folk-rock band, and Rav Shmuel, a 6-foot-5 Chasidic rabbi who is popular in New York City’s anti-folk scene. On Sunday afternoon, Inbar Bakal, a secular but traditional Sephardic Jew, will sing her own versions of biblical texts set to old Yemenite melodies. The fact that the bands have very different backgrounds, but all perform over the same weekend, speaks to the festival’s goals of promoting Jewish unity and celebrating Jewish diversity.
Come join the fun!
Monday, February 23, 2009
A Great Week Ahead
It's a big week at Cool Jew Incorporated... I'm presenting at a Cool Jew celebration timed to coincide with Rosh Chodesh Adar at Congregation Beth Israel in Berkeley, Calif. on Tuesday at 7 pm. This event is free and all are welcome. Arrive early for a complimentary goodie bag!
This week, the Contemporary Jewish Museum debuts my seder plate-inspired Heebster installation in San Francisco as part of the show, "New Works/Old Story: 80 Artists at the Passover Table." The exhibit runs Feb. 27-June 2. And this Wednesday, a private reception, at which all of the invitational works will be available for sale, will be held 6-8:30 p.m. Tickets are $60 for museum members, $100 for the general public. For more information, call (415) 655-7821 or visit thecjm.org.
On Thursday, I jet to Long Beach, Calif. for the opening of the Jewlicious Festival on Friday... The first 500 arrivals receive a free copy of Cool Jew! More info is available here.
More good news: today, Cool Jew ranks No. 6 on Amazon's bestsellers list of Humor/Religion titles.
It's Almost Purim!
ModernTribe has teamed up with Cool Jew: The Ultimate Guide for Every Member of the Tribe, to create the Cool Jew Gift Box, available exclusively at ModernTribe.com.
The Cool Jew Gift Box contains
* Cool Jew, a 2008 National Jewish Book Award Finalist.
* No Limit Texas Dreidel, Standard Edition for up to 4 players
* Dreidel Hustler keychain doll, Heeb magazine's Dreidel Hustler in 3D!
* Two 2.5 oz bags of kosher goodies to fulfill 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)
* Valued at $54, you can send this bonanza of fun to your loved one for $45.
Purim starts Monday, March 9th at sundown! Wanna win a free Cool Jew Gift Box? Send us your thoughts to lisa (at) cooljewbook.com on all the cool ways you're celebrating Purim this year! We'll choose the winning post. So start clicking and enter to win!
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Cool Jew Cabaret II
This weekend, I'm heading to Limmud LA, that awesome festival of Jewish learning, community and volunteerism. I'm presenting a pair of sessions on my book, Cool Jew, and the Jewish Cultural Revival.
Meanwhile... in parts north, Limmud Toronto is taking place this Sunday.
This year, you can study Torah and liturgy, go green with a panel on eco-Judaism, learn to write your family memoir, sing along with an instant choir, join a drum circle, improvise and analyze scenes from Tanakh, speak your Jewish experience in poetry, and more!
The day of learning will be capped off with Cool Jew Cabaret II, inspired by my book. The first Cool Jew Cabaret was part of my book tour at the Koffler Centre of the Arts.
The 2nd Cool Jew Cabaret sponsored both by the Koffler and Limmud Toronto features
The spoken word stylings of Ariel Platt & the man at the centre of TO's Poetry Slam scene, David Silverberg.
A new musical project with a Brazilian flare from Eric Stein together with his music buddies.
And, its a multi-generational Schlanger acoustic set with the always fun & funky, Soozi Schlanger and her fabulous mother, Miriam.
Then get ready to shake your tuchas to the Sephardic sizzle of Ibtissam, the city's best bellydancer
Date: February 15, 2009
Time: 7:30 PM
Location: Latvian House, 491 College Street
Fees: $12