Last Friday night Josh Neuman, editor and publisher of Heeb magazine, spoke on campus about the phenomenon that the magazine has caused in the Jewish community around the world.

The magazine is a Jewish pop-culture magazine that is targeted at young Jews in their 20s and 30s.

“Not necessarily religious but deeply Jewish,” said Neuman when he described the usual Heeb reader. But he went on to explain that the magazine appeals to people across different dominations.

The magazine is termed by Neuman as “post modern playfulness.” This starts with the name as it reclaims a slur.

“Jews have a long-standing tradition of idol breaking,” said Neuman when asked what Jewish tradition Heeb is closest to.

Neuman talked about how this is a time when Jewish self and secular self is at its most fluid in history and that is what the magazine explores in mostly unexpected ways.

“I guess from certain stayed Jewish standpoints but not really,” said Neuman when asked about whether or not it was shocking. “Just seems like it compared to backdrops like JDate.com.”

Each of the issues has a theme that may or may not be strictly Jewish. Neuman said that each issue has its own character and making it hard to pick a favorite.

“The guilt issue was sublime,” said Neuman. In it they explored the Jewish phenomenon guilt with Len Genoff the Jewish hitman. The center photo spread was of Lindsey Vuolo, the first openly Jewish Playboy playmate.

However, he remembers the cover with the Beastie Boys as the most fun to shoot because the band was so great.

The magazine was started in 2002 by a female journalist who also wrote a Jewish punk rock zine called “Mazel Tov Cocktail.” While the editorial staff has changed, Neuman thinks they have stayed true to their original vision.

“The community has evolved,” said Neuman. “It is much more than a magazine.”

Neuman himself was born in New York City and raised in suburban New Jersey. He described his bar mitzvah as when they all had themes.

“The theme of my bar mitzvah was neurosis,” quipped Neuman during his talk.

During high school he edited both the school paper and the underground paper. In order to keep the secret, he would write scathing editorials about the editor of the school newspaper under the pseudoname “Stanley Roper.”

He got his undergraduate degree in philosophy at Brown University, where he wrote for the Brown Daily Herald. He said that he became the obituary writer and he would write long meditations on the meaning of life.

“I was always shocked when they would edit it down to 75 words,” said Neuman.

He got his masters in theology at Harvard University. Neuman then taught at New York University for five years and Heeb was started the second or third year he was teaching.

At Heeb he started as the entertainment editor. He became publisher a year later because he had the most amount of business experience.

“My dad had a zipper factory,” said Neuman. Six months after, that he became the editor.