Filling a very unique niche, Rabbi Shmuley Boteach has made quite a name for himself, advising self-helpers and listeners of Sirius XM’s Oprah & Friends Channel (Gail’s personal sounding board), in need of that extra pinch of salt in their chicken soup for the soul. This time around (his nineteenth if you’re counting), Boteach gets...

Yesterday in Berlin, two paintings were returned to the estate of a Jewish art dealer, forced by Nazis to sell off his entire collection in that period. Needling back a couple of pieces of art may seem like no big thang, but in a mess of legislature and bureacracy surrounding the debacle, it’s significant because...

Political poetry is back. And Matthew Zapruder and Joshua Beckman’s State of the Union: 50 Political Poems (Wave Books) is proof positive. Like Homer and the lyricists of old, the diverse group of poets here retell history with their own rhetorical flare. Although some poems in the collection take a somewhat direct political stance (Matthew...

Last month Sarah Silverman launched her plans to get out the Jewish vote in Florida. In Pennsylvania, the flavor of the month state for both candidates, a group calling itself the "Republican Federal Committee of PA – Victory 2008" delivered some mass communication of its own to the state’s Jewish population. The email, sent to...

In Heeb‘s summer issue, David Berman spoke about his fraught relationship with Israel. Now, Michael Tully’s stirring new film Silver Jew (DVD released by Drag City) follows Berman and the band during their 2006 summer tour through Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. Like many songs in the Silver Jews’ repertoire ("I Remember", "Horselegged Swastikas," "Strange Victory,...

By Sabrina Jaszi Years ago, we singled out Matt Wolf as a fledgling talent at NYU’s film school and elevated him as the first ever member of the Heeb 100. Now, at the tender age of 26, Wolf’s feature directorial debut–a documentary about the intriguing cellist and composer Arthur Russell– is making sparks as it...

By Sabrina Jaszi Governor Sarah Palin’s fervent Christian minions may be the public face of Alaska, but in the state’s House of Representatives, a group of Jewish politicians are increasingly casting long shadows over Alaska’s desolate landscape. Home to the grizzliest bears, the wintriest vistas and the saltiest salmon in these United States, Alaska has...

by Sabrina Jaszi It’s common enough for Hollywood films to totter precariously on the dubious virtues of a single big star, stellar special effects or a behind-the-scenes genius, often with mediocre results. But though Steve Coogan carries most of the weight this summer’s indie comedy Hamlet 2, he does it without a misstep, creating an...

As a German Jew in Prague, Kafka developed a rhetoric of alienation, tied closely to the cold prose of German, but was also drawn inexorably to the emotive Czech lanugauge from which he was excluded. How strange that the man with the most insurmountable outsider complex is now the most most popular girl at the...

The _Heeb_ Olympics aren’t the only Olympic Games going on right now. In Beijing, two medal winners from the warring republics of Russia and Georgia had spectators oohing and ahhing when they embraced tenderly on Sunday after their victories in the 10m Air Pistol shooting event. The amo wasn’t deadly, but if ever irony could...