Funny Flashback - Don Rickles Surprises Frank Sinatra on Johnny Carson Show

Here's another in our series of flashbacks to special moments in television comedy. Don Rickles was a frequent guest on the Johnny Carson late night TV show. One night in November 1976, Johnny's guest was Frank Sinatra. 

In the middle of their conversation, Don Rickles struts in and quickly takes over, making Carson and Sinatra crack up with laughter. 

With heavy use of Italian dialect and references to organized crime, Rickles has the audience in his hands. He looks around and sees Sinatra, Carson, and Ed McMahon. He says "I'm a Jew, you're an Italian, here's a what? and here's a great Irishman. This is America."

Sinatra finishes up with a funny story about how Rickles exploited their personal connection in a restaurant encounter.

Enjoy!

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Mel Brooks, at Sid Caesar Salute, Tells of His Revenge Stunt at Columbia Pictures

A couple of weeks ago, Mel Brooks, Carl Reiner, and Billy Crystal sat on the stage of the Paley Center for Media in Los Angeles to salute Sid Caesar. 

For an hour and a half they reminisced and told one hilarious story after another recounting personal experiences they had with the master of comedy who died in February.

In this segment posted by the Paley Center, Mel Brooks tells about an incident at Columbia Pictures, where he was employed as a $1000 a week writer, and where he was trying to convince Caesar to make a move from television to motion pictures. 

The story Brooks tells is how he got revenge at the Columbia Pictures executives when they fired a colleague of his by simply removing his nameplate from his office door. How did Brooks get back at them? Watch and laugh along with us.

Enjoy!

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(A tip of the kippah to Esther Kustanowitz for bringing the live streamed event to our attention.)

A Classic Revisited: Billy Crystal, Jerry Seinfeld, and Jimmy Fallon as the "Who's On First" Team

We're all familiar with the original "Who's on First" skit made famous by Abbott and Costello. Last month we posted a remake of it featuring Buddy Hackett and Harvey Korman. 

We don't know how many other versions are floating around the Internet, but we were glad to find a version we hadn't seen before with Billy Crystal, Jerry Seinfeld, and Jimmy Fallon. 

In this version, the players with the names "Who," "What," and "I Don't Know" make personal appearances as their names are mentioned. The audience at Fallon's Late Night program was roaring with laughter and we hope you will, too.

Enjoy!

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A Joke to Start the Week - "Would You Ever Marry Again?"

Today our joke to start the week comes from the same source that we've used for the past few weeks -- the Camp Hazak program for adults that took place at the Hudson Valley Resort in Kerhonkson, New York a few weeks ago.

There must be something about the mountain air in the Catskills that brings the jokes out in Jews who are vacationing there. Maybe it's the legacy of the many stand-up comedians who worked the playhouses, nightclubs, and casinos of the great hotels (and the not-so-great hotels also) that are now mostly gone.

Our jokester today is Irwin Kahn, a retired teacher who has appeared before on Jewish Humor Central. Here's the setup: This wonderful Jewish couple is married for 37 years and the wife says "We've had a wonderful marriage...true love that can never fade. But...I want to ask you a question. Should I pass away before you, would you ever marry again?" And then...

Enjoy!

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Comedy Classic: Rodney Dangerfield at His Best in 1978

Rodney Dangerfield (1921-2004) was a fixture on the standup comedy circuit during the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. His appearances on the Ed Sullivan Show, the Dean Martin Show and all the late night shows solidified his place in the world of comedy.

Born Jacob Rodney Cohen on Long Island, Dangerfield (he took the name from a character in a skit on the Jack Benny Show) had a career that went beyond standup comedy to the movies and to his own comedy club, Dangerfield's, in Manhattan.

We found a video clip of Dangerfield at the peak of his popularity in 1978. In five minutes, he fires off a barrage of one-liners to the delight of the audience.

Enjoy!

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Robot Enlisted to Write Torah Scrolls, But Are They Kosher?

Now we've seen everything. Robots are routinely used in medicine and in manufacturing, but for writing a Torah scroll? That's the latest application that robots have been enlisted for.

As Steve Lipman wrote in The Jewish Week,

While the exhibition closes Aug. 3, the robot, reprogrammed with the help of an Israeli graphic designer, will be on display the rest of the year. The robot writes the sefer Torah exactingly slowly, from right to left, 10 hours a day.

A human scribe takes a year or more to complete a scroll.

“While the Sofer [Torah scribe] guarantees the sanctity of the Scripture, the installation highlights its industrial reproducibility,” the website of the Jewish Museum (jmberlin.de) states.

The finished product of the robot, fashioned by a writing arm attached to a small nib, will not be kosher according to traditional Jewish law; it will not be acceptable for use in a synagogue, since it is not being penned by a human hand, and is on a 260-foot-long roll of paper, not on parchment.

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Oldie But Goodie: Woody Allen and William F. Buckley Jr. Square Off on Woody's TV Show

The year was 1967, and comedian Woody Allen and conservative intellectual William F. Buckley Jr. both had interview shows on TV. 

Allen invited Buckley to be his guest and Buckley accepted. The result was a funny exchange between a brilliant liberal comedian and a brilliant conservative thinker.

In the video below, Allen and Buckley share the stage while members of the studio audience ask them questions. Their responses are thoughtful, funny, witty, and surprisingly relevant to our world 47 years later.

The topics they touch on include wars between Israel and the Arabs, presidential politics, conservatism vs. liberalism, and the length of miniskirts. It's refreshing to look back to a day when political opponents could be friendly, respectful, and charming. 

Enjoy!

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Andrew Klavan's One State Solution for the Middle East (Pssst....it's satire)

A few years ago we came across Andrew Klavan's funny satiric piece on how to achieve peace in the Middle East but were reluctant to repost it because we generally don't run political humor videos.

But considering what's happening now in and around Israel, we just couldn't resist bringing this video to the attention of our readers, those who have already seen it and many more who we suspect will be viewing it for the first time. It's been hard to find anything funny or humorous about the current situation in Israel, but we think this one is really on target.

For those of you who are old enough to remember listening to the morning radio program Klavan and Finch on WNEW-1130AM in New York from 1952 to 1968, Andrew Klavan is the son of the show's co-host, Gene Klavan. He was born Jewish, but became an agnostic after his Bar Mitzvah and later converted to Christianity.

Andrew is a novelist who writes mysteries and psychological thrillers, and also posts biting satire in his blog Klavan on the Culture, featureed by PJ Media. This video is one of his best. And remember, it's only satire (or is it?)

Enjoy!

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Est Gezunterheit - The Forward's Yiddish Chefs Make Homemade Noodles With Cottage Cheese

Our favorite Yiddish chefs, Rukhl Schaechter and Eve Yochnowitz from the Jewish Daily Forward are back with their two recipes for homemade noodles with cottage cheese, one with fried onions and one without.

We've been publishing most of their videos featuring Yiddish-flecked banter while they cook traditional dishes.

Since their Est Gezunterheit series started four years ago, we've published 21 of their recipes and mini-glossaries of funny-sounding Yiddish words connected to the recipes. (Look for Est Gezunterheit in the Keywords list in the left column to catch up on any that you've missed.)

Here are some of the Yiddish words that we picked up during this episode:

Leffel = tablespoon
Leffeleh = teaspoon
Grate = ready
Gringer = easier
Bashits = sprinkle
Katchets ois = roll out
Loksh = noodle
Zeedendick = boiling
Tzeekleiben = sticking
Tsforech = cottage cheese
Smeteneh = sour cream

Enjoy!

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A Joke to Start the Week - A Centipede Goes to Shul

It's another Monday, and time for another Joke to Start the Week.

Today's jokester is Alan Sharkis, a 74-year-old retired teacher whom we met a few weeks ago at the annual Camp Hazak week in the Catskills.

The camp, which was held at the newly refurbished Hudson Valley Resort in Kerhonkson, New York (formerly The Granit), attracted about 140 seniors, mostly from Hazak groups at Conservative synagogues from up and down the east coast.

Here's the setup: Shloimie walks into a pet shop and he's looking for something unusual. And he tells the man behind the counter "I don't want a dog, I don't want a cat. I'm looking for something unusual." The pet shop owner says "I have just the right thing for you." And then...

Enjoy!

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"Stand With Us" Collects Photos Showing Worldwide Support for Israel

StandWithUs is an international, non-profit organization dedicated to informing the public about Israel and to combating the extremism and anti-Semitism that often distorts the issues. 

Its core belief is that knowledge of the facts will correct common prejudices about the Arab-Israeli conflict, and will promote discussions and policies that can help promote peace in the region. 

Through print materials, speakers, programs, conferences, missions to Israel, campaigns, and internet resources, it ensures that the story of Israel's achievements and ongoing challenges is told on campuses and in communities, the media, libraries, and churches around the world. 

Based in Los Angeles, StandWithUs has offices and chapters in Los Angeles, New York, Boston, Davis, Denver, Detroit, Chicago, Seattle, San Diego, San Francisco, Santa Cruz, Canada, France, the UK, Australia, and Israel.

This month the organization asked people to submit photos showing their support for Israel. In just one week it received over 400 photos from countries all over the world, including the United States, Czech Republic, Australia, the United Kingdom, El Salvador, Colombia, Germany, Paraguay, Canada, Nigeria and of course, Israel, just to name a few.

StandWithUs is still soliciting photos like the ones shown above and in the video below. They can be submitted to social@standwithus.com to be featured in its Facebook album.

Am Israel Chai.

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(A tip of the kippah to Judith Berger for bringing the Stand With Us website to our attention.)

Unexpected Traces in Jewish Places: Charlie Daniels Plays Hatikvah in Israel Concert

Despite the constant criticism and bashing from many in the US entertainment industry, it's good to know that Israel does have friends among Country and Western entertainers and in Christian communities.

Charlie Daniels, who you may remember from his big hit Devil Went Down to Georgia, performed Hatikvah and I'll Fly Away at a Feast of Tabernacles event in Ein Gedi during Sukkot last October, sponsored by the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem.

The baseball cap he wore was embroidered with the words Super Dvora MKIII, the name of an Israeli patrol boat, and a picture of the boat.

The Super Dvora MKIII, the latest water jet-powered fast patrol craft, is a successor to the Dabur, Dvora, Shapirit, and Super Dvora Mark-1 and Mark-2 boats manufactured by Israel Aerospace Industries.. The new multi-mission patrol and attack boat was first used by Israeli Navy in 2008.

Enjoy and Shabbat shalom!

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Israeli Kindergarteners Sing and Dance to Cope With Rocket Attacks

Seeking shelter from rocket attacks is nothing new to the children of Sderot, which has been a major target of Hamas since 2000. 

We've been following the news these past few weeks, especially since sirens have been sounding their 15 second warnings beyond Sderot to Ashkelon, Ashdod, and even as far north as Tel Aviv and Herzliya.

How are kindergarten children supposed to behave in such a situation? In previous attacks, studies have shown that 90% of children between the ages of 4-18 show signs of post-traumatic stress syndrome. 

Because the missiles fall daily, the Israeli government developed a warning system called ‘Code Red’ or Tzeva Adom. When a rocket is launched, a voice comes over the loudspeakers throughout the region saying “Tzeva Adom, Tzeva Adom”, “Code Red, Code Red”. At this point people know they have fifteen seconds to seek shelter. Fifteen seconds to stop whatever they are doing and find a place to protect themselves.

In order to help children cope with this constant tension, the Joint Distribution Committee’s Ashalim division, a partnership between JDC, the Israeli Government and the UJA Federation of New York working on behalf of children in Israel, developed a series of therapies, including the Code Red Song. This song, first written in 2010 and posted on YouTube in 2012, teaches the children what to do when the alarm goes off, but also helps them deal with their emotional reactions to the sound and the situation. Sderot teacher and art therapist Shachar Bar is credited for composing the song, which has become very popular on YouTube this week.

The song combines lyrics that allow the children to express their anxiety and fear with hand and body movements that help distract their minds to something more positive.

JDC distributed CDs of this uplifting children’s song to parents and teachers. The song is taught and used in the schools and has quickly become a source of comfort for the children living in the Southern confrontation zone.

The children have learned that song, dance, and laughter can be helpful in coping with a dangerous situation. We hope that they will very soon be able to resume their normal singing, dancing, and laughing to their favorite songs without the warning sirens warbling in the background.

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(A tip of the kippah to Phoebe Weisbrot for bringing this video to our attention.)

A Comedy Classic Flashback: Jack Carter at The Friars Club Back to Brooklyn Night

Jack Carter, now 91 years old, was one of the most prolific stand-up comedians in television history. Born Jack Chakrin in Brooklyn,  he had a long-running comedy act similar to fellow rapid-paced contemporaries, Milton Berle and Morey Amsterdam. 

Twenty-two years ago, Carter was the featured stand-up comic at a special Friars Club Welcome Back to Brooklyn dinner. We found a seven-minute-long video clip of him delivering a series of jokes and a monologue describing life among the condominium dwellers of south Florida. It's classic Carter.

And he's still doing it! Below you'll find a current video clip of Jack Carter that's included in the documentary film When Jews Were Funny.

Enjoy!

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Missing the Old Catskills Hotels on the 17th Day of Tammuz

 

Today is the Seventeenth day of Tammuz, the start of a three week period that ends with the Ninth day of Av (this year, on August 6). During this period Jews worldwide lament the destruction of the Holy Temples in Jerusalem so many years ago.

It's hard for us to feel the sadness and desolation of the destruction because we never personally felt the joy of experiencing the celebrations and rituals that took place in the Temples.

But we have a modern counterpart of sorts that we can relate to by recognizing the desolation that has come to the hundreds of once-regal Catskills hotels that brought pleasure and recreation to American Jews in the 1960s through the 1990s.

Not that we're comparing the hotels to the Temples, but in a sense the hotels were temples of Jewish life in their heydey. Now with the razing of Kutsher's Resort in Monticello, only two hotels are left to  cater to Jewish summertime vacationers.

Here's a nostalgic video made up of postcards showing the facades of many of the older Catskills hotels, some of which you may remember visiting, or at least seeing the directional signs posted at highway exits. The music in the background is the Yiddish song Vus is geven, is geven, un nit do (What was, was, and can never be again.)

 

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A Joke to Start the Week - "Dating Advice"

Another Monday, another Joke to Start the Week. Today we're bringing you the second of a series of jokes that we recorded on site in New York's Catskill Mountains while we were entertaining a group of 150 adults at a Camp Hazak summer retreat.

Today's joke teller is 82-year-old Lenny Sherman, a retired designer for Westinghouse. Here's the background for the joke:

Sarah and Sadie live in the same apartment house. Morris recently moved into the apartment house and asked Sarah for a date. After the date, Sadie knocks on Sarah's door and asks her how it went because Morris has just asked Sadie for a date. So Sarah tells Sadie about the date and then...

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"I Could Be Jewish For You" - From "Songs by Ridiculously Talented Composers"

Not all songs composed for Broadway and off-Broadway find their way into actual shows. Sometimes writers and lyricists write songs that stand on their own without being integrated into full-scale productions.

For the last eight years, the works of Ridiculously Talented Composers and Lyricists You Probably Don't Know but Should have been performed in concerts at 54 Below in New York City.

Originating at Barrington Stage Company (BSC), the Ridiculously Talented concert series has become a hallmark of BSC's Musical Theatre Lab.

Last year's performance included a song titled I Could be Jewish for You with music and lyrics by Nikko Benson and performed by Alysha Umphress. It's easy to visualize a setting for the song, with a non-Jewish girl trying to win the affection of a Jewish boy by promising to adopt just about every Jewish stereotype in the book.

We think it's a bit corny, but cute.

Enjoy!

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Rhode Island Temple Has An All-Broadway Musical Shabbat Service

When you attend a Shabbat service, whether it's Orthodox, Conservative, or Reform, it's likely that the structure, flow, liturgy, and melodies will have a lot in common. 

Sure, some will use more English in the service, some will have instrumental music and use a microphone, and others will chant the traditional melodies a cappella. But the basics will be recognizable to any Jew who attends.

If you happened to walk into the Temple Sinai Friday night service in Cranston, Rhode Island on May 30, you might have thought that you were not in a synagogue but in the middle of a Broadway musical.  Not only one musical, but twelve of them. On that night, which marked the retirement of Cantor Remmie Brown and the debut of Cantor Wendy Siegel, most of the elements of the Friday night service were fitted to the tunes of Broadway shows.

We have a video of the entire hour-long service to share with you, but recognizing that a whole hour is a bit much to watch in one sitting, we've prepared a guide to the service to let you fast forward to a favorite song and see how Shalom Aleichem, Lecha Dodi, and Adon Olam sound under the influence of Andrew Lloyd Webber, Rodgers and Hammerstein, and the Sherman brothers.

Enjoy and Shabbat shalom!

0:00          The Music of the Night (Shabbat) from Phantom of the Opera
6:30           Candle Lighting (Sabbath Prayer from Fiddler on the Roof)
12:00         Lecha Dodi (Edelweiss from The Sound of Music)
15:04         Shalom Aleichem (Close Every Door from Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat)   
19:03         Borchu (Try to Remember from The Fantasticks)
21:20         Ahavat Olam (Send in the Clowns from A Little Night Music)
24:00         Sh'ma (Any Dream Will Do from Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat) 
27:50         Mi Komocho (Summertime from Porgy and Bess)
31:00         Hashkiveinu (Do You Hear the People Sing? from Les Miserables)
34:05         Veshamru (Climb Every Mountain from The Sound of Music)
40:30         Retzeh (Ol' Man River from Showboat)
43:12          Shalom Rav (Shalom from Milk and Honey)
45:44          Yehi Ratzon (Bali Ha'i from South Pacific)
59:17          Adon Olam (Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious from Mary Poppins)    

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"When Jews Were Funny" Documentary Comes to Netflix

After debuting at a few Jewish film festivals, Alan Zweig's documentary on the evolution of Jewish humor, When Jews Were Funny, has come to Netflix as a downloadable "play now" film.

Insightful and often hilarious, the latest from the Canadian documentary filmmaker surveys the history of Jewish comedy, from the early days of Borscht belt to the present, ultimately exploring not just ethnicity in the entertainment industry, but also the entire unruly question of what it means to be Jewish.

The film features interviews with and clips of jokes from some of the most famous Jewish comedians, including Alan King, Rodney Dangerfield, David Steinberg, Shelley Berman, Jackie Mason, Jack Carter, Stewie Stone, and Howie Mandel.

It also includes some of the new younger such as Elon Gold, Modi, and Cory Kahaney.

Here's the film's trailer. You can download and play the entire film instantly at Netflix.com. It's also available at Amazon.com.

Enjoy!

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Dancing in Jerusalem - An Uplifting Video Recalling a Century of Redemptions

Dancing in Jerusalem is one of the most uplifting music videos about Israel that we've seen this year. It was written and performed by Sam Glaser, a composer, performer and interpreter of Jewish music. 

Referred to as one of the top ten Jewish artists in the United States by Moment Magazine, he holds a global fifty-city music tour culminating in Israel every year.

Glaser performs annually to over 100,000 people of all ages at such venues as The Greek Theater, Universal Amphitheatre and Dodger Stadium, and toured cities such as Sydney, London, Hong Kong, and Tel Aviv.

While an Orthodox Jew himself, he holds concerts as well as sings in synagogues of all streams of Judaism, which are Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, and Reconstructionist.

In this video, Glaser describes the various major redemption moments of the past century, including the emigrations from Yemen, Iraq, Morocco, Ethiopia, and the former USSR. The opening line quotes the Ethiopian Crown Prince Ahmad when he finally gave permission for the Jews to leave.

Glaser was born to a Jewish family in Los Angeles, California and started composing and performing at the age of 7. He recorded his first full length album at the age of 11 and composed his first national radio spot at the age of 14. While in Junior High, Glaser was chosen Best Male Vocalist in the LA City School District and was presented the award by conductor Zubin Mehta at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. 

He graduated from the University of Colorado with a B.A. in Business and Minor in Music, and also attended the Berklee College of Music in Boston and the UCLA Film Scoring Program. Glaser currently lives in Los Angeles in the Pico-Robertson neighborhood with his wife Shira and children Max, Jesse and Sarah.

Enjoy!

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

Sid Caesar Classic Comedy From Your Show of Shows: The Clock

We've been running some of Sid Caesar's classic comedy bits from Your Show of Shows and Caesar's Hour, and you've been asking for more. So here it comes.

Some of the funniest skits on Your Show of Shows were standout successes because they were acted out by Sid Caesar, Carl Reiner, Imogene Coca, and Howard Morris. 

One of the funniest classic skits featuring these four is The Clock, which aired in 1953. In the little town of Bauerhof, Bavaria, the people were all proud of their amazing clock. Every hour on the hour, four little figures emerged to strike the hour with a choreographed routine before returning to their stations inside the mechanism.

Every hour, that is, until the clock started to malfunction.  And then...

Enjoy!

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A Joke to Start the Week: A Part in the School Play

It's another Monday, and time for a joke to start the week. Today we're starting a series of jokes that we recorded at the Hudson Valley Resort in the Catskills last week while we were doing two comedy shows for the Hazak Senior Summer Camp.

Whenever we do a lecture or comedy program, some of the attendees are eager to tell their own jokes and we're only too happy to share them with you. If you invite us to give a lecture or comedy program in your community, we'll come equipped with a video camera to record the fun.

Right now we're looking for bookings in Israel in December and in Florida for January and February 2015. If you would like more information, please contact Al at 201-796-9273, or visit www.jewishhumorprograms.com.

Today's jokester is Herbert Aaron, an 85-year-old retired government chemist from Baltimore. Here's the setup: A little boy is in the fifth grade school and he came home all excited. "Mommy, mommy, we're going to do a play in school." And then...

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.) 

Comedy Flashback: David Brenner on Automobile Recalls and Other Observations

Back in March, when comedian David Brenner died at the age of 78, we posted one of his stand-up comedy monologues on Johnny Carson's Tonight Show. That routine has since been removed from YouTube, so we thought we'd share another one of his appearances with you.

As we wrote in March,

According to Wikipedia, Brenner was born to Jewish parents in 1936 and raised in poor areas of South and West Philadelphia. His father, Louis, was a vaudeville comedian, singer and dancer performing under the stage name of Lou Murphy, who gave up his career and a film contract in order to please Brenner's grandfather, a rabbi, who objected to his working on Shabbat.
As David Colker reported in the Los Angeles Times,

In recent years he played casinos in Las Vegas and elsewhere in the country, and he took a light-hearted look at social and political issues on venues as divergent as MSNBC and the Fox News Channel.
One of his most memorable performances was at the Golden Nugget Hotel in Las Vegas on Sept. 11, 2001, the day of the terrorist attacks. Though the room was half-empty, Brenner went on with the show. At the finish he told the audience, according to a 2002 article in the St. Petersburg Times, "I'm supposed to end with a joke. But for the first time in my career, I'm not going to do that. I'm going to end by telling you that I learned tonight that if you can laugh, you can live. And that means we are going to get through this." He got a standing ovation.

In today's post, aired in 1983, Brenner reflected on a recent massive recall of General Motors automobiles, differences beween American and Japanese cars, truck drivers, acupuncture, doctors, and the mating of bald eagles.

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.) 

Two Cantors Sing a Fourth of July Mashup of Hatikvah and America the Beautiful

Today is the Fourth of July, a holiday that we celebrate with Americans of all religions and ethnic groups. 

As the world is riven today by national rivalries, hatreds, and acts of unspeakable cruelty, we can take comfort in the knowledge that the United States of America and Israel share a value system that is truly exceptional.

Last year, Angela Buchwald and Julia Katz, the cantors of New York City's Central Synagogue, added a mashup of Hatikvah and America the Beautiful to a Shabbat service to give voice to the hope and vision that these two countries have shared from their birth.

Have a happy Fourth and enjoy the music. Shabbat shalom.

(A SPECIAL NOTE FOR NEW EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS:  THE VIDEO IS NOT VIEWABLE DIRECTLY FROM THE EMAIL THAT YOU GET EACH DAY.  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.)