New York Post, Thursday, December 3, 2020
nypost.com
By DOREE LEWAKThey’re not chopped liver.
Whoever said nice guys finish last obviously has
never seen the Nice Jewish Guys wall calendar.
Since its debut in 2009, more than 100 Hebrew
school hotties — the kind of smart, shy, bespecta-
cled guys you want to invite over for Chinese food
on Christmas — have graced the glossy pages of
the ironic (and iconic) publication.
Creator Adam Cohen told The Post that he first
came up with the idea for a calendar filled with
“bubbe-approved” mensches on a lark.
“It started as a funny idea. ‘Let’s just do one; it’ll
be a gas.’ But 11 years on, it’s an international sensa-
tion,” said the 54-year-old Westchester native and
NYU grad.
The photography style is less piece of meat, and
more piece of gefilte fish.
Each month features an approachable guy and a
few fun facts about him. Some schmaltzy standouts
over the years: November 2016’s Jake N., whose fa-
vorite food is latkes with applesauce; May 2019’s
Ben, who claims he can belt out “If I Were a Rich
Man” better than Topol himself; and September
2019’s Bryan, who led a birthright trip to Israel.
This time, there’s Brett (January 2021), who con-
fesses he’s “addicted to soup,” Dov (April 2021),
who considers himself “artistic but also a klutz”
and Chase, who represents October in a brooding
pic alongside his parents (yep) to soften your
flanken (that’s short ribs).
Cohen, who lives in Santa Monica, Calif., and
runs the production company Super Delicious, said
that when he’s casting the calendar, he looks for
regular guys with that special something.
“He may not have chiseled abs, but has qualities
like trustworthiness and sense of humor — and you
can bring him home to Mom,” Cohen said.
Indeed, kvelling moms do go to extreme lengths
to get their sons in.
“Mothers get aggressive: ‘Why isn’t my son cho-
sen? He went to an excellent Ivy League college.’
I’m almost a nice Jewish pimp,” joked Cohen, who
winnows about 1,000 submissions for the 12 cov-
eted spots starting in January. Those odds, he
noted, are even lower than getting into Harvard.
“I have guys who keep submitting year after year,”
he said, adding that he’s come a long way from the
scouting on Craigslist he did in the early days. “I
have a number of guys who submit pictures of
themselves eating a bagel or wearing a yarmulke.”
He said there have even been non-Jewish men
posing as a members of the tribe to land a calen-
der spot.
November 2021’s Ezra Parter shared his submis-
sion secrets with The Post.
“I told Adam’s team about my grandma’s cooking
and my Hebrew school experiences,” said the 29-
year-old LA actor. And, he’s not above using his
pinup status as a dating asset. “Whatever it takes to
find love, right? I actually just added a joke about it
in my JSwipe profile.”
Another former Nice Jewish Guy said the post-
calendar adulation was real — and welcome.
“I had groupies! Three women... found me on
Facebook. I was so flattered,” said Brian Stampnit-
sky, a January 2010 calender boy and now LA
writer. He took one fan out on a date, but it didn’t
pan out. Now, he said he sees his five minutes of
fame as “a goofy little episode from the past.”
Although the calendar hasn’t gotten any dudes
hitched yet, it has street cred: Howie Mandel
boasted about his son, Alex — Mr. February 2014 —
on “The Tonight Show,” and Ellen DeGeneres has
also paid homage.
For self-described “geeky tough guy” Howie
Schaal, 29, from Jersey City, his status as Mr. Febru-
ary 2021 is all about impressing one person — his
mom. He said he can’t wait to tell her he made the
cut — information that he’s saving for her Hanuk-
kah present. This is not unusual, said Cohen.
“A lot of them do it to impress their parents,” he
said. “It’s their way of saying, ‘See, Ma, I made it.’ ”Calendar presents a
year of kosher cuties
From Nice Jewish Guys Wall Calendar 2021 by Adam Cohen, Photographs by Clay Larsenhold my
schmear: Cute
cover guy Jeff
(above), Chase (left)
and Howie (below)
beat out an estimated
1,000 applicants, all
vying for a spot in the
2021 calendar.Weird
true
BUTThis koala was feeling the
Christmas spirit.
The tree-dwelling marsu-
pial “wandered” into a South
Australia woman’s home this
week and made itself com-
fortable inside her faux
Christmas tree, a local koala-
rescue nonprofit said.
The Adelaide and Hills
Koala Rescue shared adora-
ble photos on its Facebook
page showing the furry ani-
mal holding on to the orna-
ment-filled tree inside
Amanda McCormick’s home.He was doubly lucky.
A Florida man scored a
$5 million lottery jackpot just
three years after landing a
$1 million prize.
Munib Garvanovic, 56, of
Jacksonville, told Florida Lot-
tery officials this week that
he bought the Gold Rush
Doubler scratch-off ticket
from the same gas station
where he buys all his tickets.Praise be!
A massive Nativity scene in
Spain broke two Guinness
World Records for being the
tallest and largest in the
world.
The religious display at Ali-
cante’s Plaza del Ayuntam-
iento was created by José
Manuel Garcia. It features a
nearly 60-foot-high statue of
Joseph, alongside a smaller
Virgin Mary and baby Jesus.
The scene covers more than
600 square feet.A South African athlete has
recently earned himself a
Guinness World Record for
fastest rope climb.
Red Bull athlete Thomas
Van Tonder managed to
climb a vertical 154-foot rope
in less than 4 minutes last
month, Guinness reported
this week.Michigan police were
called to investigate a possi-
ble attempted break-in at a
business only to find that the
culprit was a wayward sheep.
The Walker Police Depart-
ment said an officer was dis-
patched Monday to a busi-
ness that had its glass doors
cracked as if they had been
“head-butted.” There also ap-
peared to be fur or wool in
the glass. Later, the officer
was dispatched to the same
area for sheep sightings and
ultimately corralled a sheep.
Natalie Musumeci, Wires