Hunting For the Best Hummus in the World

When it comes to finding the best hummus in the world (and it's pronounced khoom-moos, not hum-muss) there's no place like Israel to search for it. 

The Lebanese may differ, because Lebanon and Israel have been locked in a hummus competition for years, but Jonathan Elkhoury, a Lebanese Christian living in Israel, claims to have found the very best in a small restaurant in the old city of Akko (also known as Acre) in Northern Israel.

Akko, a fishing town, is home to Jews, Muslims, Christians, Bahai, Druse, and others. Jonathan found what he calls the best hummus in Suhila's Restaurant in Akko.

Let's join Jonathan for a quick tour of Akko, and a visit to Suhila's for some hummus. Maybe it is the best, but we've been to Israel many times, and to our taste, the best hummus anywhere is not in the Middle East or any of the commercial brands now sold in supermarkets everywhere, but in a small kosher market in Bergenfield, New Jersey called Grand & Essex. It's a very chunky homemade variety that outperforms them all.

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Enjoy!

A Joke to Start the Week - "The Piano, the Frog, and the Parakeet"

It's Monday again, so we went searching for another joke to start the week. This time we had to go back a few years to find one that we hadn't run before. This one is told by Steven Levy of the Mount Freedom Jewish Center in New Jersey.

Here's the setup: A guy came into this bar late at night. He goes up to the bartender and says: "If I can show you something that you've never seen before, will you give me a scotch?" And then...

Enjoy!

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Remembering Mary Tyler Moore's Hebrew Lesson on Shalom Sesame

Mary Tyler Moore, the actress who died last Wednesday, wasn't Jewish. But she marrried Dr. Robert Levine in a ceremony performed by a rabbi at the Pierre Hotel, a marriage that lasted 33 years.

One of the episodes of The Dick Van Dyke Show, where she starred as Van Dyke's TV wife, centered around a Bar Mitzvah. Titled Buddy Sorrell, Man and Boy, it featured comedian Morey Amsterdam as a man who, deprived of a Bar Mitzvah as a boy, secretly studied with a rabbi to give his mother some belated nachas.

Moore made an appearance on the very first episode of Shalom Sesame, where she got a Hebrew lesson from a girl named Maya.

Enjoy!

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Jewish Traces in Unexpected Places: Shalom Aleichem in Tbilisi, Georgia

This week we welcome Shabbat with a version of Shalom Aleichem from Georgia. No, not the home of Jimmy Carter or the Atlanta Falcons. 

We're talking about the country that was formerly part of the Soviet Union and is bounded to the west by the Black Sea, to the north by Russia, to the south by Turkey and Armenia, and to the southeast by Azerbaijan. 

Georgia and Israel have had diplomatic, commercial and cultural ties for 25 years. Georgia has an embassy in Tel Aviv and Israel has an embassy in Tbilisi. There are 120,000 Georgian Jews living in Israel, as well as 13,000 in Georgia.

Cultural exchanges are coordinated through the Israel-Georgia Chamber of Business. Last month a concert at Israeli House in Tbilisi included Georgian singer Kristi Japaridze singing Shalom Aleichem. 

Enjoy and Shabbat shalom!

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Throwback Thursday Comedy Special: The 2000 Year Old Man Meets Jay Leno

In 1997 Carl Reiner and Mel Brooks published a book and CD titled The 2000 Year Old Man in the Year 2000. The 2000 Year Old Man skit was originally created in 1961 at Brooks' beachfront house in Fire Island. 

Brooks had just undergone surgery for gout. Because of his post-surgical discomfort, Brooks quipped, "I feel like a 2000-year-old man," which led Reiner to begin questioning him about what it's like to be a 2000-year-old man and to describe history as Brooks saw it.

To promote the book and CD, the duo made an appearance on Jay Leno's Tonight Show. They performed an updated version of the skit and then went on to explain how they got the famous campfire flatulence scene in Blazing Saddles past the censors.

Enjoy!

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#Throwback Thursday  #TBT

Prankster Meir Kay Goes on a Hugging Spree in New York City

As we surf the web looking for funny videos to post here, we come across some very talented funny people who delight in creating interesting and humorous situations to provide entertainment and reasons to laugh. 

Because this is Jewish Humor Central, we try to find ones that have some kind of Jewish connection. Sometimes they're obvious, and sometime they're a bit of a stretch.

Meir Kalmanson has been posting funny Jewish videos on YouTube under the name Meir Kay. An Orthodox Jewish filmmaker from Brooklyn, his aim is to spread "happiness and positivity."
We've already featured five of his videos in April 2015 on the Evolution of Chassidic Dance, High Fiving Strangers in New York, Dancing Behind People in Jerusalem, How to Lift the Torah Like a Boss, and Looking for a Leader in the Park.

 In this video, Meir dresses himself completely in bubble wrap and invites strangers to give him a big hug.

Enjoy! 

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The Great Jewish Comedians: Stanley Myron Handleman on Writing Books and Getting Girls

Stanley Myron Handelman (1929 – 2007) was an American stand-up comedian who, during a ten-year period between 1965 and 1975, appeared on numerous television variety shows.

The Brooklyn-born Handelman was a late 1960s fixture on programs such as The Merv Griffin Show, Dean Martin Presents the Golddiggers, The Barbara McNair Show, The Flip Wilson Show, The Ed Sullivan Show and The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.

His stooped, resigned appearance and surreal sense of humor ("I just got up from a sick bed. I don't know what's wrong with it—it just lies there") made him a highly-recognizable celebrity on the talk show circuit and resulted in about ten appearances on Johnny Carson. After the demise of the TV variety shows, he accepted a handful of acting roles and subsequently taught in Los Angeles the art of stand-up comedy.

Here's a sample of Handleman performing on The Flip Wilson show. Enjoy!

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A Joke to Start the Week - "A Lending Agreement"

 

Today we have another joke for you from Israel and our newest joke teller, Max Nathans. Max was born in Holland and since 1969 has been living in kibbutz Matzuva in northern Israel.

As a kibbutz member he filled all sorts of jobs, and worked most of the time as a certified electrician.

Now retired, he is busy with various things and works as a volunteer in a center for people with special needs.

Here's the setup: Sam opened a flower shop not very far from Central Park. The shop was flourishing. And then...

Enjoy!

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YidLife Crisis Visits Toronto's Kensington Market - Part 1

Our favorite Yiddish speaking comedians are at it again. They're based in Montreal, but they just returned from a trip to Toronto to report on one of the Canadian city's most iconic and storied neighborhoods, Kensington Market. 

Rabbis meet Rastafarians as YidLife Crisis' Eli Batalion & Jamie Elman explore the place where many Jewish immigrants arrived in Canada many years ago.

They latch onto native Torontonian mother and daughter tour guides Joyce and Hannah Wayne to understand the multi-generational aspect of the market and how it became a cultural hub for many immigrant communities.

Enjoy!

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Asking God's Blessings as America Inaugurates a New President

Today at 12 noon Donald Trump will take the oath of office as America's 45th president. It's an occasion that all Americans should celebrate. The peaceful transfer of power from one administration to another is a hallmark of American democracy, one that should be respected by all, regardless of political differences and voting history.

Coming on erev Shabbat, it's a reminder that in most synagogues a prayer is recited for the welfare of the president, vice-president, and all officers of the country. On November 9, the day after the election, Rabbi Tuly Weisz, speaking at an event at the Ramat Rachel Hotel in Jerusalem, said the prayer for the new president-elect and vice-president and all new office holders.

This Shabbat will be the first opportunity to say this prayer for the new administration. 

This weekend is also the time for patriotic music, so we're sharing our favorite versions of our national anthems, including The Star Spangled Banner, God Bless America (sung by its creator, Irving Berlin), America the Beautiful, and the latest American anthem, Lee Greenwood's God Bless the USA.

Enjoy!

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Prayer for the Government



The Star Spangled Banner sung by Hazamir




God Bless America sung by Irving Berlin



America the Beautiful sung by Willie Nelson




God Bless the USA sung by Lee Greenwood

Throwback Thursday Comedy Special: Jerry Lewis Air Typing Leroy Anderson's "The Typewriter"

The Typewriter is a novelty instrumental piece written by Leroy Anderson in 1950, and first performed by the Boston Pops.

Its name refers to the fact that its performance requires a typewriter, which is used on stage: keystrokes, the typewriter bell, and the carriage return mechanism provide a major component of the piece, although Anderson demonstrated that a musical gourd could be used instead of a carriage return. 

The typewriter is modified so that only two keys work; although many listeners have suspected that stenographers are enlisted to "play" the typewriter, Anderson reported that only professional drummers have sufficient wrist flexibility.

It has been called one of "the wittiest and most clever pieces in the orchestral repertoire".

The piece was featured in the Jerry Lewis film Who's Minding the Store (1963). Lewis didn't have to worry about keys, bell, or carriage return. He typed the whole piece in the air.

Enjoy!

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#Throwback Thursday #TBT

Prankster Meir Kay: Looking for a Leader in the Park

We've latched onto the blog postings of Meir Kalmanson (aka Meir Kay) as our favorite prankster and we've been following his online antics as he gets strangers in public places to play along with the fun.

In today's shtick he hands a box to random people in the park saying that inside the box is a photograph of a leader from the past century and asking them to guess who it might be. Then they're asked what the qualities of a leader should be.

Their answers are interesting and their reactions upon discovering who the leader is are fun to watch. 

Enjoy!
 
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The Great Jewish Comedians: Tom Lehrer, Master of Song Parodies

Tom Lehrer, now 88 years old, is a retired American singer-songwriter, satirist, pianist, and mathematician. He has lectured on mathematics and musical theater. He is best known for the pithy, humorous songs he recorded in the 1950s and '60s.

His work often parodies popular song forms, though he usually creates original melodies when doing so. A notable exception is "The Elements", where he sets the names of the chemical elements to the tune of the Major-General's song from Gilbert and Sullivan's Pirates of Penzance. 

Lehrer's early work typically dealt with non-topical subject matter and was noted for its black humor in songs such as Poisoning Pigeons in the Park. In the 1960s, he produced a number of songs dealing with social and political issues of the day, particularly when he wrote for the U.S. version of the television show That Was the Week That Was. 

In the early 1970s, he mostly retired from public performances to devote his time to teaching mathematics and music theatre at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

In 1934, the National Conference for Christians and Jews came up with the idea of celebrating National Brotherhood Week during the third week of February. But it only lasted through the 1980s. One of Lehrer's most popular, clever, and biting satire pieces was National Brotherhood Week, written in 1965, when the annual week of putting aside hatred and distrust of the other was celebrated.

Enjoy!

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A Joke to Start the Week - "A Rare Breed of Cattle"

It's another Monday and it's time for another in our Joke to Start the Week series. Today we're introducing a new joke teller -- Steve Wilson, a psychologist with the title of Cheerman of the Bored of the Laughter Arts and Sciences Foundation.

The foundation is a philanthropic organization, established in 2003 to support educational, scientific, and general awareness projects that promote the understanding and application of healthy laughter.

We met Steve at one of our performances in Daytona Beach, Florida last year, and shortly afterward we received an endorsement from the foundation.

Here's the setup for today's joke: Joel Schwartz is an insurance salesman from Boston and he goes to a conference in Dallas. And then...

Enjoy!

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Musical Showcase: Meet Gefilte Drive, Russian Israeli Band Singing Tumbalalaika

 
In 2012 we started following the Yiddish folk love song Tumbalalaika from its origins in Eastern Europe in the 19th century, to its migration to just about everywhere in the world, in vocal and instrumental versions, in cabarets and in the movies.

We've also been showcasing new  Jewish musical groups that are new on the scene and make music that we like a lot.

Today's post lets us continue both of these traditions. This week we came across an Israeli musical group called Gefilte Drive that blends the rhythms of folk and popular Israeli music as well as klezmer and kosher rock'n'roll.

In this video they perform a unique interpretation of Tumbalalalaika that's filled with energy and visuals from all over Israel. You won't recognize the melody but the lyrics are the traditional Yiddish ones.

Enjoy!

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Adon Olam Around the World: Johannesburg Jewish Male Choir Sings Adon Olam Medley

Regular fans of Jewish Humor Central know that Monday is set aside for a Joke to Start the Week and Thursday is Throwback Thursday for comedy nostalgia.

We're trying to keep a few days each week available for surprises, the Greatest Jewish Comedians, and whatever we find funny or nachas producing. But we're reserving Fridays as best we can for something musical or funny to ease us into welcoming Shabbat. 

Today we're sharing another version of Adon Olam, the concluding hymn of most Shabbat services. Since we started blogging we've posted 22 versions of the song performed around the world. We don't usually find it as a featured concert piece, but you never know what selections will appear on concert programs.

The Jewish Male Choir of Johannesburg, South Africa sang a medley of multiple versions of Adon Olam with 24 singers and a five piece musical ensemble backing up Cantor Steven Leas, Professor Russel Lurie, Cantor Chilly Chrysler, and Cantor Ezra Sher.

Enjoy, and Shabbat shalom!

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Throwback Thursday Comedy Special: Mel Brooks Impersonates Bogart, Cagney, Sinatra on Dick Cavett Show

Mel Brooks is famous for producing, directing, acting, and doing stand-up comedy, but we don't usually think of him as a singer or impersonator.

Back in 1970 Mel appeared on The Dick Cavett Show doing impressions of Humphrey Bogart, James Cagney, and Frank Sinatra. The Sinatra bit was an impersonation of Frank singing America the Beautiful.

So let's set the clock back 47 years to see Mel in his younger days doing a few celebrity impressions.

Enjoy!

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#Throwback Thursday, #TBT

Another Long-Lost Song Parody by Allan Sherman - "When You Walk Through the Bronx"

Three years ago we reported on the discovery of a long-lost collection of parody songs by Allan Sherman, but we only posted a few of them.

We think it's about time to share some more of these songs. They are clever, corny, but funny nevertheless. They made us chuckle and we hope that you'll enjoy them too.

Like any parody songs, they are funnier if you are familiar with the original song on which the parody is based. To Sherman, nothing was sacred, even the serious songs in Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals.

One of the show stoppers in Carousel was the song You'll Never Walk Alone. Sherman's comedic genius relocated the song to the Bronx, a borough of New York that is often the butt of jokes. In this parody, Sherman puts new words to the melody to guide a friend to his home in the Bronx.

Just in case you've forgotten the original, scroll down to find a version from a 1994 revival of the classic Broadway musical.

Enjoy!

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