Throwback Thursday Comedy Special: Texas Closed on Candid Camera

Candid Camera was a popular and long running American hidden camera reality television series. Versions of the show appeared on television from 1948 until 2014. Originally created and produced by Allen Funt, it often featured practical jokes, and initially began on radio as The Candid Microphone on June 28, 1947. 

After a series of theatrical film shorts, also titled Candid Microphone, Funt's concept came to television on August 10, 1948, and continued into the 1970s. Aside from occasional specials in the 1980s and 1990s, the show was off air until making a comeback on CBS in 1996.

The format has been revived numerous times, appearing on U.S. TV networks and in syndication (first-run) in each succeeding decade, as either a regular show or a series of specials. Funt, who died in 1999, hosted or co-hosted all versions of the show until he became too ill to continue. His son Peter Funt, who had co-hosted the specials with his father since 1987, became the producer and host.  

In this episode, cars entering Texas were stopped at the border and told that Texas was closed because there were too many people in the state. The drivers' reactions are priceless.

Enjoy!

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#Throwback Thursday    #TBT

Yom HaAtzmaut Special: HaZamir Beit Shean Sings Prayer for the State of Israel

HaZamir: The International Jewish Teen Choir is a youth movement that welcomes  musically talented Jewish teens from a broad range of cultural backgrounds and levels of religious observance.  

HaZamir offers high schoolers in 31 chapters across the United States and nine in Israel the opportunity to learn and sing Jewish choral music at the highest musical standard and on the world’s greatest stages.

One of the Israeli chapters is in the city of Beit Shean, a city in the Northern Region at the junction of the Jordan River Valley and the Jezreel Valley. This year, with everyone staying at home during the coronavirus pandemic, members of HaZamir Beit Shean created a virtual choir to celebrate Israel's Independence Day, Yom HaAtzmaut.

Merging videos from nine indoor and outdoor locations around Beit Shean, the teenage singers posted T'filah L'Shlom Medinat Yisrael, their tribute to Israel's 72nd independence day on YouTube. 

Enjoy, and Chag Sameach!

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Eretz Tzvi - A Song for Yom HaZikaron - Israel's Remembrance Day

Yom HaAtzmaut, Israel's Independence Day, is always preceded by Yom HaZikaron, Israel’s Memorial Day for its fallen soldiers. The message of linking these two days is clear: Israelis owe their independence — thebb very existence of the state — to the soldiers who sacrificed their lives for it.

This year Yom HaZikaron began last night and will be observed today until nightfall when the Yom HaAtzmaut festivities begin and continue through tomorrow night.

To mark Yom Hazikaron we're sharing a video of IDF Chief Cantor Shai Abramson singing Eretz Tzvi, originally made popular by singer Yehoram Gaon.

The song is about Mivtza Yonatan, an operation to rescue hostages from Entebbe airport in Uganda on July 4, 1976. Air France flight 139 from Tel Aviv was hijacked after its Athens stopover, diverted to Libya and ended up in Idi Amin airport.

Originally named Mivtza Entebbe, the mission was later named in honor of Yonatan Netanyahu (brother of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu) who died in the operation.

In 1977 a movie was made of the mission - "Operation Thunderbolt."

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A Joke to Start the Week - The ABCs of Love

It's another Monday, and time for another Joke to Start the Week. This week we're sharing a joke from a lecture by Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak (YY) Jacobson, one of the most sought after speakers in the Jewish world today.

Rabbi Jacobson lectures to Jewish and non-Jewish audiences on six continents and in fifty states, and serves as teacher and mentor to tens of thousands across the globe. He is considered one of the most successful, passionate, and mesmerizing communicators of Judaism today, culling his ideas from the entire spectrum of Torah, Niglah and Nistar, and making them relevant to contemporary audiences.

Rabbi Jacobson founded and serves as Dean of TheYeshiva.net, where he teaches, via the web, some of the most popular Torah classes in the world. 

Here's the setup: There once was a woman who was married for 19 years. One night she turns to her husband and says: "You never ever tell me what you think of me. Tell me what you think of me." And then...

Enjoy!

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Hava Nagila Around the World: A Version by Ukulele Virtuoso Taimane

After posting 85 versions of Hava Nagila over the 10 year span of Jewish Humor Central, you might think that enough is enough. But it isn't. We keep finding new interpretations of this Israeli classic.

Today we're sharing a version played at high speed on a ukelele by Taimane Gardner, a ukulele virtuoso who discovered the song last year and combined it with a version of Misirlou, the Greek folk song.

Taimane was born in Honolulu, Hawaii and is of Samoan, German, Irish, French, and Swedish descent. Her name translates to diamond in Samoan language. Taimane began playing the ukulele at the age of 5. She was discovered by legendary musician Don Ho at age 13 and also studied under Jake Shimabukuro as a teenager.

By channeling her passion into the ukulele, Taimane busts open the door to connection with audiences. She’s garnered a large worldwide following with over 8 million video views and 80,000 social media followers.

Enjoy!

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Welcoming Shabbat with Yedid Nefesh by Nurit Melamed at Machol Italia

Yedid Nefesh (Beloved of my soul) was written by Eliezer Azikri (1533-1600), a disciple of the great mystic Isaac Luria of Safed. He is the author of Sefer Haredim (the devotee's book) on Kabbalistic ethics.  

The Hasidim sing this song at the third dinner of Shabbat (Seuda shelishit), as an expression of great desire for God's closeness, a moment of great yearning for God.

Today we welcome Shabbat with a Jewish dance version of Yedid Nefesh presented by Nurit Melamed at Machol Italia 2019. It's an annual Jewish dance and culture seminar promoted by Terra di Danza, a Reggio Emilia association that deals with spreading the language of folk and ethnic dance through courses for adults, workshops in schools, shows , parties, animations, internships and research trips.

Enjoy, and Shabbat shalom!

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Throwback Thursday Comedy Special: Jackie Mason at the Hollywood Palace

It's another Throwback Thursday. Time to turn the clock back, way back, to 1964 when comedian Jackie Mason gave a performance on the Hollywood Palace TV show.

At the time, the 36-year-old Mason was in the early part of his career. Now 91, he still makes occasional TV appearances. 

A former rabbi, ordained by Rabbi Moshe Feinstein, Mason quit his rabbinical career to become a stand-up comedian because, he says, "Somebody in the family had to make a living." His three brothers, father, grandfather, and great-grandfather were all rabbis.

Enjoy!

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#Throwback Thursday      #TBT

Yiddish Comedy in Montreal: A Reminiscense by Hyman Batalion

Since 2010, the Yiddish Book Center’s Wexler Oral History Project has recorded hundreds of in-depth video interviews that provide a deeper understanding of the Jewish experience and the legacy and changing nature of Yiddish language and culture. 

The interviews in the growing collection are conducted in Yiddish and/or English with narrators of all ages from a variety of backgrounds. 

Hyman Batalion, Yiddish speaker and Montreal native, was interviewed by Christa Whitney on August 16, 2016, at the Segal Centre for the Performing Arts in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.  

In the interview, Batalion, father of YidLife Crisis co-creator Eli Batalion, reflects on some of the early Yiddish speaking Montreal comedians and retells some of the old jokes.

Enjoy!

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Yom HaShoah Special: Japanese Hashalom Choir Sings "Eli Eli" at March of the Living

Today is Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, the date in the Jewish calendar to mourn the loss of the six million Jews murdered during the Holocaust.

Eli, Eli is a poem by Hannah Senesh, the 23-year-old who left Hungary in 1939 to settle on a kibbutz in Israel. She was trained by the British to be a paratrooper to rescue Jews during the Holocaust. Captured and killed by the Nazis, she is still a national heroine in Israel.

Through her brief but noteworthy life, Senesh became a symbol of idealism and self-sacrifice. Her poems, made famous in part because of her unfortunate death, reveal a woman imbued with hope, even in the face of adverse circumstances.

Her diary and literary works were later published, and many of her more popular poems have been set to music. The best known of these is Towards Caesarea, more popularly known today as Eli, Eli with a melody created by David Zahavi and sung by artists including Ofra Haza, Regina Spektor, and Sophie Milman. 
 
In 2018, Eli, Eli was sung by the Hashalom Choir of Japan at the March of the Living Ceremony in Birkenau in recognition of the role played by Japanese Diplomat Chiune Sempo Sugihara in helping 6,000 Jews flee Europe. Sugihara, vice-consul for the Japanese Empire in Kaunas, Lithuania issued transit visas to them so that they could travel through Japanese territory, risking his job and the lives of his family.

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A Joke to Start the Week - "Dry Cleaning a Tallit"

 

The rabbis and cantors of the Wilshire Boulevard Temple in Los Angeles have been adding a series of jokes to the videos on their website over the last few weeks. We're sure that their members join us in appreciating this welcome opportunity to share some laughs in the midst of the coronavirus stay-at-home world that most of us are experiencing.

We have a few lined up to share with you on the next few Monday mornings as our Joke to Start the Week.

One of America’s most highly respected congregations, Wilshire Boulevard Temple has been serving the Los Angeles Jewish community since its founding in 1862 as Congregation B’nai B'rith, the city’s first synagogue. Today, Wilshire Boulevard Temple carries out the mission through a variety of ways, as a center for Jewish spirituality and celebration, a place for lifelong learning and friendship and home to an engaged congregation where every person can make a difference.

Today Rabbi Beau Shapiro tells a joke about the cost of dry cleaning a tallit. 

Here's the setup: Abe spills a little bit of the kiddush wine on his tallit after the Shabbat morning service. He takes it to his dry cleaner, and he asks the dry cleaner "How much to get the stain out?" And then...

Enjoy!

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Parody in the World of Coronavirus: "Maskmaker, Maskmaker" by Abby Goldfarb

The stay-at-home isolation of this coronavirus era has triggered a bounty of creative parodies of popular songs, many of which are posted on YouTube.

Abby Goldfarb, an actress, singer, and improviser based in New York City has created and performed Maskmaker, Maskmaker, a funny parody of Matchmaker, Matchmaker from Fiddler on the Roof. She is a native New Yorker, born and raised in the West Village. Abby is a graduate of Emerson College's BFA Musical Theatre Program (2013).

No stranger to Fiddler, she was seen in the Drama Desk Award winning Fiddler on The Roof in Yiddish, directed by Joel Grey.

Enjoy!

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(A tip of the kippah to Mickey Greenblatt for bringing this video to my attention.)

Welcoming Shabbat with Lecha Dodi by Hazzan David Feuer of Temple Emanu-El of Palm Beach

Now that Passover is over, we get ready to welcome another Shabbat. We have been in Palm Beach County in Florida since February, and today we're sharing a version of Lecha Dodi by Hazzan David Feuer of Temple Emanu-El of Palm Beach. 

Claudio Waisgluss, the musical director, did the arrangement and provided piano accompaniment with Agustin Conti on Bass and percussion by Tony Verdejo. The author of this version is Meir Finkelstein.

A native of Rosario, Argentina, David Feuer entered his community synagogue chorus at the age of four and started studying piano at eight at the Municipal Conservatory, Santiago, Chile. In Buenos Aires, Hazzan Feuer was Choir Conductor at the largest Orthodox Synagogue in South America and Musical Director of the choir of Agudat Hahazzanim in Argentina.

He founded and was director of the Israeli group “Rinah,” considered the foremost Jewish ensemble in Argentina. For twenty-three years he taught in the Jewish school system where his musical creations became very popular. Hazzan Feuer has been the Cantor and Music Director at Temple Emanu-El since 1986.

Temple Emanu-El has been live streaming their Shabbat services every week, but during the coronavirus crisis they are conducting services via Zoom. We are sharing a link here if you would like to take part in them. 

Shabbat shalom!

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Comedian Modi Presents His Passover Program for Everyone Who Had to Cancel Resort Trips This Year

Comedian Modi (Mordechai Rosenfeld) is always in great demand to present his comedy programs at Passover resorts around the world. 

This year the coronavirus forced all hotels and resorts that were planning to receive guests to cancel everything -- the travel, the accommodations, the food, and the entertainment -- which for guests who were planning to enjoy Modi's shtick in Florida, Arizona, and Mexico -- was a big disappointment.

But Modi found a way to bring his shtick to a much larger audience, and we're sharing it with you today as we post our last Passover video for 2020 - the year of do-it-yourself seders.

In this comedy set, Modi gives his impressions of the whole Passover resort experience -- from the check-in to the check-out at the fancy exclusive hotel, including the seder experience and the endless parade of food in the dining room and tea room. 

We'll be taking a two day break from posting on the last two days of Pesach, and we'll be back with our usual mix on Friday.

Chag Sameach! Enjoy!

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"My Passover Things - Another Song Parody from California JCC's Passover Nosh Program

LABA East Bay: A Laboratory for New Jewish Culture launched at the JCC East Bay in January 2020.  LABA is a non-religious, Jewish house of study and culture laboratory which uses classic Jewish texts to inspire the creation of art, dialogue, and study. 

The Program began in New York City in 1997 at the 14th Street Y and expanded to Buenos Aires in 2015. Now it's in California's East Bay in Berkeley and Oakland.

In this video, LABA East Bay fellow Bruce Bierman and JCC East Bay Director of Public Programs Sarah Wolfman-Robichaud offer My Passover Things, a new take on My Favorite Things from The Sound of Music,  one of the classic songs from their Passover Nosh program. It's sure to get you through the second half of the holiday! 

Enjoy!

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Saturday Night Seder: A Passover Special Event from the Entertainment Industry

Why is this Jewish Humor Central blog post different from all other Jewish Humor Central blog posts? For one thing, it's the longest post that we have shared.

For another, it brings together 59 actors, singers, writers, and producers from across the entertainment industry gather to tell the story of the Jews’ exodus from Egypt.

It was broadcast yesterday as a live stream event to raise money for the CDC Foundation’s Coronavirus Emergency Response Fund.

Dozens of Jewish celebrities attended the virtual benefit event, including Idina Menzel, Ben Platt, Andy Cohen, Billy Porter, and more. Because if you can’t celebrate Passover with your extended family, at least you can celebrate with Hollywood’s finest.

“A Passover seder with the family you never knew you had,” teases the Saturday Night Seder website. “The fourth night of Passover will be different from all other nights as we gather around our digital table to share stories, songs, and support the CDC Foundation’s Coronavirus Emergency Response Fund. Dayenu, already!”

StoryCourse has recruited 59 Jewish (and not-so-Jewish) stars to participate in the event, including legends Richard Kind and Henry Winkler, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel‘s Rachel Brosnahan, Broad City‘s Ilana Glazer, and many, many more. 

“In a time of confinement and uncertainty, a rag-tag team of Jews and non-Jewish Passover enthusiasts felt it was more important than ever to channel creative energies and gather community,” head writer Alex Edelman told Playbill. “We’re thrilled to be reinterpreting the timeless story of liberation and renewal while raising money for those on the front lines enduring — and fighting — an actual plague.”

Enjoy!

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