2011-01-15

Esperanto & "Heeb" Magazine

Blogger Rokhl Kafrissen, a partisan of Yiddishkeit, scolds Heeb Magazine for its narcissistic ironic chic:

Sheker ha-Kheyn: Heeb and Its Discontents
Saturday, August 06, 2005

So what does our rootless, cosmopolitan, mind bogglingly rich and exilific history have to offer the comparison culture shopper? According to Heeb, not much besides trendy cooptation of other, mostly darker, cultures and the opportunity to be as narcissistic as you wanna be. That is, Jewishness is only interesting so far as it allows you to see yourself everywhere. Elvis? Yup, technically we might be related. Black folks? Hey, avadim hayinu, we were once slaves, too! Esperanto? Invented by, you guessed it!
Her letter to Heeb and the equally acerbic reply are reprinted here. In case you don't know, "Heeb" is an ethnic slur which never would have been used in this manner by self-respecting Jews in ages past, but which has evidently been appropriated by the young and hip. You can imagine that a lot of older folks would not approve.

I have not found any references to Esperanto or Zamenhof on the Heeb Magazine web site.

1 comment:

neil.nachum said...

Interesting. I found this comment when I did a Heeb...Esperanto search.