Boy Vey!: The Shiksa's Guide to Dating Jewish Men
By Kristina Grish and LULU
3/5
()
About this ebook
After all, she's molded him into the cutest little Oedipus complex you've ever met. Could you show some appreciation?
With humor and emotion, Kristina Grish celebrates the terrific intricacies of multilayered, interfaith relationships in this girl-meets-boy dating guide. She waxes poetic about why Jewish men are great boyfriend material: They're smart, entrepreneurial, generous, doting, and funny. They love to eat, and they're passionate in bed. Sure, their neuroses have neuroses. But isn't it nice to know there are guys out there who analyze relationships more than you do?
Chapters such as "Why Choose the Chosen Ones?," "The First Shtup," and "Talk Yiddish to Me" detail how a sexy Shiksa can meet, date, and love a nice Jewish boy of her own.
Kristina Grish
Kristina Grish covers women’s lifestyle topics, including health, relationship, celebrity, fashion, fitness, and pop-culture trends for various national magazines. She’s contributed features, essays, and profiles to Cosmopolitan, Marie Claire, Real Simple, Martha Stewart Living, Martha Stewart Weddings, Women’s Health, Self, Shape, Health, Fitness, Men’s Health, Vibe, and Teen Vogue.
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Reviews for Boy Vey!
3 ratings1 review
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5This book seems to actually be meant seriously. But she doesn't seem to know or care much about Judaism. Go figure.
Book preview
Boy Vey! - Kristina Grish
Oh, admit it: At some point in your adult life, you’ve wanted to snag a Hebrew honey. Or maybe you already have. Or maybe you’re snuggled next to him right now, reading this sentence and wishing you’d thought of this book idea before I did.
In any case, who can blame you? There’s a lot to love about a guy who makes your laughter his priority, who talks about your relationship more than you do, who’s wildly intense inside the bedroom and out, who thinks nudging him up the corporate ladder is a sign of affection. Jewish men feed your mind and appetite, and they are the ultimate caretakers without a hint of machismo. They’re also generous and thoughtful, thanks to a matriarchal culture that’s taught them to appreciate women’s strength, candor, humor, and intelligence. And because Jewish men value professional drive, your mom can finally tell neighbors that you’re dating a doctor, lawyer, or entrepreneur. And she’ll mean it this time.
Of course, dating a nice Jewish boy comes with its caveats—most obvious, the whole Messiah thing. The good news is that if you’re dating a Jew, he’s likely either Reform or simply acculturated, and thus, open-minded about mixing it up a bit. (Unless conversion is your idea of a hot first-date topic, don’t waste your time with Conservative and Orthodox observances.) Whether your love mensch is super religious is seldom the issue. I’ve found that interfaith coupling gets most sticky—and believe me, this Presbyterian has dated enough Jews to make their ancestors shvitz in their graves—when wondering how to navigate daily interactions: how to deal with his obsessive hand-wringing, what to expect from his sex drive, how to survive his mom’s verbal hemophilia. Interfaith relationship snafus arise because Jewish cultural nuances are ingrained in his psyche and not in yours. So if you want to hang with a Jew, you need to identify with his faith and lifestyle.
So what’s a Shiksa? Well, you. The word is simply Yiddish for a non-Jewish woman, though the term carries a long history of cultural weight that’s far too academic and arguable for the attention span of dating-guide devotees (myself included). Suffice it to say that Shiksas are traditionally viewed as the attractive, mysterious, and forbidden other—and not always in a flattering way. However, most of the young, Jewish studs I meet insist that the femme fatale rep is an antiquated ideal that’s upheld more by their older parents and grandparents than by today’s cooler Bens, Joshes, and Andrews. Thank heaven! When it comes to compatibility issues, your religion (or lack thereof) is but one part of your gorgeous profile—and ranks right up there with charisma, looks, education, family, ethnicity, and bra size. Honestly, your cutie doesn’t adore you because he wants to explore your hidden temptress or piss off his family. And if you suspect he does, dump the loser and hide his yarmulke. Because you, my dear, can do better.
Since you bought this book, I’m going to assume you have an elementary knowledge of the Jewish faith and its lingo (or at least a piqued interest). Beyond apologies for your beliefs or stereotypes about his, here’s what you won’t find in these pages: basic Judaic principles, long history lessons, Hebrew prayer translations, funeral downers, extreme holiday traditions like Purim or Simchas Torah, or three cheers for interfaith marriage. Boy Vey!: The Shiksa’s Guide to Dating Jewish Men is simply that—a fun dating guide written for outsiders, by an outsider. Not to mention, one who’s proved to be a natural at the Jewish dating shtick (or so the exes and mothers say) … and sees no reason why you can’t be too!
To land an interested Jew, it helps to know the icons that color his worldview. According to one of my exes, Ben, a journalist now living in Toronto with his Greek Orthodox girlfriend, you’re bound to impress by memorizing a few Jewish star-studded majors. Since circumcision, Ben’s only dated non-Jews—and fancies himself something of an expert at getting crossover chicks up to speed about members of the tribe. This includes celebrity hitters that make up our common soul.
Here, Bens reckless intro into what he claims is the carefully narrow, frighteningly like-minded Jewish male POV.
The Reason Your Boyfriend Chases Shiksas Like You:
Tori Spelling
The Interfaith Duo He Admires Most:
Ben Stiller and Christine Taylor
Who He Thinks Would Play Him in a Movie:
Jake Gyllenhaal
More Likely, Even on a Good Day:
David Schwimmer
The Jewish Comedian He Thinks He Channels:
Jon Stewart
The Jewish Comedian He Really Channels:
Larry David
His Jewish Fight Song:
Adam Sandler’s Chanukah Song
His Jewish Bible:
Portnoy’s Complaint by Philip Roth
His Jewish God:
Woody Allen, circa Manhattan
His Jewish Colin Powell:
Madeleine Albright
The Only Jew Cool Enough to Be Friends with Jack Kerouac:
Allen Ginsberg
Another Cool Jew:
Lenny Bruce
An Off-Again, On-Again Cool Jew Who’s Kind of Like Lenny Bruce:
Howard Stern
The Lapsed Catholic He Thinks Is Turning Judaism into Scientology:
Madonna
Her Jewish Friend Who Can Do No Wrong:
Gwyneth Paltrow
The Jew All Jews Wish They Could Give Back:
David Berkowitz, Son of Sam
Joanna, a Methodist editor from Michigan, grew up in an über-WASP town but was always drawn to Jewish men. I casually dated a Jewish guy sophomore year, then another for a year and a half. I’m approaching a year with my most recent Jewish boyfriend,
she recounts. I guess you could call that a type.
A type that Joanna says is passionate and really deep
—especially when it comes to analyzing identity, religion, life, and death. My Catholic and Protestant exes were into acting really chill and cool, but never funny or philosophical,
she says. Although someone who’s never experienced Joanna’s dating life might consider this stereotyping, she insists her Jewish boyfriends can dish it and take it. "When I dated my first serious boyfriend, he made me watch Annie Hall with him. He joked that he was Woody Allen, and that I was Anne—which annoyed me a little, because Annie’s kind of a bitch." Sounds like Joanna’s not only one who typecasts….
Barbie Adler is president and CEO of Selective Search Inc., the nation’s leading upscale matchmaking firm. Barbie, raised on the North Shore of Chicago, is also an authentic Shadchen (Yiddish for matchmaker
) who’s shared relationship advice with Fortune, Forbes, Oprah, and