Lisa Alcalay Klug’s ultra-hip Hebra­ic sur­vival guide is the book that should have been my go-to text­book dur­ing the six years of my ele­men­tary Jew­ish day school edu­ca­tion. Alas, I was taught much of what’s found in Klug’s irrev­er­ent book with much less humor. The Jew­ish learn­ing that could be achieved uti­liz­ing Cool Jew would have made my young­ster-self ecsta­t­ic to learn about Jew­ish celebri­ties, mitzvot, hol­i­days, and every­thing in between. Top­ics range from the origins/​basics, life-cycle events, food, prayer, and hol­i­days to celebri­ties, super heroes, and what cars are ​“Heeb­ster” rides. Also includ­ed are easy to read charts for hol­i­days, Dos and Don’ts, and even a type of Fash­ion Police. 

While Cool Jew is light-heart­ed there is a wealth of infor­ma­tion con­veyed in its pages. Klug has a charm­ing way of spin­ning goy­ish things into their Jew­ish equiv­a­lents as well as shin­ing light on over­looked Heeb­ster tid­bits. There’s also a healthy amount of Yid­dish that will make your bubbe hap­py too. I’m not sure Cool Jew will make you actu­al­ly ​“cool” but it will cer­tain­ly allow you to brush up on knowl­edge you may have lost years ago, while putting a smile on your face.