Jessica Coen And Jesse Oxfeld
JESSICA COEN AND JESSE OXFELD
Gawker.com may describe itself officially as “the source for daily Manhattan media news and gossip,” but read deeper and you’ll quickly figure out that Jews, media and sex — which the Web site’s editors call “the Holy Trinity of our existence” — is a more accurate list of its preoccupations. One of the cheekiest and most popular of the Web logs that are coming to dominate the new media, Gawker officially bills itself as merely a clearinghouse for gossip. But it has morphed from an addicts’ indulgence into a pluckily legitimate voice in media criticism — and a serious scoop machine. Not to mention one with a distinctly Yiddish accent. Currently run by co-editors Jessica Coen, 25, and Jesse Oxfeld, 29, the site courses with Jewish flavor, ridiculing old canards about Jews and the media even as it relishes them. “Next week’s New York [magazine] wonders whether, as a recent scientific study purported to prove, Jews really are smarter,” an entry right after Yom Kippur stated. “All we’ll say: We had a day off yesterday, and we ate pounds of excellent lox for dinner. You goyim did not. QED.” Another time, the editors said “yisgadal v’yiskadash” over a Conde Nast employee’s firing. But while Oxfeld and Coen never would admit it, their Jewishness is more than just latkes and Manischewitz. Witness their recent skewering of the Friends of the Jerusalem College of Technology, which was auctioning off a lunch with conservative News Corp. mogul Rupert Murdoch — for a rumored reserve price of $50,000. “It’s pricey, yes. But think how much fun it will be to discuss JCT with Murdoch, and to share in his passion for those well-known Jewish traditions, like social responsibility and reasoned debate and progressive ideals.”
Carolyn Hessel
In a year that saw new books by nearly all the boldface names of Jewish literature — Philip Roth, Cynthia Ozick, Francine Prose and even relative newcomers like Jonathan Safran Foer and Nicole Krauss — one might assume that the publishing houses have our particular brand of prose taken care of. But Carolyn Hessel, executive director of the Jewish Book Council, remains one of the most powerful arbiters of Jewish literature in the United States. The council coordinates some 70 Jewish book fairs at community centers nationwide and oversees the National Jewish Book Awards. Insiders said Hessel could make or break a book by deciding which writers to recommend for appearances at key fairs. Certainly the buzz of a JCC tour can play a big role in jumpstarting an author’s career, as recent beneficiaries Nathan Englander and Foer might attest. Hessel, who previously served at the Jewish Education Service of North America, is resolute in her mission, even if her influence occasionally lands her in controversy. “My goal is to promote the reading, writing and understanding of books of Jewish interest,” she told the Forward last year. “And I define ‘Jewish interest’ in the broadest terms.”
Philip Roth
Philip Roth appeared on this list last year, partly because of his what-if counter-historical novel, “The Plot Against America.” At the time, we noted that we could conceivably include him every year, simply by virtue of past accomplishment. But we needn’t rely on past laurels with this writer, who has proved not only to be one of the most distinctive, estimable voices in contemporary literature but also one of the most prolific. This year, the Library of America anthologized Roth’s early novels, solidifying an already steady place in the American literary canon. And it was recently announced that Roth’s 27th book, titled “Everyman,” will be published in May 2006. In a Forward review of the Library of America anthology, Mark Oppenheimer pointed up Roth’s “startlingly rare accomplishment”: “One man, one writer, has written the archetypal treatment of postwar suburban Jewry (‘Goodbye, Columbus’); the book that invented, along with Woody Allen’s movies, the modern stereotype of the neurotic Jew (‘Portnoy’s Complaint’); the seminal novel about the lives of struggling grad students in dissertation purgatory (‘Letting Go’)… the classic investigation of the American Jew’s relationship to Israel (‘Operation Shylock: A Confession’)… and the most terrifying depiction of antisemitism in America (‘The Plot Against America’).” With a list like that, Roth, 72, certainly has earned his spot on this one.
Nosson Scherman
Few rabbis in Jewish history have opened more doors to serious Torah and Talmud study than Nosson Scherman, 71, founding editor of Mesorah Publications and general editor of its groundbreaking ArtScroll series. A native of Newark, N.J., Scherman was serving as principal of a yeshiva in Brooklyn in 1976 when he helped a colleague publish a translation and commentary on the Book of Esther. He assumed it would be a “one-shot thing,” but the first edition sold out — and Scherman entered the publishing business full time. Since then, more than 700 works have been released under the auspices of Mesorah and ArtScroll. A Torah commentary edited by Scherman has sold more than 300,000 copies. This year, a team of dozens of scholars under his leadership completed ArtScroll’s most ambitious project yet: a 73-volume, annotated English translation of the Talmud. Critics said that the new Talmud edition, like most other ArtScroll publications, is replete with apologetics and relies uncritically on narrowly traditionalist sources. But even critics have conceded that ArtScroll’s 15-year, $20 million Talmud project is a design and a scholarly masterpiece. It’s made the Talmud, a seminal but largely esoteric compilation of ancient rabbinic teachings, accessible to Jews of all denominational stripes.
Sarah Silverman
Standup comic Sarah Silverman has one of the dirtiest mouths in an industry where prurience and scatology are considered extreme sports. (One of her signature tasteless lines: “I was raped by a doctor — which is so bittersweet for a Jewish girl.”) Now 34, Silverman broke through as a writer and featured player on “Saturday Night Live” during the 1993-1994 season. Her brief tenure included a memorable account of her sister’s wedding to publisher and Soviet Jewry activist Yossi Abramowitz: “I guess the most important event of this past week was, of course, the wedding of my sister, Susan Silverman, to Yosef Abramowitz. It was a really neat wedding, too, you know, ’cause they took each other’s last names and hyphenated it. So now my sister’s name is Susan Silverman-Abramowitz. But they’re thinking of shortening it to just ‘Jews.’” Silverman went on to bit parts in “Seinfeld” and “The Larry Sanders Show” and successful film roles in “There’s Something About Mary” (1998) and “The School of Rock” (2003) — not to mention her hilarious role as Hadassah Guberman, one of the puppet characters on Comedy Central’s “Crank Yankers.” Even for a notably successful comic, 2005 has been a banner year; it included a star turn in “The Aristocrats,” the comedy insiders’ film about a dirty joke; a profile in The New Yorker, and, this month, the release of “Jesus Is Magic,” a movie based on an off-Broadway stand-up show she did a few years ago.
Jon Stewart
It hasn’t been an easy year for old-fashioned news anchors and mainstream news organizations, what with Rather, Brokaw and Jennings all departed. On the other hand, the stature of Jon Stewart, 42, host of the satirical news program “The Daily Show,” just keeps growing. Comedy Central’s hit show was expected to fade after the 2004 election; instead it saw a 20% ratings boost and inspired a spin-off and a best-selling book. Stewart has established himself as the king of “fake news,” while embracing an astonishingly unabashed Jewish persona. Unlike many older Jewish comics, Stewart wears his ethnicity easily, without defensiveness or self-deprecation. Last month, as one of many examples, he aired a clip of former Colin Powell aide Lawrence Wilkerson publicly charging that American foreign policy was being run by a Dick Cheney-Donald Rumsfeld “cabal”; Stewart then quipped that it was “refreshing” to hear the word “cabal” without having it “follow the word ‘Jewish.’” Perhaps the surest sign of Stewart’s influence came as a result of his guest appearance on the CNN program “Crossfire,” where he chided hosts Paul Begala and Tucker Carlson for “political hackery” that was “hurting America.” Once the dust settled, it was Stewart who had the last laugh: CNN canceled “Crossfire” in January.
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