Stern College Eating Lecture and Giant Hamantasch Brings Kobayashi (and Men) to Campus

When the Chemistry Club of Yeshiva University's Stern College for Women sponsored a talk on the science of eating by competitive eating world champion Takeru Kobayashi, they got a bonus: more men than women in the audience. We don't know the actual numbers involved, but from the photos posted on the YU web site and also on the JTA blog, it appears that the event attracted a plurality of young men. 

As reported in the blog YU News:

Takeru Kobayashi, world-renowned competitive eating champion, shared tips, tricks and stories from his professional career with Yeshiva University students on the Wilf Campus on February 23.

At an event organized by YU’s Stern College for Women Chemistry Club, Kobayashi discussed training techniques and health concerns involved in the competitive eating process. He also emphasized the importance of mindful eating. “I’m a competitive eater but also a foodie,” said Kobayashi. “I enjoy food more than the average person. When I’m not competing, I like to focus on the atmosphere and the taste and texture of food.”

As a college student, Kobayashi stumbled on his unique talent when a local restaurant held a contest to see who could eat the most curry rice. The prize: free curry rice. “I ate 5100 grams,” said Kobayashi, or more than 11 pounds. Not only did he win the free rice, but a friend nominated Kobiyashi for a televised competition in Japan that launched his career. Today, he holds Guinness world records for competitive eating in the hamburger, hot dog, meatball, pasta and Twinkie category, and won the Nathan’s Famous Annual Hot Dog Eating Contest an unprecedented six years in a row.

The night included a question-and-answer session with Kobayashi that covered everything from the champion’s favorite foods (yogurt and tofu) to the cultural differences between Japanese and American eaters (portion sizes). Students also grilled Kobayashi about his greatest challenge (a toss-up between eating cow brains and competing with a bear), his hero(Steven Greenberg, recently deceased manager of restaurant 230 Fifth), and the life lessons he has learned in the competitive eating arena.
 
“I’ve learned how important it is to enjoy the eating process,” said Kobayashi. “It’s such a natural part of being human. When you see someone who is very hungry finally taking that first bite—that’s a great thing.”

As the event drew to a close, Kobayashi helped students devour a massive hamantasch in honor of the upcoming holiday of Purim. Kobayashi donated his speaking fee from the event to Masbia, a nonprofit soup kitchen network and food pantry in New York City.

We don't know if it was the Stern women or the giant hamantasch that attracted the men, but it looks like everyone had a good time, and with Kobayashi in the room, we're sure that there was nothing left of the hamantasch. 

(A tip of the kippah to Sheila Zucker for bringing this story to our attention.)

Two Sides of Jackie Mason: Attacking Starbucks Coffee and Defending Israeli Settlers

Jackie Mason needs no introduction in the world of Jewish comedy. Everybody has seen his stand-up routines and everybody either loves him or hates him. Mason has made his reputation making fun of just about everything and everyone.

But there's a side of Jackie Mason that is not often seen, and that's his staunch defense of the State of Israel and the Jewish people. We had a chance to see that side in a video that he prepared for delivery last week at a benefit dinner for the new Gush Katif Museum in Israel.

As Elad Benari wrote for Israel National News,

More than 600 people attended this past Wednesday’s Gush Katif dinner in Crown Heights, New York.

The dinner was organized by the Gush Katif Museum in Jerusalem and was endorsed by a number of leading Jewish organizations including, Americans For a Safe Israel (AFSI) and The World Committee for the Land of Israel.

The Gush Katif Museum has undertaken the task of memorializing the history of Gush Katif, from the time of the Hasmoneans until the 2005 disengagement plan when residents were evicted from their homes.

The speakers at Wednesday’s dinner included former United States Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton, conservative media personality and ardent Israel supporter, Glenn Beck, Congressman Lee Terry of Nebraska, and comedian Jackie Mason.

We're sharing Mason's dinner speech below, but we couldn't resist including a classic Mason clip from a few years ago, where he rips into Starbucks "boint coffee," the Starbucks business concept, and the fools who wait in line to pay $4 or more for a cardboard cup of "boint coffee" and then work to clean up their mess while the Starbucks staff waits for their tips.  Enjoy!

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A London Kosher Hotel Receptionist Engages Guests in Religious Banter

(A NOTE TO OUR READERS: We regret that we had to remove the photo and film clip from this post because the filmmaker requested that we do so.)

And now for something completely different. How would you like to be a fly on the wall at a small kosher hotel in London's heavily Jewish Golders Green neighborhood?

A new cute video called My Kosher Shifts lets you play just such a role, watching the passing parade of Sheitel and Shtreimel wearers entering the hotel lobby and engaging in conversation with Iris, hotel's receptionist. Iris is a secular Hebrew-speaking Israeli native who enjoys small talk with mostly very orthodox guests who are checking in or asking for hotel services.

Some of the conversation centers around why women cover their hair and why they have to wear modest dress. While this description may sound mundane, the questions and answers offer some insight into cultural differences between orthodox and secular Jews.  

Iris Zaki, a graduate of London's Brunel University, won first prize with this film in the inaugural Open City London Documentary Festival in the My Street category, dedicated to finding the best short film about the maker's neighborhood or community.

The film was based on her experiences working as a receptionist at the Chasidic Jewish hotel shown in North London. The short film was made as part of her MA dissertation, and she hopes to gain funding to extend it into a feature length documentary.  Enjoy!

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Stephen Colbert's Solution to Proxy Baptism of Jews: Proxy Circumcision of Mormons

Many Jews have been offended by reports that the Mormon church has posthumously converted some 650,000 Jews to Mormonism by proxy baptism, including many Holocaust victims, the parents of Elie Wiesel, and Anne Frank (nine times.)

Last week, Comedy Central's Stephen Colbert came up with a typical Colbertian response. Why complain about these proxy conversions when an easier, more egalitarian solution is obvious? Proxy conversion of dead Mormons to Judaism. How? By proxy circumcision, of course. 

Here's the video clip of Colbert's solution.  Enjoy!

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The Hesder Boys from Sydney Check in With the First Purim Music Video

With Purim only 13 days away, we're eagerly awaiting the posting of Purim music videos from the best-known groups that have delighted viewers for the last couple of years. We're expecting new songs from the Maccabeats, the Fountainheads, and the folks at Aish.com.We're keeping an eye out for their new entries, and we'll bring them to you as soon as they surface.

Today we're posting the first music video of the Purim season that we've seen, and it comes from a new source, The Hesder Boys from Kollel Torah MiTzion in Sydney, Australia.

The Torah MiTzion Kollel program establishes centers for the study of Torah and promulgates the connection between Torah and Israel. These learning centers take the form of a Beit Midrash in which Torah scholars immerse themselves in study and practice of successes in enriching and enhancing Jewish communities around the world by promoting the lofty ideals of Torat Israel, Am Israel and Eretz Israel.

 

The core of these Kollelim are young, recent graduates of the Hesder Yeshivot, where advanced Jewish study is combined with military service in the Israeli army. Idealistic and dedicated, these learned young men and women are carfully selected and brought from Israel for a period of one or two years to serve as role models of the kipah seruga (knitted kippa) generation of Religious Zionism, balancing between safra v'sayfa (book and sword) and performing both midrash u'ma'aseh (study and action).

And, they can sing, too.  Enjoy!

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Purim Countdown Begins: How Israel Celebrates Purim

Purim is just two weeks away, so we're starting a countdown to the joyous holiday that occurs this year on Wednesday night, March 7. We'll have a bunch of videos, musical numbers, parade videos, and just plain fun during the next two weeks.

Let's start off with a view of how Israel celebrates Purim. This video is a good example of how everyone gets a little goofy in the streets of Jerusalem,Tel Aviv, and other cities. Elswhere in the world, adults and children dress in costume, but the exuberance is largely contained within the walls of a synagogue or Jewish Community Center. That's not the case in Israel, where much of the action takes place in the city streets.

Enjoy!

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Comedy Showcase: David Moore on Jewish Baseball Cards

Spring is in the air and so is talk about the start of the baseball season. Spring training is just a few days away. We don't know how many Jewish baseball players will be on the field this year, but we thought the timing was right to share a bit of stand-up comedy that David Moore delivered a few years ago at Carolines in New York City.

David Moore is an experienced senior operating executive and transactional entrepreneur with a strong background in direct marketing and service businesses.  Throughout his career, he has held a wide range of leadership and board positions in public, private and not-for-profit organizations. 

In addition to his professional and charitable activities, David is a professional stand-up comedian and he lectures on the subject of using humor as a leadership and motivational tool.  He is the creator and producer of “Funny Business,” and “The Blue Blazer Comedy Tour” a series of sold out comedy shows featuring business themed comedy.  He has headlined at Caroline’s on Broadway and in the New York Comedy Festival, and been featured at The Friar’s Club, Stand-Up New York, and the Comic Strip in New York City, the Improv in Los Angeles and Bocanuts in Boca Raton, Florida.

In this clip, David talks about the 142 Jewish baseball players who appear on baseball cards. Besides Sandy Koufax and Hank Greenberg, how many would you recognize?  Enjoy!

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Irving Fields, Miami Beach Rhumba Composer, Still Entertaining with Hava Nagila at Age 96

Sixty-five years ago, Composer/Songwriter and legendary lounge performer Irving Fields, wrote his first big hit song, Miami Beach Rhumba. It sold two million copies. Now, 80 albums later at age 96, Fields has a new hit that he composed for YouTube. What's it called? YouTube Dot Com, of course.

Irving Fields was born Isadore Schwartz on August 4, 1915 on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. He began playing the piano at the age of 8. At the age of 15, he won the Fred Allen Radio Amateur Hour and was given a week engagement at the Roxy Theater. 

He attended the Eastman School of Music and while working on a cruise chip to San Juan, he became hooked on Latin rhythms. While in the army, he performed in the Special Services. He was signed to RCA as the Irving Campos Trio (Campos means “Fields” in Spanish) and began a prolific recording career -- his 80 albums include Bagels and Bongos, Champagne and Bongos, and Bikinis and Bongos. 

Irving has played at Carnegie Hall, Symphony Hall, the London Palladium, the Roxy Theater, and the Eddie Cantor show in Las Vegas, and has appeared on the Milton Berle, Kate Smith, and Jackie Gleason shows. 

The Idelsohn Society for Music Preservation released his “Bagels and Bongos” in 2005. Irving has played at Joe’s Pub in NYC, the Mazeltov, Mis Amigos show at Lincoln Center, and the Jews on Vinyl Revue at the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco. 

In the 60s, he returned to New York to begin a solo lounge career, including at 16 year stint at the Sheraton and 8 years at the Plaza and continued to release numerous recordings. Irving still plays at Nino’s Tuscany in New York five days a week and is always composing new songs.

Here are some classic Irving Fields videos: The original Miami Beach Rhumba with his trio, playing a rousing version of Hava Nagila at Nino's Tuscany restaurant, the debut of You Tube Dot Com with musician Josh Dolgin, and a clip from the Idelsohn Society Digital Archive with Fields revealing his secrets of longevity.  Enjoy!

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Delta Airlines Gets Punked With Prank Call and Learns Middle East Geography

Last week Delta Airlines learned a Middle East geography lesson the hard way -- by callers challenging its use of the term "Occupied Palestinian Territory" as one of its international destinations, and by being the butt of a prank phone call that's going viral on YouTube.

It seems that for an unknown period of time, Delta was listing Occupied Palestinian Territory as a destination for members of its SkyMiles frequent flyer program. When the Jerusalem Post contacted Delta for clarification, Delta immediately removed the term from their website.

As Ben Hartman wrote in the Jerusalem Post,

A media relations official from the company said "the phrase was mistakenly posted to our web site and immediately removed when brought to our attention."

It does not appear that the wording was intentionally used in order to attract customers who would not like to read the word "Israel" when booking a holiday, as Israel can clearly be seen in the list of destinations as well.

The Palestinian territories have no operational airport. The Yassir Arafat International Airport outside Gaza City, which opened in 1998, has remained closed since it was destroyed by the Israel Defense Forces in 2001, shortly after the outbreak of the Second Intifada.

But the removal of the incorrect geographical reference didn't stop a prank caller from taping a conversation he had with a Delta sales agent and spreading it over the internet on YouTube.

In the prank call, "Ahmed" tries to buy tickets for a trip to the Occupied Palestinian Territories for himself and his "four wives ranging in age from 13 to 47" from a flustered customer service representative.  Because there are no operational airports in the Palestinian Territories (occupied or not), the only airports the agent can suggest are Tel Aviv and Amman, with funny consequences. Enjoy!

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(A tip of the kippah to Sheila Zucker for pointing us to this story.)

"Verplanck" - First Kosher Comedy Series Debuts on the Internet

They're named Avi, Feishy, Mitch and Yechiel Michel Raphael Menachem (yep, that's his name), and they have big plans to build a new Orthodox Jewish community in Verplanck, an actual city in upstate NY with just a few hundred residents. The town locals have no clue what Orthodox Judaism or these newcomers are about.

That's the story line behind "Verplanck", the new web comedy series that debuted with 3 episodes (4th coming soon) that follow the exploits of four heroes as they embark on a journey to create a new religious Jewish community away from it all. These urban dwellers plan to leave the high-priced, bustling city behind and move to the boonies where they face new challenges with camaraderie, determination and plenty of humor.

The main characters represent a multifaceted group of Orthodox Jews who, in real life, might have little to do with each other. So, they reason, what better way to promote Jewish unity than to build a new community from scratch? This likable core group of characters includes Mitch, who might be labeled as "left-center Orthodox"; Avi, representing the "right-center"; Feishy, the chassid; and Yechiel Michel Raphael Menachem, the yeshivish (hareidi) guy who insists on using all four of his names.

Why the need for a kosher comedy series?

 

Mechel Lieber, one of the creators of "Verplanck," said that when it comes to music or reading, there is much available for an Orthodox audience, but clean, kosher video for teens and adults is almost an untouched medium. "Yes, there are serious challenges when it comes to creating video entertainment," he said. "Nevertheless, the shortage of professional-quality, kosher video has left an enormous segment of the Jewish population turning almost exclusively to non-Jewish sources for entertainment. The results are very detrimental to our nation. Even the ‘best’ things available today from Hollywood don't meet minimum modesty requirements, and mostly promote ideologies at odds with Torah. There is little out there for a Jewish person to watch that's entertaining, with a positive message within Jewish moral guidelines."

Lieber and the rest of his "8Lasoat" [Heb. “Now is the time to act”] production team see the show as a kosher venue for entertainment for Jewish people. The content will always be appropriate. No parental supervision necessary. The show has very specific guidelines which were developed to conform to Jewish Law - regarding dress code and other issues.

 

The show will nibble at serious issues affecting the Jewish world. Its humorous scenes will examine the clashes between the various ideologies within Jewish Orthodoxy, as well as the Orthodox Jew’s inter-relationships with his non-religious brethren and non-Jews. The show can be best categorized as a “dramedy” -- a blend of drama and comedy.

  

Lieber invites viewers to watch the first three episodes (best to view them in order) here bellow or on their website, www.NoKosherMeat.com.

We watched the three episodes and found that while the first two seemed to drag in spots and tested our patience, the third episode touched on some interesting topics and conflicts between the Jewish stereotypes represented and their relationships with the outside community. We're looking forward to the next episodes. Enjoy!

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Responding to a Call to Join a Minyan at 35,000 Feet: A Creative Approach

We just returned from a wonderful three week trip to Israel. Reflecting on the trip, it occurred to us that some of the funniest and memorable aspects took place not at the Western Wall, the Dead Sea, or the Tel Aviv Opera, but on the El Al plane coming and going.

Bargaining with a supervisor to drive the cost of traveling with overweight luggage from a starting quote of $70 to a negotiated $25 surcharge, insisting on (and getting) another seat when our seatmate turned out to be a cat in a wire cage, and elbowing our way past a few spontaneous minyanim (prayer quorums) blocking access to the bathrooms were just part of the local color, as any El Al traveler will confirm.

The insistence of so many men on praying with a minyan is surprising, given the opinions of leading rabbis that it is preferable to pray standing in one's seat or even sitting, lest the minyan interfere with the sleep of other passengers.

Sometimes a group of fewer than ten men will tap a seated passenger to ask them to join the minyan, which may or may not be a welcome gesture, depending on whether the tapped passenger wants to participate or not, or just wants to sleep.  Here's a photo of a sleeping passenger who found a creative way to send a message to a potential tapper. It says in Yiddish: Ich hob shoin gedavent (I davened already.)

Comedy Showcase: Joel Chasnoff on Foreign Languages

We've featured stand-up comic Joel Chasnoff a few times on Jewish Humor Central. Most of his routines are about Jewish holidays and funny aspects of yeshiva education and Jewish camps. Here's something a little different as Joel carries on about foreign languages, mainly Dutch and Chinese.

Joel Chasnoff is not your grandfather’s Jewish comedian. With humor that’s clever, sharp, and never degrading, Joel’s comedy is a one hundred-eighty-degree turn from the Borscht Belt comics of old. Audiences across the spectrum, from students at College of the Holy Cross to U.S. Marines stationed at Okinawa to the rebbes of Lubavitch Yeshivah Flatbush find Joel’s comedy smart, witty, and—most importantly—hilarious.

A native of Evanston, Illinois, Joel made his stage debut at age 10, when he played the King of Siam in the Solomon Schechter day school Hebrew version of The King and I. Nine years later, Joel tried stand-up for the first time when he performed a thirty-minute set at Smokey Joe’s on the University of Pennsylvania campus. The next two summers, Joel was as an on-field performer with the Philadelphia Phillies in a fruitless attempt to entertain 40,000 of the world’s heaviest drinking sports fans. 

After graduating from Penn, Joel served as a tank gunner in the Israel Defense Forces. Joel’s memoir, The 188th Armored Brigade, is a brash and gritty depiction of his year in combat that Kirkus Reviews calls “Horrifyingly hilarious.” 

Joel’s comedy is a smart mix of personal anecdotes and keen observational humor, centered around the theme of the absurdity of modern American life. When he’s not on tour, Joel teaches stand-up comedy at the 92nd Street Y in Manhattan.

Enjoy!

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Test Your Knowledge of Jewish Humor - A Multiple Choice Quiz

Jews have long used humor as a tool for self-ridicule, fighting anti-Semitism, and even passing down traditions. And in the past few decades Jewish humor has become significant in mainstream popular culture. How much do you know about Jewish humor? 

My Jewish Learning, a website launched in 2003 to bring Jewish education to people of all backgounds, has published a ten-question quiz for readers to assess their knowledge of Jewish humor.

It's a fun exercise, one that we recommend to take a nostalgic look at the origins of Jewish humor and some of its most notable practitioners.

The multiple choice questions range from humor in the shtetl to identifying the names of the Marx Brothers and the Three Stooges. If you take the quiz multiple times, you may find that the questions are somewhat different and so is their order. 

We had fun and were able to reflect on the wide range of Jewish humor that has brought us so much enjoyment over the years. We recommend that you immerse yourself in this nostalgic exercise once or a few times and see what score you come up with.  Then try it out on your family and friends. Just click on the link below and enjoy!

JEWISH HUMOR QUIZ

(A tip of the kippah to Sheila Zucker for bringing this quiz to our attention.)

Zaidy Battles the World Wide Web

Rabbi Ben Czeladnicki, a talmud teacher at Manhattan Day School, has been been blogging as The Wondering Jew, posting videos and observations that are often funny, but viewed through the lens of the Torah. (OK, some of them are just funny.)

Most of the posts are about the weekly Torah portion, explanations of some of the Jewish holidays and fasts, observations on Jewish life, and comments on events in the news.

Ben's latest post is a funny look at what would happen if Zaidy (or any other relative or friend of yours who is taking a first turn at the internet and world wide web) sat down with a laptop and a web connection.

Every situation encountered by accomplished web surfers is included in newbie Zayde's first session, from "How do I turn this thing on?" to "How do I turn this thing off?" with all the steps along the way, including You are the one millionth person visiting this site, All I have to do is send money to Kenya, Facebook - Why do I care what Hymie Goldsmith ate for breakfast, and more. Ultimately, he finds his own website and registers.  Enjoy!

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Jewish Traces in Unexpected Places: Mincha and Shabtai Zvi in Turkey

Continuing our series of Jewish observance and culture in countries where it's least expected, the Forward's Yiddish language reporter, Itzik Gottesman, narrates a travelogue of a family vacation in Turkey. The narration is in Yiddish, with full English subtitles.

The trip includes Istanbul and Izmir, where they encounter Sephardic Jews looking for a minyan in an abandoned Ashkenazi Synagogue. Gottesman joins the minyan and gets a tour of a few Sephardic synagogues, guided by the Ladino-speaking gabbai.

Afterward, they look for and find the home of Shabtai Zvi, the false messiah who later converted to Islam to the great disappointment of his followers. The bottom line: Turkey is a great place to visit, and they had no fear of being Jews in a Muslim country.  Enjoy!

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Life Blossoms and Love Blooms: A Valentine's Day Special

Yes, you read it right. Valentine's Day on Jewish Humor Central. It's coming Tuesday, February 14, and it will be celebrated around the world with greeting cards, romantic gifts, and chocolates. 

There always have been mixed feelings in the Jewish world about celebrating this day which originally was named in honor of Valentine, a Christian saint. And today, you can find opinions from rabbis of all Jewish denominations that approve and disapprove of its observance.

We did some searching and found that despite some views that the holiday is foreign to Judaism and should be avoided, there are a growing number of opinions, even in the Orthodox world, that not only should the holiday be observed, but that it should be embraced.

Our contribution to Valentine's Day is a funny and heartwarming video that we received from the Los Angeles Jewish Home, called Life Blossoms and Love Blooms. That's the same Jewish Home that gave us one of our most popular Chanukah videos last year.

Featuring current residents, the 3 minute video delves into the stories of how two couples met and fell in love while living at the Jewish Home. They talk about everything from afternoon bingo games to their sex lives.

As the video plays, one thing is for certain: it’s good to be a senior in love.

As Rabbi Benjamin Blech, professsor of Talmud at Yeshiva University, has written about Valentine's Day on the aish.com website, 

As Jews, we may not be sure whether it's proper for us to join the party. After all, for the longest time the full name of this holiday was “St. Valentine's Day” because of its legendary link with the apocryphal story of one of the earliest Christian saints. Yet academics aren't the only ones who have recognized the dubious historical basis of this connection. Vatican II, the landmark set of reforms adopted by the Catholic Church in 1969, removed Valentine's Day from the Catholic church's calendar, asserting that "though the memorial of St. Valentine is ancient… apart from his name nothing is known… except that he was buried on the Via Flaminia on 14 February."

What's left for this day, as proponents of its universal celebration declare, is something that people of all faiths may in good conscience observe: A day in which to acknowledge the power of love to make us fully human.

When I am asked as a rabbi if I think it's a good idea for Jews to celebrate Valentine's Day, my standard answer is, "Yes, we should celebrate love… every day of the year."

Enjoy!

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Santa Claus Plays Hava Nagila on the Violin

If you happened to be in Honolulu, Hawaii last December and thought you heard a familiar tune coming out of Santa Claus' violin, you were right.

We don't know his name or what prompted this street Santa to play Hava Nagila on his violin on a hot December day in Hawaii, but it's just another example of how Hava Nagila has become popular not just with Jews, but in almost every location on the planet. Enjoy and Shabbat Shalom.

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It's a Bobover Wedding - Time to Dance!

What do Bobover Hasidim do for fun? They have lots of weddings and get caught up in the spirit of singing and dancing, especially when the bride is the daughter of the rebbe himself.

Only yesterday, on Tu BiShevat, the daughter of the Bobover rebbe got married in Boro Park, and thanks to the ubiquity of the miniature camera, video clips of the event made their way through the internet and onto YouTube. We didn't make the guest list, but watching the videos made us feel like the proverbial fly on the wall, taking part in the general simcha, and then all 11 minutes of the rebbe dancing with his daughter. 

The first clip shows the enormous crowd getting caught up in the simcha. Then comes the 11 minute Mitzvah Tantz.

For the first six minutes, the bride stands motionless while the rebbe dances forward and back, holding the long ribbon. After seven minutes, the rebbe drops the ribbon and starts to dance in a circle around his daughter, while she starts to rotate ever so slowly, keeping pace with him. After another minute or so, she leaves the scene, taking a place at the end of the arena as the rebbe continues his back and forth dance, this time joined by another dancer, most likely the bridegroom. Mazal tov!

(A SPECIAL NOTE FOR NEW EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS:  THE VIDEO MAY NOT BE VIEWABLE DIRECTLY FROM THE EMAIL THAT YOU GET EACH DAY ON SOME COMPUTERS AND TABLETS.  YOU MUST CLICK ON THE TITLE AT THE TOP OF THE EMAIL TO REACH THE JEWISH HUMOR CENTRAL WEBSITE, FROM WHICH YOU CLICK ON THE PLAY BUTTON IN THE VIDEO IMAGE TO START THE VIDEO.)

 

Today Is Tu B'Shvat - A Day To Celebrate Trees And Enjoy Their Fruits

Today is the 15th day of the Hebrew month of Shvat, also known as Tu B'Shvat.  No, it's not another fast day.  It's a real holiday, but one without any restrictions.  The holiday is known as Jewish Arbor Day and the New Year for trees.  It's a day to feel good about the bounty of nature, including trees, fruits and nuts.

On Tu B'Shvat we make an exception to our policy of posting an original item each day and we're repeating this post every year. We think this post says it all and we want all of our new subscribers to see it. In the last year the number of subscribers has almost tripled, from 800 to close to 2,200 today, so we're reaching a new audience.

It is customary to eat fruits on this day, especially fruits from Israel.  This includes figs, dates, oranges, pomegranates, and persimmons or Sharon fruit (afarsimonim).  All are available at most supermarkets or gourmet groceries.

Trees have been very important to Israel from its earliest beginnings.  From the tree of knowledge of good and evil described in Genesis to the eucalyptus trees planted in the Huleh Valley to drain the swamps and make much of the land inhabitable early in the 20th century, trees have always been part of Jewish life.

Yaakov Kirschen, the political cartoonist whose daily Dry Bones comic strips have appeared in The Jerusalem Post since January 1973, is using his talents to highlight the value of trees to everyone, and especially to the Jewish people, throughout the millennia.

In addition to his cartoons, which are also published in his daily blog, Kirschen has written a book in comic book format, Trees...The Green Testament, that illustrates the history of the world as narrated by a tree.  The tree, from its days as a seed and a sapling, observes and comments on world events from its own perspective.

The book is out of print, but new and used copies are available through online booksellers including Amazon.com.  It's really worth finding and reading.

Tu B'Shvat is a time for singing, feasting, and rejoicing.  So here's a video tribute to this least known but very happy holiday.  Enjoy!

 

(A SPECIAL NOTE FOR NEW EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS:  THE VIDEO MAY NOT BE VIEWABLE DIRECTLY FROM THE EMAIL THAT YOU GET EACH DAY ON SOME COMPUTERS AND TABLETS.  YOU MUST CLICK ON THE TITLE AT THE TOP OF THE EMAIL TO REACH THE JEWISH HUMOR CENTRAL WEBSITE, FROM WHICH YOU CLICK ON THE PLAY BUTTON IN THE VIDEO IMAGE TO START THE VIDEO.)

 

Funny Israeli Commercial Causes Friction Between Samsung and Iran

Israel's newspaper Haaretz reported this week that Iran is mulling a partial ban of products manufactured by South Korean electronics giant Samsung over an Israeli commercial promoting one of the firm's products which depicts the imagined destruction of Iran's nuclear facility in Isfahan by Mossad operatives.

In the commercial for the cable TV company HOT, three characters from the popular show Asfur arrive disguised as women near the nuclear facility, where they meet a bored Mossad agent passing the time by watching the show on his Samsung tablet.

The Mossad man then shows the various features of the tablet to the characters, when one of the "visiting" Israelis accidently pushes a button which causes the nuclear plant in the background to explode. 

To this, the character said: "What? Another mysterious explosion in Iran," a quip referring to a series of explosions in Iran targeting the countries military facilities which have been attributed in the foreign media to covert Israeli attempts to target Iran's nuclear program.

On Thursday, a top Iranian lawmaker said Iran's parliament was considering to cut the country's trade ties with the country, over what he said was an "insulting" commercial, over the depiction of Iran as a "primitive society" and of insinuating that Israel was "powerful enough to easily destroy Iran's nuclear facilities or assassinate the country's nuclear scientists." 

The commercial is in Hebrew, but the clip we reproduce below has English subtitles and in the first 50 seconds of the video a few terms are introduced that will help to make the commercial more understandable. Enjoy!

(A SPECIAL NOTE FOR NEW EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS:  THE VIDEO MAY NOT BE VIEWABLE DIRECTLY FROM THE EMAIL THAT YOU GET EACH DAY ON SOME COMPUTERS AND TABLETS.  YOU MUST CLICK ON THE TITLE AT THE TOP OF THE EMAIL TO REACH THE JEWISH HUMOR CENTRAL WEBSITE, FROM WHICH YOU CLICK ON THE PLAY BUTTON IN THE VIDEO IMAGE TO START THE VIDEO.)