JTA's Andrew Silow-Carroll Analyzes the Jewish Guru Joke

There's more to many Jewish jokes than meets the eye. Andrew Silow-Carroll, editor-in-chief of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency has started a series of short YouTube videos in which he walks you through a classic Jewish joke and explains what it's all about.

A few weeks ago we shared a video in which Andrew analyzed the jokes (actually stories) about the Wise Men of Chelm. Here's another one of his analyses, this one about the well worn and often well told joke about the Jewish woman who treks to India to visit a guru on a mountaintop.

We'll bring you more of these analyses of classic Jewish jokes from time to time. We hope there will be more of them soon.

Enjoy!

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A Joke to Start the Week - "Keeping the Faith"

Monday is here again, and we hope you're glad that it means it's joke time at Jewish Humor Central.

We're still laughing from the jokes that we told and heard during the first week of July at the Berkshire Hills Eisenberg Adult Vacation Center in Copake, New York. Once again it brought us back in touch with staff members and vacationers who shared jokes with us last year and who came prepared with a few more for us to share with you.

Here's one by Naomi Goldstein, a senior citizen coordinator from New York who is now retired and living in Florida.

Here's the setup: Becky and her son live in Europe, and her son decides he wants to go to America. Becky is heartbroken, but her son says "Don't worry Mama, I'll write to you all the time."  And then...

Enjoy!

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Sephardim vs. Ashkenazim - Part Two: Food Fight !

More than 2000 years ago Jerusalem was burned and the Temple destroyed. The Jewish People were exiled and lost their unity. In the diaspora, the Jewish People split into two -- the Sephardim and the Ashkenazim.

Although there is more that unites these two communities than divides them, the differences are interesting and sometimes funny. 

Last week we posted the first of two videos that highlight the different way the Sephardim and Ashkenazim express themselves in prayer.

Today we're posting the second video to see how each group reacts to tasting the other's favorite ethnic foods.

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.

Welcoming Shabbat with a Shabbat Medley by FDD Vocal

We like to welcome Shabbat every week with a song from the Shabbat liturgy. A couple of weeks ago we posted a version of Lecha Dodi by FDD Vocal. It was so well liked that we're bringing them back this week to sing a medley of Shabbat songs from Kabbalat Shabbat to after Havdalah.

The FDD Vocal ensemble was established in 2017 and includes five singers who are graduates of the Israel military rabbinate band. They have been a huge success in Israel and around the world.

The vocalists also appear in events and performances as solo artists themselves and sing in a wide variety of languages ​​and musical styles, from authentic Chassidic music to contemporary world music.

Enjoy!

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.

Throwback Thursday Comedy Special: Stewie Stone Reminisces on a Life in Comedy

Stewie Stone is a classic Catskills comedy performer who is still doing his shtick in Florida and wherever Jewish audiences can be found.

Stone is living proof that you can take the kid out of Brooklyn, but you can't take Brooklyn out of the kid. Even his name, Stewie, comes direct from Flatbush. "In Brooklyn," he explains, "we're very big on vowels. We put 'E's at the end of everything -- Hermie, Frankie, Stewie. "

Stone started as a drummer for New York bands, became a midweek entertainer at the Concord Hotel in the Catskills, and worked his way up to being the opening act for Paul Anka, Frankie Avalon, Dionne Warwick, Ben Vereen, Bobby Vinton, Sonny & Cher, and Engelbert Humperdinck in Las Vegas.

Dave Konig and Brent Katz created a short film  'Stewie Stone: In One', based on the life and comedy of Stewie Stone. In the film, Stone reminisces about his life in stand-up comedy.

Enjoy!

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#Throwback Thursday   #TBT

A NOSH-talgic Look at Jewish Food: The Original Seltzer in Glass Bottles from Brooklyn

In the early 1900's thousands of seltzer deliverymen criss-crossed the nation, schlepping heavy glass bottles full of fizzy water to millions of thirsty customers.
 
Today, with only a handful of deliverymen left in the country, the siphon machines at Gomberg Seltzer Works don't turn like they used to. 

Most of the old customers have passed on (or moved to Florida). But there are still bubbles being made by third-generation seltzer filler Kenny Gomberg. And Alex Gomberg, the fourth generation member of the family is giving tours of the factory.

As Marjorie Ingall wrote in Tablet last week after attending a tour with Alex,

In an old-school factory setting of cement floors, cinder block walls, and dusty crates of topless old bottles stacked to the ceiling, Alex told us of the joys of seltzer. “It’s a cleaner, crisper-tasting water because it’s triple filtered,” he said.

The siphon mechanism means the seltzer won’t lose its fizz for months, even years. “A bottle from the supermarket loses pressure the minute you open it,” he says. “It’s flat in days.” And of course, real seltzer bubbles aren’t your passive, wimpy little supermarket bubbles; they’re big and assertive, like Brooklyn. “You really feel it when it hits your throat,” Alex said. “Good seltzer should hurt.”

Enjoy!

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Jerry Seinfeld and Jimmy Fallon in Best Comedian Stand-Up Battle

Last November on an episode of The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, comedian Jerry Seinfeld and  host Fallon engaged in a stand-up comedy battle, each one taking a turn at telling a short Seinfeld stand-up routine to see which of the two was the better Seinfeld.

The joke topics included ''Wait Up", "Star Wars", "Pizza Hut", "Rubber Dividers", and "Birthday Clown."

Enjoy!

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A Joke to Start the Week: "How to Frighten a Bear"

It's another Monday, and time to share another Joke to Start the Week. Our week at the Berkshire Hills Eisenberg Adult Vacation Center in Copake, New York, brought us back in touch with staff members and vacationers who shared jokes with us last year and who came prepared with a few more for us to share with you.

Bob Epstein, a retired assistant principal in the New York school system, is a recreation specialist at the Copake camp. He is also a veteran of other adult camps.

In today's post, Bob tells the true story of the advice he used to give senior campers at orientation sessions in Pennsylvania about how to deal with unexpected encounters with bears in the woods.

Enjoy!

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.
  
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Tisha B'Av Special - Shai Abramson and IDF Rabbinical Choir Sing "If I Forget Thee O Jerusalem"

There is no day during the year when we can't find an opportunity to laugh, chuckle, guffaw, grin, or maybe just crack a smile.  Without humor, the world would be a much grimmer place.  

Even during the High Holy Days and on fast days, most of us find a moment to share an anecdote or witty comment with friends.  

Today is no exception, but the overall mood is much more sorrowful than any other.  The reason, of course, is that today is Tisha B'Av, the ninth day of the Hebrew month of Av.

Tisha B’Av is a fast day that commemorates the destruction of the two Temples. It also happens to be the day that many other calamities have befallen the Jewish people, some of which are listed below.

• 587 BCE (3338)- The First Temple is destroyed by the Babylonians, led by Nebuchadnezzar. The Jews are sent into what later became known as the Babylonian Exile.
• 70 CE (3830)- The Second Temple is destroyed by the Romans, led by Titus.
• 135 CE (3895) - The Romans defeat Bar Kochba's last fortress, Betar, and destroy his army. Bar Kochba himself is killed along with more than 100,000 other Jews. The Roman Emperor Hadrian turns Jerusalem into a Roman city.
• 1290 (5050) - King Edward I of England signs an edict expelling all Jews from England.
• 1492 (5252) - The Alhambra Decree takes effect, expelling the Jews from Spain and from all Spanish territories.
• 1914 (5674) - World War I begins when Germany declares war on Russia, setting the stage for World War II and the Holocaust.
• 1940 (5700) - Himmler presents his plan for the "Final Solution" to the Jewish problem to the Nazi Party.
• 1942 (5702) - Nazis begin deporting Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto. 

On Tisha B'Av, Jews gather in darkened synagogues to read Eicha (The Book of Lamentations) and reflect on the tragedies that befell our people through the millennia.

So we won't post any jokes or hilarity today, but instead we're sharing a performance by IDF Chief Cantor Shai Abramson and the IDF Rabbinical Choir of Im Eshkachech Yerushalayim (If I Forget Thee O Jerusalem), the words coming from Psalm 137.

If I forget you, O Yerushalayim, let my right hand wither;

im esh-ka-KHAYKH y’-ru-sha-LA-im tish-KAKH y’-mee-NEE

ה  אִם־אֶשְׁכָּחֵךְ יְרוּשָׁלִָם תִּשְׁכַּח יְמִינִי׃

Psalm 137 was written by the rivers of Babylon, where the exiled Jews wailed and lamented the destruction of the Beit Hamikdash. They wondered how they would continue to endure on foreign soil. How could they sing the songs of Hashem, which were supposed to be sung in the Temple, there? Their answer was an oath to never forget Yerushalayim. Today, this psalm is recited at Jewish weddings just before the groom breaks a glass, ensuring that Jerusalem is always at the forefront of our minds and reminding us that no joyous occasion is complete until Yerushalayim is restored to its former glory.

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Welcoming Shabbat with a Six-Part Harmony Version of Yedid Nefesh

We have posted many versions of Yedid Nefesh, one of the prayers in the Kabbalat Shabbat service on Friday night, but this one is very unusual. It's a cappella in six-part harmony recorded by a singer who doesn't identify himself in the YouTube video that he posted.

The only identification on the video is that it's a "That Was Fred" production. If the singer lets us know his name and gives us some of the backstory about his recording technique, we'll be glad to share the information and some of his other songs with you. 

The singer does say that he recorded and filmed himself singing his original arrangement of this wonderful Kabbalat Shabbat song and gives credit to all his Hebrew day school and summer experiences at Camp Ramah in the Poconos for making him love it so much. 

Enjoy and Shabbat Shalom!

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Throwback Thursday Comedy Special: Morey Amsterdam Finds No News in Newspaper

Morey Amsterdam was a great stand-up comedian in the days when political correctness was unheard of. His ability to come up with a joke on any subject earned him the name of The Human Joke Machine.

Amsterdam had his own TV shows from 1948 to 1950. Among his regular guests was song-and-dance man Art Carney. In 1950 he hosted the comedy-variety show Broadway Open House, TV's first late-night entertainment show, on NBC. It demonstrated the potential for late-night programming and led to the later development of The Tonight Show.

Back in 2015 we posted a classic Morey Amsterdam standup routine with Polish jokes, doctor jokes, and golf jokes. This week we found another one of his routines in which he finds unusual stories in a Newspaper.

Enjoy!

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#Throwback Thursday   #TBT

Comedy Showcase: Meet 82-Year Old Comedian Fay Susskind

Last week we shared a video of a stand-up performance by David Weiss, a news anchor on New York radio station WINS, who came in second in The Jewish Week's 20th annual Funniest Jewish Comedian contest. Today we're sharing a comedy routine by 82-year-old Fay Susskind, who also placed in the top tier of contestants.

As Avigayil Halpern wrote in The Jewish Week,

Fay Susskind, who turned 82 in April, was the picture of confidence. Petite, in a white dress decorated with pink and red flowers, Susskind joked about the experience of dating at her age: “If anyone has a stray grandfather lying around, and he can drive or has an Uber account, come see me after the show.”

And when Fay Susskind stumbled over a punch line, the audience’s encouragement bucked her up and she tried the joke again. “Why do married women gain more weight than single women? A single woman comes home, looks in the fridge, and goes to bed. A married woman comes home, looks in the bed, and goes to the fridge.” Susskind received the biggest applause of the night.

Enjoy!

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.

Tumbalalaika Around the World: The Boogie Woogie Kid

The Yiddish folk love song Tumbalalaika originated in Eastern Europe in the 19th century, but its exact origin is hard to pinpoint. That hasn't prevented it from being sung and played over and over, not only in places where Yiddish songs are sung, but just about everywhere in the world, in vocal and instrumental versions, in cabarets and in the movies.

Just as we have followed the songs Hava Nagila, Adon Olam, Hevenu Shalom Aleichem, and Abanibi as they took different forms as interpreted by a wide variety of singers, musicians, and dancers, we're continuing the series today that we started back in 2012, bringing you many interpretations of this universal courting and love song.  

This rendition of Tumbalalaika is by pianist/singer Matthew Ball. A former attorney, Matthew left the practice after he attended a hometown boogie-woogie festival.  He was so awestruck by the performances he saw that night, he left his career as an attorney to become a blues & boogie-woogie performing artist.  

Today Matthew is known online and on-stage as THE BOOGIE WOOGIE KID with a performance history that spans ten states, including everything from symphony appearances to Jazz and Blues festivals.

Enjoy!

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A Joke to Start the Week: "Haircut"

It's Monday again. Time for another joke to start the week. Today we're dipping into the archives of Old Jews Telling Jokes and finding one by lawyer Malcolm Busch.

Here's the setup: A fellow named Joe is at the barber shop. Dominic is his barber. He says "Dominic, I won't be here in three weeks for my usual haircut. The wife and I are taking a trip with her friends." 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.

Sephardim vs. Ashkenazim - Part One: Prayer Differences

More than 2000 years ago Jerusalem was burned and the Temple destroyed. The Jewish People were exiled and lost their unity. In the diaspora, the Jewish People split into two -- the Sephardim and the Ashkenazim.

Although there is more that unites these two communities than divides them, the differences are interesting and sometimes funny. Today we're posting the first of two videos that highlight the different way the Sephardim and Ashkenazim express themselves in prayer. Later this week we'll take a look at how each group reacts to tasting the other's favorite ethnic foods.

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.

Welcoming Shabbat with Lecha Dodi by FDD Vocal Ensemble

The FDD Vocal ensemble was established in 2017 and includes five singers who are graduates of the Israel military rabbinate band. They have been a huge success in Israel and around the world.

The vocalists also appear in events and performances as solo artists themselves and sing in a wide variety of languages ​​and musical styles, from authentic Chassidic music to contemporary world music.

For this week's Shabbat video, the FDD Vocal ensemble sings a unique multi-melodic version of Lecha Dodi, the hymn sung in the Kabbalat Shabbat service.

Enjoy, and Shabbat shalom.

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.