Every year Heeb magazine publishes a list of the 100 most influential young Jews in America currently working in the realm of art, entertainment, food, fashion and something they call “New Media” (pfff, whatever that means).

They call it, not surprisingly, The Heeb 100. It’s supposed to be like the Forward 50, but relevant. Except, of everybody on this year’s list, I only recognized one name. That would be writer Sloane Crosley who I interviewed last spring about her book of essays, I Was Told There Would be Cake. She’s funny and a talented writer and the brief conversation I had with her was much less awkward than some of the other brief conversations I’ve had with marginally successful Jews since taking this job. For that, she obviously deserves Heeb‘s recognition.

But who are the rest of these schmucks? Well, in skimming through their bios, it seems that they are 99 people, most of whom are within 5 years of my age, and all of whom have accomplished a damn lot more than me in their short time on Earth. Many of them are also very very good looking. Take for example, Simon Rich. He’s my age (24) and he’s a writer for SNL. He’s also the author of two books, both of which he received contracts for from Random House before he even graduated from college (that college was Harvard, by the way). And he’s an occasional contributor to The New Yorker. And he’s adorable. I can’t decide if I want to seek him out and propose marriage, or hunt him down and kick him in the junk for living out my dreams. Maybe both. Either way, I’m totally stalking this kid.

But enough about me. Which of the Heeb 100 makes you feel most like you’re falling behind in the race to success? (and yes, people, it is a race)

Nothing makes a lazy journalist happier than when the news comes to him, so imagine our surprise to see so many Dino Rossi supporters (and detractors) hanging around across the street from our office. That’s because Rossi’s attorney has his office there, and it’s where Rossi is being deposed today regarding his dealings with the Building Industry Association of Washington and coordination of $$$ during his campaign. Obviously Rossi backers see this as a smear against his good name and trying to keep him from winning the election while his detractors, today armed with a wheelbarrow filled with this “money”

and t-shirts that say “Republican Governor’s Association” argue that too much money has illegally been dropped into the race at the end of the game (there are legal limits in the last three weeks of the race). It’s a circus out there, really.

I’m not sure where it came from - I found it on Slog - but this has to be some of the sickest, most desperate attack on Obama I’ve seen yet. Aside from the fact that Obama is not, ahem, Aryan, I can think of one thing that Barack Obama and Adolf Hitler have in common, and that is that both are/were well-versed in the study and deployment of persuasive tactics (read: propaganda) to get their messages across. They are not the only ones in recent history. From there, however, their paths diverge completely. To suggest that Obama’s plan is to bring his followers together to eradicate an entire people is asinine, but it also shows us how the actions of the other side, particularly rallies in which either John McCain or Sarah Palin stokes up their crowds with terrorist talk, enough so that we hear people yelling “kill him” in the background, are really much closer to what the person who created this awful video is trying to tell us Obama would be like. And, of course, we should mention the standard refrain that comparing today’s presidential contenders to the Holocaust degrades the memories of the 12 million who died in the Holocaust.

If I weren’t such a proponent of the First Amendment, this would be the sort of thing I’d want removed from YouTube’s site, but this sort of video, shameful as it is, is precisely the reason we need the First Amendment. Were this to have originated in someplace like Germany, however, somebody might be doing some jail time. Just sayin’.

But all that said, I was just reading Israeli literary genius Amos Oz’s book How to Cure a Fanatic, a collection of speeches Oz gave three or four years ago, and while I found what he had to say very interesting, this passage really struck me, particularly when we live in a town like this one that sees Obama as our nation’s savior.

Very often the cult of personality, the idealization of political or religious leaders, the worship of glamorous individuals may be another widespread form of fanaticism. The twentieth century seems to have excelled at both. Totalitarian regimes, deadly ideologies, aggressive chauvinism, violent forms of religious fundamentalism on the one hand, and the universal idolization of a Madonna or a Maradona, on the other.

If he is elected, he may be the answer to some of the biggest challenges our nation has ever faced, but he’s also human. He will be challenged every step of the way, his policies and actions may not go far enough or satisfy those of us who most hunger for certain ways our nation treats its citizens (or the rest of the world), and the obstacles placed before him may be too great for one man and his cabinet of (hopefully) able men and women to overcome. But if he is indeed elected, and things definitely are looking that way, no one will be able to blame him for not trying his hardest. You can all take down your Barack shrines now.

But we are good at owning them. From the Forward:

The Rays’ three top executives, owner Stuart Sternberg, president Matthew Silverman and general manager Andrew Friedman, are all former investors and bankers, and, it turns out, all Jewish.

That’s the title The New Yorker awards this week to Daniel Craig, who stars in the soon-to-open movie Defiance, which tells the true story of a small band of brothers—three, to be exact—who conspire to save a number of Jewish civilians in the Belarusian forest during World War II. Adam Gopnik’s piece on the movie makes me want to see it more than the trailer:

There’s no denying, in any case, that after his co-starring role in 2005’s Munich, Craig has indeed earned the accolade Gopnik granted him. But the question I have is: What other major actors of our era have made a name for themselves, or at least increased their already existing fame, by playing Jewish? For many, Craig’s repeat performance as a Jew will likely have as much fantasy value as Audrey Tautou speaking Hebrew (and considering conversion) in God is Great, I’m Not. (Hint: It’s a lot.)