Book cover courtesy of Universe Publishing
'Jewish Holiday Fun…For You'
Plotz founder Barbara Rushkoff schmoozes about her new book and the plights of pregnancy
By Emilie Zanger
Published: December 14th, 2004 | 7:33pm
Barbara Rushkoff may be the original Jewish zinester. Google “Jewish zine” and references to her baby, Plotz, the kitschy, feminist-flavored zine that stirred it up Hebrew-style from the Lower East Side to the shtetl throughout the late ’90s, will inevitably abound.
Rushkoff’s addictive blend of sardonic wit and savvy pop-culture references revived an outpost of humor that had long languished somewhere in the Borscht Belt. Her MO is more chutzpah, less shlock, and it’s a lot of fun to read for Jews and non-Jews alike.
Her just-released book, Jewish Holiday Fun...For You
Rushkoff speaks to Venus a week before Hanukkah 2004 from her home in Brooklyn, where she is under self-imposed house arrest in the 36th week of her pregnancy. She talks about the difference between writing zines and books, the real meshuganah Hanukkah story, and why pregnancy sucks.
How did you conceptualize Jewish Holiday Fun…For You? What was that process like?
It’s an interesting question, coming from Venus, because I did a zine for so long, and when you do a zine, even if it’s like a slick magazine, you’re in control all the time. And it’s such a great feeling. You can get an issue out late — no one’s gonna be mad at you — or early, [you can] put whatever you want in it. When I first started to come up with an idea for a book, it was late ’90s and everyone was doing kind of memoir things. And I wanted to do this book about growing up Jewish in the ’70s with all of these great pop-culture references, only no one wanted it! They were like, “Who’s she? … Why do we want her? What’s her angle?” And my angle was, I had a normal childhood. … But I met my future husband, who is also a writer — he’s written like 10 books. And he said one day, “What if you just do a book on Jewish holidays?” It was literally over breakfast or something. And I was like, “What a great idea!”
You said the inspiration for the book was that you had a normal childhood?
There were maybe only two Jewish families on my block [in Philadelphia]. It was a Jewish neighborhood, but not our block — at all. I mean, I remember coming home and there was a swastika on our house. It was not so good. I didn’t really understand what anti-Semitism was until I moved to New York, and there are so many Jews here, but people will come up to your face and say whatever they want to you, including “fucking Jew.” Which was why the early issues of Plotz were so angry, because I was encountering so much of that. … I always knew we were Jewish — we had mezuzahs on every door, I was Bat-Mitzvahed, I went to Hebrew school — but I kind of didn’t know what the holidays were about. I knew what Hanukkah was about, even though, come on, oil burning for eight days? That didn’t happen!
Who is this book meant for?
That’s a good question, because I usually just write for everybody. I’m not an angry writer; I’m not out to piss people off. I’m not Super Jew, so I’m not out to write a book that’s for Jews only. Just like the zine was about Jews in pop culture, but everyone read it. Like, I never personally would want to write something that’s for just one category of people. It’s a humor book. It’s for people who want to laugh and who are interested and maybe who are a little like, “What the hell are Jewish holidays about?”
Right, even Jews.
Even Jews! Like, I know Hanukkah is really about a war for circumcision. The way Doug, my husband, told me about it is, the Maccabees were kind of the country folk who didn’t want to assimilate. They wanted circumcision and they wanted the old school, and all the other Jews in town were hanging out with the Romans and the Greeks … doing Greco-Roman wrestling, uncircumcised, because they wanted to fit in. The country folk didn’t like it. I mean, it’s a whole different thing. It could have been a whole different chapter.
What was it like for you going from being a zine writer to publishing a book?
I found it harder. I used to knock the zine out in a weekend. I mean, I’d think about it for like a month, and then I’d literally pick a weekend, make a bunch of coffee, pick out my clip art, and just sort of go to town. And I really liked doing that. … Mainstream publishing is a whole different ball game because you’ve got to work with an editor, you’ve got to work with a designer. And I picked the designer, [who] was Sean Tejaratchi from Crap Hound, the most beautiful zine in the world. But he wasn’t here, he was in L.A. And it was challenging at times. At least Sean had my vision; he knew what I wanted to do.
Were there any other Jewish zines out there, other than Plotz, or did you sort of have that class all to yourself?
I think when I was first doing Plotz, there kind of wasn’t anything out there. There were some … I remember getting one zine called Flaming Jew Boy, which was hysterical. (laughs) And Mazel Tov Cocktail was a one-off zine.
So you got to kind of invent it as you went along.
Yeah, it started out ranty, and then it turned into me interviewing famous people and people in bands who were Jewish. And then it turned into a personal thing. And then it turned into a take-offs of pop culture thing. And then I decided, “No more.” I couldn’t do it anymore. I just wanted to write a book or move on.
Why did you originally start publishing the zine?
I was really angry, because even though I was in New York City, and there are so many Jews here, there are so many clueless people. And I was in a temp job … and this girl started decorating my desk [for Christmas]. And I said, “You know what? I don’t think I want that.” And she was like, “Why?” And I said, “Because I’m Jewish.” … And she was dumbfounded. And so I literally sat at my desk at the temp job and wrote this rant about what Jews do on Christmas and how we don’t celebrate it, and I made it into an eight-page zine. … I think that’s the worst thing, that people are still kind of mystified. I think less so now, but they’re so mystified by Jews. … I wrote in the book in the introduction about how people look at me on the 25th of December, like that’s the day I set aside to do human sacrifice! (both laugh)
In some ways, though, I see Jewish culture sort of being absorbed by popular culture — especially a lot of Yiddish words … we’ve got “schlep” and “kvetch” and “chotchke” — all these words that people use, but I’m not sure they recognize the origin of. They’re just kind of sneaking in there. What’s your take on that?
I think that’s really great, and I think the way to do it is to have them sneaking in there. I never understood why Seinfeld didn’t push it more, why he didn’t have a seder episode or some kind of big Jew episode, but now I realize he was smart. Because American is a Christian country, and if you start getting too Jewish on people, they’re gonna be freaked out.
In the book, you have all kinds of recipes in the Passover section —
They’re all my mother’s! … I wanted to use real ones because I know there are going to be some people out there trying to make them. … But they’re the way my mother does it. “Take some butter.” Some. And it’s like “How much?!” (both laugh) So I wanted to do it that way.
Who is your favorite woman in Jewish tradition?
I think Ruth, even though she was basically the first convert. Not Jewish, but she did what she had to do. She married this older guy, gave him a son, and got her mother-in-law’s land back. And I just think she’s kind of like the first feminist. I think she’s great.
Well, those are all of my questions, but what do you want to add about the book or about being a Jewish woman in New York or about being pregnant?
I don’t want to write any more Jewish books (both laugh) because I find it … I mean, just with the election this year, we really saw what the country’s like. Honestly it’s scary, it really is. The country’s not full of my people, and I’m not even talking about Jews, it’s just not full of my people. And just doing a book — even a light humor book — about Jewish holidays, it’s kind of hard to get the word out because people are freaked out. So I’m pitching a new book now that’s like a cynical guide to pregnancy. I’m not sure if it’s going to happen or not. You know what? Pregnancy? Not fun! Not liking it … but we know it’s a girl, so we’ll get a girl out of it.
Well, mazel tov!
Thank you, I just want the drugs. Whatever they’ve got.
Read Barbara Rushkoff’s blog at plotzworld.com
Jewish glossary
Bat Mitzvah: the Jewish coming-of-age ceremony for females, performed at age 13
Borscht Belt: the predominantly Jewish resort hotels of the Catskill Mountains. Name derives from the popularity of borscht (cold beet soup) in the cuisine of these hotels.
bubbe: Jewish grandmother
chotchke: a knick knack
chutzpah: guts or nerve
Hanukkah: a holiday usually celebrated in December, and often erroneously referred to as Jewish Christmas
kvetch: to complain, or one who complains a lot
Maccabees: Jewish revolutionaries who are the traditional heroes of the Hanukkah story
mazel tov: congratulations
meshuganah: crazy
mezuzah: a small scroll containing prayers, affixed to the doorpost of every Jewish home, and in every room therein.
Passover: a holiday usually celebrated in April that celebrates the exodus of the Jews from slavery in Egypt
plotz/Plotz: to burst or explode; a great Jewish zine from the late ’90s
schlep: to carry or move with difficulty, often used in reference to one’s own body
schlock: cheesiness
schmooze: to chat, often at length
seder: the traditional feast of Passover
shtetl: a Jewish town in the “old country”… wherever that is
Issue #18
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