Jewish Holiday Fun...For You!

UNIVERSE PUBLISHING, 102 PAGES, $14.95

BEFORE HEEB, JEWCY and The Hebrew Hammer, there was Plotz, a playful, smart, pro-Jew zine started by Barbara Kligman in the mid-90s. I'm not saying that Plotz is single-handedly responsible for the subsequent rise of irreverent pro-Jew magazines, shirts and slogans; rather, Kligman's pub was the homesteader who made the land habitable for the kids who came later.

Kligman is now Rushkoff and Plotz is no longer around, but some things haven't changed. Barbara is still playful, still smart and still trying to give non-Jews a glimpse into her world. Where Plotz used pop culture and personal anecdotes to form an ongoing conversation about the joys and trials of daily Jewish life, her new book uses the Jewish holidays as its conceit.

Each chapter in Jewish Holiday Fun?For You! takes a different form. Facts about the high holidays, for instance, are offered as a standardized test. The story of Shavuot ("The one about that lady named Ruth") comes by way of cut-out dolls. Tu Bishvat ("[T]he one where they take your quarters to 'plant trees in Israel'") is presented as pages of a kid's notebook. Shabbat ("The one where you can't do stuff because it's Saturday") is described on familiar salmon-color pages of a newspaper called The New Yorkerist.

Clearly, Jewish Holiday Fun would be an appropriate gift for anyone celebrating Hanukkah this week, but that's not entirely the point. Rushkoff's book is also meant for those who don't know about Shavuot and Tu Bishvat, for those who might appreciate a fun, inviting primer to Judaism. This is the Jewish religion as a serious culture and tradition, but also something to be discussed playfully. The material is light-hearted and irreverent at times, but it's not nearly as vulgar as a "Shalom Motherfucker" t-shirt.

As Rushkoff puts it on the book's jacket, "Jews have bitter herbs, nasty fruit rings, and gefilte fish in a glass jar," while Christians get "chocolate bunnies, candy canes, and blinking Santas." Her people may get the short end of the holiday stick, but they're obviously blessed with the better sense of humor. The best us Christians can muster are "Jesus Is My Homeboy" t-shirts-worn with and without irony.

JEFF KOYEN