I Get Knocked Down Then I Get Up Again Jewish Version

Wit and sense of humor in Jewish culture

The tradition of humour in Judaism dates back to the Torah and the Midrash from the aboriginal Centre East, but generally refers to the more contempo stream of exact and often anecdotal humour of Ashkenazi Jews which took root in the United States over the terminal hundred years, including in secular Jewish culture. European Jewish humor in its early on form adult in the Jewish community of the Holy Roman Empire, with theological satire becoming a traditional way of clandestinely opposing Christianization.^[1]

Modern Jewish humor emerged during the nineteenth century among German-speaking Jews of the Haskalah (Jewish Enlightenment), matured in the shtetls of the Russian Empire, and then flourished in twentieth-century America, arriving with the millions of Jews who emigrated from Eastern Europe betwixt the 1880s and the early 1920s.^{[ citation needed ]}

Beginning with vaudeville and continuing through radio, stand up-up, flick, and television, a unduly high percentage of American, British, German, and Russian comedians have been Jewish.^[2] Time estimated in 1978 that 80 pct of professional American comics were Jewish.^[3]

Jewish sense of humor is diverse, though it most often favors wordplay, irony, and satire, while its themes are highly anti-authoritarian, mocking religious and secular life akin.^[iv] Sigmund Freud considered Jewish humour unique in that its humour is primarily derived from mocking of the in-group (Jews) rather than the "other". Notwithstanding, rather than simply being self-deprecating, it besides contains an element of self-praise.

History [edit]

Jewish sense of humour is rooted in several traditions. Recent scholarship places the origins of Jewish humor in one of history's earliest recorded documents, the Hebrew Bible, as well equally the Talmud.^[5] In particular, the intellectual and legal methods of the Talmud, which uses elaborate legal arguments and situations often seen every bit so absurd as to be humorous, in club to tease out the meaning of religious constabulary.^[six]

Hillel Halkin in his essay well-nigh Jewish humor^[vii] traces some roots of the Jewish self-deprecating sense of humour to the medieval influence of Standard arabic traditions on the Hebrew literature past quoting a witticism from Yehuda Alharizi'due south Tahkemoni. A later on Sephardic tradition centered on a Nasreddin-derived folk grapheme known as Djohá.

A more than contempo one is an egalitarian tradition among the Jewish communities of Eastern Europe in which the powerful were often mocked subtly, rather than attacked overtly—equally Saul Bellow in one case put it, "Oppressed people tend to be witty." Jesters known every bit badchens used to poke fun at prominent members of the community during weddings, creating a good-natured tradition of sense of humour as a levelling device. Rabbi Moshe Waldoks, a scholar of Jewish humor, argued:

You have a lot of shtoch, or jab humour, which is unremarkably meant to deflate pomposity or ego, and to deflate people who consider themselves high and mighty. Simply Jewish humor was as well a device for self-criticism within the customs, and I think that's where it really was the about powerful. The humorist, like the prophet, would basically take people to task for their failings. The humour of Eastern Europe peculiarly was centered on defending the poor against the exploitation of the upper classes or other authority figures, and then rabbis were made fun of, authority figures were made fun of and rich people were made fun of. It really served equally a social catharsis.^[viii]

After Jews began to migrate to America in large numbers, they, like other minority groups, found it difficult to gain mainstream acceptance and obtain upward mobility (equally Lenny Bruce lampooned, "He was charming. ... They said, 'C'mon! Let's become picket the Jew be charming!'"). The newly-developing entertainment industry, combined with the Jewish humor tradition, provided a potential route for Jews to succeed. Ane of the outset successful radio "sitcoms", The Goldbergs, featured a Jewish family unit. As radio and goggle box matured, many of its near famous comedians, including Jack Benny, Sid Caesar, George Burns, Eddie Cantor, Jack Carter, Henny Youngman, Milton Berle, and Jerry Lewis were Jewish. The Jewish comedy tradition continues today, with Jewish humor much entwined with that of mainstream sense of humor, every bit comedies like Seinfeld, Adjourn Your Enthusiasm,^[9] ^[x] ^[11] and Woody Allen films betoken.^{[ commendation needed ]}

Sigmund Freud in his Jokes and their Relation to the Unconscious, among other things, analyzes the nature of Jewish jokes.

Types [edit]

Religious humor [edit]

Every bit befits a customs to which religion was so of import, much sense of humour centres on the relationship of Judaism to the individual Jew and the community.

2 Rabbis argued tardily into the dark most the being of God, and, using strong arguments from the scriptures, ended up indisputably disproving His existence. The next day, i Rabbi was surprised to run across the other walking into the shul for morn services.

"I thought we had agreed there was no God," he said.

"Yep, what does that accept to practise with information technology?" replied the other.

The function left out is the fact that it was traditional to go to services, regardless of what one believed, and the rabbi was merely post-obit that tradition. This is like the story of the male child who tells his rabbi he can't daven (pray), because he no longer believes in God. The rabbi just tells him, "Yep God, no God: doesn't thing! Three times a day, y'all DAVEN!"

Assimilation [edit]

The American Jewish community has been lamenting the rate of assimilation and absence of their children as they grow into adults.

Two Rabbis were discussing their problems with squirrels in their synagogue cranium. I Rabbi said, "Nosotros simply called an exterminator and nosotros never saw the squirrels again." The other Rabbi said, "Nosotros just gave the squirrels a bar mitzvah, and nosotros never saw them once more."

Self-deprecating [edit]

Jews ofttimes mock their own negative stereotypes.

Question: How can you lot always spot a convert to Judaism?
Answer: That's easy. They're the but normal ones in the congregation.

Wit [edit]

Similarly, in the tradition of the legal arguments of the Talmud, ane prominent type of Jewish sense of humour involves clever, often legalistic, solutions to Talmudic problems, such every bit:

Q: Is one permitted to ride in an plane on the Sabbath?

A: Yes, as long equally your seat belt remains attached. In this instance, it is considered that you are non riding, you are wearing the plane.

Tales of the Rebbes [edit]

Some jokes make fun of the "Rebbe miracle stories" and involve dissimilar Hasidim bragging near their teachers' miraculous abilities:

Three Hasidim are bragging nigh their Rebbes: "My rebbe is very powerful. He was walking once, and there was a big lake in his path. He waved his handkerchief, and there was lake on the right, lake on the left, simply no lake in the middle." To which the 2nd retorted, "That's nothing. My rebbe is even more powerful. He was walking once, and in that location was a huge mountain in his path. He waved his handkerchief, and at that place was mount on the right, mountain on the left, but no mountain in the middle!" Said the 3rd, "Ha! That is however nothing! My rebbe is the most powerful. He was walking once on Shabbos (Saturday, the holy mean solar day in Judaism, on which it is forbidden to handle money), and there was a wallet crammed total of cash in his path. He waved his handkerchief, and it was Shabbos on the right, Shabbos on the left, only not Shabbos in the middle!"

Caesar said to Joshua ben Hananiah "Why does the Sabbath dish have such a fragrant odour?" Joshua said "We have a certain spice chosen Shabbat (shevet), that nosotros put in information technology. "Permit me accept some", he requested. Joshua replied, "For those who observe Shabbat, it works; for those who don't, information technology doesn't."

The lives of the early Hasidim, while not funny in and of themselves, are rich in humorous incidents. The dealings betwixt rabbis, tzadikim, and peasants grade a rich tapestry of lore.

Eastern European Jewish humor [edit]

A number of traditions in Jewish sense of humor appointment back to stories and anecdotes from the 19th century.

Chełm [edit]

Jewish folklore makes fun of the Jewish residents of Chełm (Yiddish: כעלעם, Hebrew: חלם; frequently transcribed every bit Helm) in eastern Poland for their foolishness. These stories often eye on the "wise" men and their silly decisions, similarly to the English Wise Men of Gotham or the German Schildbürger. The jokes were about always well-nigh silly solutions to problems. Some of these solutions display "foolish wisdom" (reaching the correct answer by the wrong train of reasoning), while others are simply wrong.^[12]

Many of these stories have get well-known thanks to storytellers and writers such as Isaac Bashevis Singer, a Nobel Prize-winning Jewish writer in the Yiddish linguistic communication, who wrote The Fools of Chełm and Their History (published in English translation in 1973), and the great Soviet Yiddish poet Ovsey Driz who wrote stories in verse. The latter achieved not bad popularity in the Soviet Marriage in Russian and Ukrainian translations, and were made into several animated films.

Other notable adaptations of folklore Chełm stories into the mainstream civilisation are the one-act Chelmer Khakhomim ("The Wise Men of Chelm") by Aaron Zeitlin, The Heroes of Chelm (1942) past Shlomo Simon, published in English translation every bit The Wise Men of Helm (Solomon Simon, 1945) and More Wise Men of Helm (Solomon Simon, 1965), and the book Chelmer Khakhomim past Y. Y. Torso.^[13] The animated short film comedy Village of Idiots also recounts Chełm tales.

Allen Mandelbaum'southward "Chelmaxioms : The Maxims, Axioms, Maxioms of Chelm" (David R. Godine, 1978) treats the wise men less as fools than as an "echt Chelm" of true scholars who in their narrow specialized knowledge are notwithstanding knowledgeable but lacking sense. The verse of [Chelmaxioms] is supposedly the discovered lost manuscripts of the wise men of Chelm.

Here are a few examples of a Chełm tale:^{[ citation needed ]}

It is said that after God made the world, he filled information technology with people. He sent off an angel with two sacks, one total of wisdom and 1 total of foolishness. The second sack was much heavier. So afterward a time it started to drag. Soon it got caught on a mountaintop and so all the foolishness spilled out and vicious into Chełm.

One Jewish Chełm resident bought a fish on Friday in club to melt information technology for Sabbath. He put the alive fish underneath his coat and the fish slapped his face with his tail. He went to the Chełm court to submit a accuse and the court sentenced the fish to expiry by drowning.

In Chełm, the shammes used to go around waking everyone up for minyan (communal prayer) in the forenoon. Every fourth dimension information technology snowed, the people would complain that, although the snow was cute, they could non see it in its pristine state because past the time they got up in the morning, the shammes had already trekked through the snow. The townspeople decided that they had to find a way to exist woken upwardly for minyan without having the shammes making tracks in the snow.
The people of Chełm hit on a solution: they got four volunteers to bear the shammes around on a table when there was fresh snow in the morning. That manner, the shammes could make his wake up calls, but he would non leave tracks in the snow.

The town of Chełm decided to build a new synagogue. So, some strong, athletic men were sent to a mountaintop to gather heavy stones for the foundation. The men put the stones on their shoulders and trudged downwardly the mountain to the town below. When they arrived, the town constable yelled, "Foolish men! Yous should take rolled the stones down the mount!" The men agreed this was an fantabulous thought. And then they turned around, and with the stones yet on their shoulders, trudged back up the mount, and rolled the stones dorsum downwards once more.

A young housewife living in the town of Chełm had a very strange occurrence. One morning, later buttering a slice of breadstuff she accidentally dropped it on the floor. To her amazement, it fell buttered side up. As everyone knows, whenever a buttered piece of bread is dropped on the floor, it ever falls buttered side down; this is like a police force of physics. Merely on this occasion information technology had fallen buttered side upwards, and this was a great mystery which had to exist solved. So all the Rabbis and elders and wise men of Chełm were summoned together and they spent iii days in the synagogue fasting and praying and debating this marvelous result among themselves. Afterwards those three days they returned to the immature housewife with this respond: "Madam, the trouble is that you have buttered the wrong side of the bread."

The sexton of the synagogue decided to install a poor box and so that the fortunate might share their wealth with the needy. On shabbes eve, he announced to the congregation that a new opportunity for a mitzvoh was available. "Just," one member complained, "it will exist and so easy for the goneffs (thieves) to steal from the box." The sexton thought long and hard that night, and announced the next twenty-four hours that he had found a solution. Pointing upward, he showed, the poor box was now suspended from a chain at the ceiling, high, high, high overhead. "But at present how do we put money in the box?" The next calendar week, the congregation saw the wonderful solution. A lovely round stairway now ascended to the poor box making it easy to contribute.

Hershele Ostropoler [edit]

Hershele Ostropoler, too known equally Hershel of Ostropol, was a legendary prankster who was based on a historic figure. Thought to have come from Ukraine, he lived in the small village of Ostropol, working equally shochet, a ritual slaughterer. According to legend he lost his job because of his constant joking, which offended the leaders of the village.

In his subsequent wanderings throughout Ukraine, he became a familiar effigy at restaurants and inns.

Eventually he settled down at the court of Rabbi Boruch of Medzhybizh, grandson of the Baal Shem Tov. The rabbi was plagued past frequent depressions, and Hershele served every bit a sort of court jester, mocking the rabbi and his cronies, to the please of the common folk.

After his death he was remembered in a series of pamphlets recording his tales and witty remarks.

He was the subject of several epic poems, a novel, a comedy performed in 1930 by the Vilna Troupe, and a U.S. television receiver programme in the 1950s. Two illustrated children'southward books, The Adventures of Hershel of Ostropol, and Hershel and the Hanukkah Goblins, have been published. Both books were written by Eric Kimmel and illustrated by Trina Schart Hyman. In 2002, a play entitled Hershele the Storyteller was performed in New York City.^[fourteen] He is too the protagonist in a new series of comics for children with the titles The Adventures of Hershele, Hershele Rescues the Captives, Hershele and the Treasure in Yerushalayim, Hershele makes the Grade, and Hershele Discovers America.

Sense of humor well-nigh antisemitism [edit]

Much Jewish humour takes the form of self-deprecating comments on Jewish civilisation, acting equally a shield against antisemitic stereotypes past exploiting them kickoff:

Rabbi Altmann and his secretary were sitting in a coffeehouse in Berlin in 1935. "Herr Altmann," said his secretary, "I notice you're reading Der Stürmer! I tin can't understand why. A Nazi libel sail! Are you some kind of masochist, or, God preclude, a cocky-hating Jew?"
"On the contrary, Frau Epstein. When I used to read the Jewish papers, all I learned about were pogroms, riots in Palestine, and assimilation in America. Simply now that I read Der Stürmer, I see so much more than: that the Jews control all the banks, that we boss in the arts, and that nosotros're on the verge of taking over the entire world. You know – it makes me experience a whole lot better!"

Or, on a like note:

After the assassination of Tsar Alexander Ii of Russia, a government official in Ukraine menacingly addressed the local rabbi, "I suppose you know in full detail who was behind it."

"Ach," the rabbi replied, "I take no idea, but the government's determination will be the same equally always: they will arraign the Jews and the chimneysweeps."
"Why the chimneysweeps?" asked the befuddled official.

"Why the Jews?" responded the rabbi.

And some other case, a direct slice of galgenhumor (gallows sense of humor):

During the days of oppression and poverty of the Russian shtetls, one village had a rumor going around: a Christian daughter was constitute murdered near their village. Fearing a pogrom, they gathered at the synagogue. Suddenly, the rabbi came running upwards, and cried, "Wonderful news! The murdered daughter was Jewish!"

In that location is too humor originating in the U.s.a., such as this joke:

During World State of war Two, a sergeant stationed at Fort Benning gets a telephone call from a prejudiced woman.

"We would love it," she said, "if you could bring five of your soldiers over to our firm for Thanksgiving dinner."
"Certainly, ma'am," replied the sergeant.
"Oh... only make sure they aren't Jews, of grade," said the adult female.
"Will do," replied the sergeant. So, that Thanksgiving, while the adult female is baking, the doorbell rings. She opens her door and, to her horror, five black soldiers are standing in front of her.
"Oh, my!" she exclaimed. "I'chiliad afraid there'southward been a terrible mistake!"

"No ma'am," said 1 of the soldiers. "Sergeant Rosenbloom never makes mistakes!"

This one combines accusations of the lack of patriotism, and avarice:

Post-Soviet Russia. Rabinovich calls the Pamyat headquarters: "Is it true that we Jews sold out Mother Russia?" "Damn correct, you filthy kike!" "Oh good. Could you tell me where I might go my share?"

American Jewish humor [edit]

A 2013 survey by the Pew Research Center found that 42 percent of American Jews rated sense of humour as essential to their Jewish identity.^[15]

About organized religion [edit]

One mutual strain of Jewish sense of humour examines the role of religion in contemporary life, oft gently mocking the religious hypocrite. For example:

A Reform Rabbi was and so compulsive a golfer that one time, on Yom Kippur, he left the house early and went out for a quick nine holes by himself. An angel who happened to be looking on immediately notified his superiors that a grievous sin was being committed. On the 6th hole, God caused a mighty wind to take the brawl directly from the tee to the cup – a miraculous shot.

The angel was horrified. "A hole in i!" he exclaimed, "Yous telephone call this a punishment, Lord?!"

Answered God with a sly smile, "And then who can he tell?"

Or, on differences between Orthodox, Conservative and Reform movements:

An Orthodox, a Conservative, and a Reform rabbi are each asked whether one is supposed to say a brokhe (blessing) over a lobster (not-kosher food, unremarkably not eaten by religious Jews).
The Orthodox rabbi asks, "What is this...'lobster'...thing?" The Conservative rabbi doesn't know what to say, muttering most responsa. The Reform rabbi says, "What's a brokhe?"

In item, Reform Jews may be lampooned for their rejection of traditional Jewish beliefs. An case, from 1 of Woody Allen'due south early stand-upwardly routines:

We were married by a Reform rabbi in Long Island. A very Reform rabbi. A Nazi.

Jokes accept been fabricated about the shifting of gender roles (in the more than traditional Orthodox motion, women marry at a young age and have many children, while the more liberal Conservative and Reform movements make gender roles more than egalitarian, even ordaining women every bit Rabbis). The Reconstructionist motion was the first to ordain homosexuals, all of which leads to this joke:

At an Orthodox wedding, the bride's mother is pregnant. At a Conservative wedding ceremony, the helpmate is pregnant. At a Reform wedding, the rabbi is significant. At a Reconstructionist wedding, the rabbi and her wife are both pregnant.

Often jokes revolve around the social practice of the Jewish faith:

A man is rescued from a desert isle after 20 years. The news media, amazed at this feat of survival, inquire him to bear witness them his dwelling.

"How did you survive? How did you keep sane?" they ask him, as he shows them effectually the small island.
"I had my organized religion. My faith every bit a Jew kept me strong. Come." He leads them to a modest glen, where stands an opulent temple, fabricated entirely from palm fronds, coconut shells and woven grass. The news cameras take pictures of everything – even a torah made from banana leaves and written in octopus ink. "This took me five years to complete."
"Amazing! And what did you do for the adjacent fifteen years?"
"Come with me." He leads them around to the far side of the island. There, in a shady grove, is an fifty-fifty more beautiful temple. "This 1 took me twelve years to complete!"
"But sir" asks the reporter, "Why did you build ii temples?"

"This is the temple I attend. That other identify? Hah! I wouldn't set foot in that other temple if you PAID me!"

Every bit with almost ethnicities, jokes have oftentimes mocked Jewish accents—at times gently, and at others quite harshly. One of the kinder examples is:

One early winter morning time, Rabbi Bloom was walking beside the canal when he saw a dog in the water, trying hard to stay afloat. It looked so sad and exhausted that Rabbi Blossom jumped in, and afterwards a struggle, managed to bring it out alive.

A passer-by who saw this remarked, "That was very brave of you! Y'all must dear animals; are you a vet?"

Rabbi Flower replied, "And vhat did you expect? Of course I'm a–vet! I'chiliad a–freezing common cold as vell!"

Almost Jews [edit]

Jewish humor continues to exploit stereotypes of Jews, both as a sort of "in-joke", and equally a course of self-defence. Jewish mothers, "cheapness"/frugality, kvetching, and other stereotyped habits are all common subjects. Frugality has been frequently singled out:

An old Jewish beggar was out on the street in New York Metropolis with his tin loving cup.

"Please, sir," he pleaded to a passerby, "could you lot spare seventy-three cents for a cup of java and some pie?"
The man asked, "Where do you get coffee and pie for seventy-three cents in New York? It costs at least a dollar!"

The beggar replied, "Who buys retail?"

Or,

What did the waiter ask the grouping of dining Jewish mothers? "Pardon me ladies, just is ANYTHING all correct?"^[16]

Or,

A Cosmic priest, a Reverend, and a Rabbi are discussing their income.

The Priest says: "I draw a circle on the ground, take the offer, and throw it upward into the air. Any money that falls outside the circle is for the Lord, and the coin that falls inside the circle is for me."
The Reverend says: "I exercise things almost the same, except the coin that falls outside the circle is my bacon, and the money that falls inside the circle is for the Lord."

The Rabbi says: "I do things quite different. I take the offering, throw it upwards into the air, and pray: "Lord take whatever Yous need, and feel gratuitous to send back the balance."

Or,

Did you hear they congenital the first Starbucks in Israel? In that location's a fork in the sugar bowl.

Or,

A Buddhist monk goes to a barber to have his head shaved. "What should I pay you?" the monk asks. "No price, for a holy human such every bit yourself," the barber replies. And what practice you know, the side by side day the hairdresser comes to open his shop, and finds on his doorstep a dozen gemstones.

Subsequently that day, a priest comes in to have his hair cutting. "What shall I pay you, my son?" "No cost, for a homo of the cloth such as yourself." And what practise yous know, the next day the barber comes to open his shop, and finds on his doorstep a dozen roses.

Later that mean solar day, Rabbi Finklestein comes in to become his payot trimmed. "What practise you desire I should pay you lot?" "Nothing, for a human of God such equally yourself." And the adjacent morning, what practice you lot know? The barber finds on his doorstep – a dozen rabbis!

Or,

A Jewish man lies on his deathbed, surrounded by his children. "Ah," he says, "I can aroma your mother's brisket – how I would love to taste it one last fourth dimension before I die." So ane of his sons hurries downwards to the kitchen, but he returns empty-handed.
"Lamentable, papa. She says it'south for the shiva (mourning menstruum)."

Or, virtually traditional roles of men and women in Jewish families:

A boy comes dwelling house from school and tells his mother he got a part in the schoolhouse play.

"That'southward wonderful!" says the mother, "Which function?"
"The part of a Jewish husband," says the male child, proudly.

Frowning, the mother says, "Become back and tell them you want a speaking role!"

Or,

A Jewish girl bemoans, "Finally, I run across a nice, rich Jewish boy! He'due south just like papa. He looks like him. He acts like him. Oy vey, mama hates him!"

Or, on parenting (from David Bader's Haikus for Jews):

Is one Nobel Prize

so much to ask from a kid

after all I've done?

"Sarah, how'southward that male child of yours?"

"David? Ach, don't enquire – he's living in Miami with a man named Miguel."
"That's terrible!"

"I know – why couldn't he find a overnice Jewish boy?"

Miriam and Sharon, long-fourth dimension friends, are catching up on one another's lives by telephone.

"But that's enough almost me," says Miriam. "I hear your son Isaac has a very successful neurology practice in Brooklyn!"
"Yes, yep," says Sharon. "I could kvell for days."
Continues Miriam, "And that'southward to say null of Reuven. Our first Jewish President of the United States... and he'due south your son!!"

"Ah yep," replies Sharon, disappointment creeping into her phonation. "Reuven... the i who'southward not a doctor."

Or, on kvetching (complaining),

A Jewish man in a hospital tells the medico he wants to be transferred to a different hospital.

The physician says "What's wrong? Is information technology the food?"
"No, the nutrient is fine. I tin't kvetch."
"Is it the room?"
"No, the room is fine. I can't kvetch."
"Is information technology the staff?"
"No, anybody on the staff is fine. I tin can't kvetch."
"Then why do you want to be transferred?"

"I tin't kvetch!"

An one-time Jewish man riding on a train begins to moan: "Oy, am I thirsty; oy, am I thirsty", to the badgerer of the other passengers. Finally, another rider gets a cup of water from the drinking fountain and gives information technology to the erstwhile homo, who thanks him profusely and gulps it downward. Feeling satisfied, the other rider sits down again, only to hear "Oy, was I thirsty; oy, was I thirsty".

A version of that joke is quoted in Born To Kvetch: Yiddish Linguistic communication and Culture in All Its Moods, by Michael Wex, who writes,

"It contains most every of import element of the Yiddish-speaking heed-gear up in easily accessible form: the constant tension between the Jewish and the non-Jewish; the faux naivete that allows the onetime man to pretend that he isn't disturbing anyone; the deflation of the other rider's hopes, the disappointment of all his expectations afterward he has watered the Jew; and virtually importantly of all, the underlying assumption, the fundamental idea that kvetching—complaining—is not just a pastime, non only a response to adverse or imperfect circumstance, but a way of life that has nothing to do with the fulfillment or frustration of desire."^[17]

Near Christianity [edit]

Many Jewish jokes involve a rabbi and a Christian clergyman, exploiting different interpretations of a shared environment. Often they beginning with something like "A rabbi and a priest..." and make fun of either the rabbi'southward interpretation of Christianity or (seeming) differences between Christian and Jewish estimation of some areas.

A Catholic priest says to a rabbi, "It seems to me that, since the Creator made pork, He must have fabricated information technology for some purpose. Therefore, information technology must be a sin not to use it, don't you recollect? Then, will you finally consume some pork?"
The rabbi replies, "I will try some, Male parent – at your wedding."

A rabbi once asked his sometime friend, a priest, "Could you ever exist promoted within your Church?"

The priest says, thoughtfully, "Well, I could become a bishop."
The rabbi persists, "And subsequently that?"
With a pause for consideration, the priest replies, "Perhaps I could be a cardinal, even."
"And then?"
After thinking for some fourth dimension, the priest responds, "Anytime I may fifty-fifty rise to be the Pope."
But the rabbi is still non satisfied. "And then?"
With an air of incredulity, the priest cries, "What more than could I become? God Himself?"

The rabbi says quietly, "I of our boys fabricated it."

A rabbi is on his deathbed, and a friend asks him if he has any final requests. The Rabbi asks his friend to find him a Catholic priest, and so that he might convert.

Dislocated, his friend asks, "Rabbi, why? You take been a great teacher and leader of your followers, and yous take led a expert and honorable Jewish life. Why would you desire to go a Cosmic now, earlier you dice?"
He says, "Eh, better i of them than i of us."

(Note: This joke is also seen with an Irish Catholic replacing the Rabbi, and a Protestant minister replacing the Cosmic priest.)

A rabbi, a minister, and a priest were playing poker when the constabulary raided the game.

Turning to the priest, the lead police officeholder said, "Father Murphy, were you gambling?" Turning his optics to heaven, the priest whispered, "Lord, forgive me for what I am about to do." To the police officeholder, he and then said, "No, officer; I was not gambling." The officer then asked the minister, "Pastor Johnson, were yous gambling?" Again, after an entreatment to heaven, the minister replied, "No, officer; I was non gambling." Turning to the rabbi, the officer once more asked, "Rabbi Goldstein, were you gambling?"

Shrugging his shoulders, the rabbi replied, "With whom?"

A minister told his friend Rabbi Goldman, "Last nighttime, I dreamed of the Jewish Sky. It was a slum, and it was overflowing with people – running, playing, talking, sitting – doing all sorts of things. Just the dream, and the noise, was so terrific that I woke up."

The rabbi said, "Actually? Last night, I dreamed of the Protestant Heaven. It was a overnice, proper suburb, with neatly trimmed lawns, and houses all neatly lined up."
"And how did the people carry?" asked the minister.

"What people?"

A Catholic priest is chosen away past a family unit emergency one day, while on duty attention confession. Not wanting to leave the confessional unattended, he asks his friend, a rabbi from the synagogue across the street, if he can make full in for him.

The rabbi says he wouldn't know what to practise, and then the priest agrees to stay with him for a few minutes and show him the ropes.
They enter their half of the confessional together and soon enough, a woman enters and says, "Male parent forgive me, for I have sinned."
"What did you practice?" asks the priest.
"I have committed adultery," she replies.
"How many times?" continues the priest.
"Iii times."
"Practice three Hail Marys, put $v in the poor-box, and sin no more," finishes the priest.
The woman leaves and not long after a man enters and says, "Father forgive me, for I accept sinned."
"What did y'all do?"
"I take committed adultery."
"How many times?"
"Three times."
"Practice three Hail Marys, put $5 in the poor-box, and sin no more." The human leaves.
The rabbi tells the priest he thinks he'due south got it figured out now, then the priest leaves, and the rabbi waits until another woman enters the confessional, who says, "Begetter forgive me, for I have sinned."
"What did you do," asks the rabbi.
"I accept committed adultery," she replies.
"How many times?"
"Twice."

"I tell you what," says the rabbi. "Go exercise it one more time and come back. Nosotros got a special this week, iii for $5!"

Jewish humor in the Soviet Wedlock [edit]

See Russian jokes in general, or more specifically Rabinovich jokes, Russian Jewish jokes, Russian political jokes; too History of the Jews in Russia and the Soviet Union.

Q: Rabinovich, what is a fortune?
A: A fortune is to live in our Socialist motherland.
Q: And what'due south a misfortune?

A: A misfortune is to take such a fortune.

An old Jewish man is picked upwardly by the Stalinist police and brought in for questioning:

Q: Where were you built-in?!
A: St. Petersburg.
Q: Where do you live?!
A: Leningrad.
Q: (menacingly) Where would you lot like to dice?!

A: Petrograd.

Or, in the last years of the Soviet Union:

Q: Comrade Lev, why now, just when things are getting meliorate for your people, are yous applying for an exit visa to make aliyah to Israel?
A: Well, comrade, there are two reasons. I is that my side by side-door neighbour is Pamyat and he tells me that after they get rid of you communists, they are coming next later on the Jews.
Q: But they will never get rid of us communists!

A: I know, I know, of course you are correct! And that's the other reason.

An old Jewish man was finally immune to exit the Soviet Union, to immigrate to Israel. When he was searched at the Moscow drome, the customs official institute a bosom of Lenin.

Customs: What is that?
Former homo: What is that? What is that?! Don't say "What is that?" say "Who is that?" That is Lenin! The genius who thought upwardly this worker'southward paradise!
The official laughed and allow the quondam man through.
The former man arrived at Tel Aviv aerodrome, where an Israeli customs official found the bust of Lenin.
Customs: What is that?
Old man: What is that? What is that?! Don't say "What is that?" say "Who is that?" That is Lenin! The sonofabitch! I will put him on brandish in my toilet for all the years he prevented an old man from coming dwelling house.
The official laughed and let him through.
When he arrived at his family's house in Jerusalem, his grandson saw him unpack the bosom.
Grandson: Who is that?

Sometime man: Who is that? Who is that?! Don't say "Who is that?" say "What is that?" That, my child, is 8 pounds of gold!

Israeli humor [edit]

Israeli humor featured many of the same themes as Jewish humour elsewhere, making fun of the land and its habits, while containing a fair bit of gallows humor also, as a joke from a 1950 Israeli joke book indicates:

An elderly human refuses to leave for the air raid shelter until he can find his dentures. His wife yells at him, "What, you think they are dropping sandwiches?"

Israelis' view of themselves:

A man dies and comes upward to the heavenly court to be judged. An affections informs him that he has to serve some time in hell, but non to worry, he can choose between 3 different hells: French hell, American hell and Israeli hell. Asks the man: "What's the difference?" Answers the angel: "Well, in French hell, everyone spends the twenty-four hours walking along the boulevards and feasting in bistros. Then, at midnight, everyone is placed in the most humid-hot water until morning time." The man: "Oy, sounds terrible." The angel: "It is." The human being: "So what's American hell?" The angel: "Well, in American hell, everyone spends the day watching movies and eating fast-nutrient. Then, at midnight, everyone is placed in the virtually boiling-hot water until morning." The man: "Oy, sounds terrible." The angel: "It is." The man: "So what'due south Israeli hell?" The angel: "Well, in Israeli hell, y'all live on a kibbutz: you wake upwardly at dawn to work all day in the fields, at dejeuner y'all become some staff of life and cheese. Then, at midnight, anybody is placed in the most-boiling hot h2o until morning." The human being: "That sounds horrible, why would anyone want Israeli hell?"

The angel: "'Midnight' isn't exactly midnight...the water isn't exactly hot...we could probably work out some sort of bargain and possibly get you a schnitzel..."

Office of Yiddish [edit]

Some Yiddish words may sound comical to an English speaker.^[eighteen] Terms like shnook and shmendrik, shlemiel and shlimazel (often considered inherently funny words^{[ citation needed ]}) were exploited for their humorous sounds, as were "Yinglish" shm-reduplication constructs, such as "fancy-schmancy". Yiddish constructions—such every bit catastrophe sentences with questions—became part of the verbal word play of Jewish comedians.^{[ citation needed ]}

References [edit]

Notes [edit]

^ Tanny, Jarrod (2015). "The Anti-Gospel of Lenny, Larry and Sarah: Jewish Humor and the Desecration of Christendom". American Jewish History. 99 (2): 167–193. doi:ten.1353/ajh.2015.0023. S2CID 162195868.
^ While numbers are inevitably fuzzy, Paul Take chances, reviewing Lawrence Epstein'south The Haunted Smile: The Story of Jewish Comedians in America (Psychology Today, Jan-Feb, 2002) wrote, "While Jews make up only about iii percent of the U.Southward. population, eighty percentage of professional comics are Jewish." Accessed online Archived 2007-03-14 at the Wayback Machine 25 March 2007. Comedian Marking Schiff, reviewing the aforementioned volume on Jewlarious.com, writes, "Most of the comedians that made us all laugh in the 1950s, '60s and '70s were Jewish." Similarly, Drew Friedman (author of Old Jewish Comedians), in a March 22, 2007 interview on Fridays with Mr. Media Archived 2007-06-21 at the Wayback Motorcar: "Somebody said, 'You could do an Sometime Protestant Comedian book,' and I said, 'Well, that would exist a pamphlet, wouldn't it?'"
^ "Behavior: Analyzing Jewish Comics". Oct 2, 1978. Retrieved January 25, 2017.
^ Salvatore Attardo (25 February 2014). Encyclopedia of Humor Studies. SAGE Publications. p. 542. ISBN978-1-4833-4617-v.
^ Hershey H. Friedman and Linda Weiser Friedman, God Laughed: Sources of Jewish Humor, New Jersey: Transaction Publishers 2014.
^ Hershey H. Friedman (2004). "Talmudic Humour and the Establishment of Legal Principles: Foreign Questions, Impossible Scenarios, and Legalistic Brainteasers". Thalia: Studies in Literary Humor. 21 (1). fn1. Archived from the original on May 23, 2016.
^ "Why Jews Express joy at Themselves", an essay by Hillel Halkin, Commentary Magazine, Vol 121, April 2006, No four, pp. 47–54
^ Jeff Berkwits (Aug 2004). "What'due south with Jewish comedy?". San Diego Jewish Periodical. Archived from the original on May eleven, 2008.
^ "Curb Your Enthusiasm: The Most Jewish Comedy Evidence Ever". The Forrad.
^ Service, David Briggs, Faith News. "Jewish humor pushes limits on stereotypes". chicagotribune.com.
^ Rosenberg, Roberta (September 22, 2013). "Larry David's "Dark Talmud"; or Kafka in prime time". Studies in American Jewish Literature. 32 (2): 167–186 – via go.gale.com.
^ Itzik Nakhmen Gottesman (2003). Defining the Yiddish nation: the Jewish folklorists of Poland. Wayne Land University Press. pp. xiii, 49, 64–65. ISBN978-0-8143-2669-5 . Retrieved 29 September 2011.
^ "Chelm, Poland (45- 60)". www.jewishgen.org.
^ "Hershele the Storyteller". Archived from the original on October 27, 2009.
^ Grosman, Cathy Lynn (October 1, 2013). "Survey: Being Jewish means being funny, and that'due south no joke". Usa Today . Retrieved 12 May 2022.
^ Jenny Singer, "The x Best, About Archetype Jewish Jokes", ,The Forward
^ Wex, Michael (August 25, 2005). Built-in To Kvetch: Yiddish Language and Culture in All Its Moods. St. Martin's Press. ISBN0-312-30741-1.
^ Leo Rosten, The Joys of Yinglish

Bibliography [edit]

Sover, Arie. 2021. Jewish Humor: An effect of Historical Experience, Survival, and Wisdom. London: Cambridge Scholars
San Diego Jewish Chronicle on Jewish Humor
Funny People - A Film About Jewish Humor
Harry Liechter's Jewish Sense of humour site
Novak, William & Waldoks, Moshe Big Volume of Jewish Humor, originally published by Harper Perennial (1981) ISBN 0-06-090917-X.
The Jewish jokes of a give-and-take in your eye
Jewish Jokes Comedy Comics and Humor at Oy Vey

External links [edit]

"On Jewish Humor" a discourse in English language by "the Jewish Philosopher", C. State of israel Lutsky. Yiddish Radio Projection (one of their few English-language recordings). 7-minute RealAudio recording.
Never Mind, I'll Just Sit Hither in the Dark: A brief history of the Jewish mother., Slate, June thirteen, 2007
Modern Jewish Humor
Laughter is the best medicine Craig Nudelman - June xiv, 2017, Greatcoat Jewish Chronicle

mathewsonwhispiever.blogspot.com

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_humor