JTA: The Global News Service of the Jewish People

The philanthropy of Eli Broad

By Jacob Berkman · February 8, 2010

The New York Times has a story about the philanthropy of Eli Broad.

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Some sexy swag at Heeb’s latest party

By Jacob Berkman · August 1, 2008

The goody bag that Heeb gave out at the New York launch party for its summer issue. Contents include Michael Chabon’s “The Yiddish Policeman’s Union,” an issue of the Heeb swimsuit edition, a screening copy of Jakie Mason’s latest video, Bacon Salt, a “Loser” headband, breath mints, a couple of buttons, body wipes and a vibrator.

Heeb Magazine, which printed its first issue in 2002 with a boost from the Joshua Venture, which was in part funded by Steven Spielberg’s Righteous Person’s Foundation, has certainly carved out a niche for itself as the magazine for the young, unaffiliated and disaffected Jewish set.

The quarterly magazine has also become a noted presence in American pop culture, able to draw big-name Jewish celebrities onto its covers and into its pages in every issue – often in risque portraiture.

The best examples: Issue # 9: The Sex Issue, featuring Sarah Silverman wearing nothing but a white sheet with a hole cut into it, and Issue # 14: The Chosen Issue, featuring Jonah Hill holding a bagel and personal lubricant.

Heeb may or may not be where you want to spend your charitable dollars, but it has been able to effectively reach a set of Jews few other Jewish projects have, on a budget a fraction the size of many outreach projects.

The latest issue of Heeb might be its raciest yet: The Jewish Swimsuit Issue, featuring Israeli-supermodel-and-Leo-DiCaprio-ex Bar Refaeli on its cover in a bikini… ummmm… scandalously surrounded by lobsters.

(For an inside look at the making of the issue, check out the LA Jewish Journal’s God Blog)

For those still in the old-school fund raising world, this is how the other half lives.

Heeb held its New York launch party for the issue Thursday night at Bowery Electric on the Lower East Side, prime Heeb territory.

The gift bag of swag that Heeb gave out at the party included: A paperback copy of Michael Chabon’s “The Yiddish Policemen’s Union;” an advance copy of Jackie Mason’s forthcoming video “The Ultimate Jew;” packets of Bacon Salt – a kosher product that promises to make anything taste like bacon; a headband that says “Loser” on it; a package of multi-grain tortilla chips; breath mints from ModernTribe.com; body wipes, for when you need to shower but don’t have a shower; a couple of buttons; and a vibrator from the upscale adult toy store Babeland. Yes. A vibrator. (I’m going to venture to say that the UJC never gave out such a bag.)

A Fundermentalist shout out to whomever comes up with the proper order in which to use all of the items in that bag.

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Culture club

By Jacob Berkman · June 16, 2008

The Foundation for Jewish Culture held its annual Jewish Cultural Achievement Awards gala Thursday night at the Center for Jewish History in New York.

The FJC, which was started in 1968 by the precursor to the UJC, the Council of Jewish Federations, has given out the awards since 1985, and recipients have included the likes of Arthur Miller, Phillip Roth, Saul Bellow, Tony Kushner and Art Spiegelman.

But this year’s awards ceremony was focused on looking forward to new Jewish artistic talent. The FJC honored NYU professor of performance studies Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett for “They Called Me Mayer July: Painted Memories of a Jewish Childhood in Poland,” her collaborative effort with her father; Ohad Naharin, the artistic director of the Batsheva Dance Company, and Macy B. Hart, the president and founder of the Institute of Southern Jewish Life and the outgoing chair of the Council of American Museums.

In the end, the gala seemed more about the artists that performed before between and after the the three different award presentations.

The FJC brought its entertainment from in-house, as all of its performers were recipients of Six Points Fellowships, a collaboration of the UJA-Federation of New York, the FJC, JDub Records and Avoda Arts. The fellows – 12 of whom were selected in February – will be given $45,000 over two years, professional consulting services and high-profile mentors to help cultivate their talent.

Over the past year, the fellows have indeed begun to emerge, with several taking their art public to critical acclaim.

The gala included performances by the LeeSaar Dance Company, whose artistic director Saar Harari was recently also granted a Guggenheim Fellowship. LeeSaar performed a shortened adaptation of its piece Geisha, a study in femininity that was lauded by the New York Times, The New Yorker and the Village Voice. (In the original performance, one dancer performs topless ... so be aware that this link features partial nudity.)

The adaptation included two companion pieces in solo dance. One, shown in the video at the top of this post, features an Asian woman, on stage, alone, in silence aside from the sound of her own violent, forced and uncomfortable contortions that at times make her look more marionette than dancer. The other, in the video below, involves a white woman, dressed in a satin kimono, lip-synching to an Israeli song as she dances around as if in her bedroom.

The evening also included a shortened adaptation of Fabrik: The Legend of M. Rabinowitz, the story – told in puppetry – of a Polish Jew who fled to Norway and sounded out the Nazis. The piece, created by Six Points Fellow Gabrielle Boehner’s Wakka Wakka Productions, was also lauded by the Times when it ran in New York this February.

The event ended with a musical performance by Galeet Dardashti and her group Middle Eastern influenced ensemble Divahn.

The performances certainly made a case that the $1 million that the UJA has spent on this project is well spent. But the FJC’s chairwoman, Carol Brenngass Spinner, also made her own memorable plea to support the Jewish arts: “Support someone who sings a song, tells a joke, paints a painting or dances a dance, for that is what makes Jewish culture both for our generation and for future generations.”

(On a side note, the culinary arts were well represented as well. In lieu of a sit-down dinner, the FJC pulled out all the stops on a cocktail hour featuring everything from southern fare such as ribs and collared greens, to Polish sausages and cabbage, to sushi. Other organizations beware; it set a high standard as the first gala the Fundermentalist has blogged about…)

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