Welcoming Shabbat with Mizmor Shir by Atara Saracik and Her Israeli Band

Atara Saracik is an Israeli singer and musician whose band features a saxophone as well as a host of Middle Eastern instruments. Together they produce a beautiful haunting sound that transports the listener to Israel.

Here is Atara Saracik and her band singing Mizmor Shir l'Yom Hashabbat, from the Kabbalat Shabbat liturgy.

Enjoy, and Shabbat shalom!

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On Holocaust Remembrance Day, a Partisan Song Heard 'Round the World

Holocaust Remembrance Day (Yom Hashoah) started at sunset yesterday and is being observed worldwide today.

"Zog nit keyn mol" (Never Say; Yiddish: זאָג ניט קיין מאָל‎) or "Partizaner lid" (Partisan Song) is a Yiddish song considered one of the chief anthems of the Holocaust survivors and is sung in memorial services around the world.

The lyrics of the song were written in 1943 by Hirsh Glick, a young Jewish inmate of the Vilna Ghetto. The title means "Never Say", and derives from the first line of the song. Glick's lyrics were set to music from a pre-war Soviet song.

In this year's commemoration of Yom Hashoah, the Jewish Partisan Educational Foundation shared versions of the song by a group of JPEF Partisans, the Ellenbrook and Carmel Schools of Perth, Australia, Seattle Day School, Washington, and the Herzliya School of Cape Town, South Africa.

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Wacky Wednesday Comedy Special: Alex Edelman at the Vegan Cupcake Shoppe

Alex Edelman grew up in an Orthodox Jewish family and, following high school, spent a year in a yeshiva in Jerusalem. During his time, he helped to establish the city's first comedy club -- Off the Wall Comedy. 

In 2008, he moved to New York City to study English at New York University. He graduated in 2012. During college, he continued to perform stand-up and later joined Upright Citizens Brigade. 

His first show, Millennial, won the Edinburgh Comedy Award for Best Newcomer, the first show by an American to do so since 1997. 

In this video clip, Edelman tells about what happened when he walked into a vegan cupcake shoppe in Brooklyn.

Enjoy!

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Touring Jerusalem Through the Eyes of a Running 3-Year-Old Toddler

We've toured Jerusalem many times, but we've never seen it through the perspective of a three-year-old toddler on the run. 

Thanks to the use of a special camera stabilizer, Jewlicious founder David Abitbol treats us to a unique visit through Jerusalem. 

Follow the 3-year-old toddler as he runs through the alleyways of Nachlaot, the food stalls at the Mahane Yehuda Market, the cobblestone roadways in the Old City, the Jews assembled at the Kotel and the bountiful space at Al Aqsa / Temple Mount. 

Enjoy!

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A Joke to Start the Week - "An Exotic Pet"

It's Monday morning and as usual we're starting the week with a new old joke. Here's one we found from the annals of Old Jews Telling Jokes. It's told by Joel Leizer, a dentist from New Jersey.

Here's the setup: There's a very wealthy man who likes exotic pets. He goes into a pet store and says "I would like the most exotic pet that you have in the store." And then...

Enjoy!

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Hava Nagila Around the World - Malika Hakimova Sings at Uzbekistan Talent Show

One of the joys of posting videos on Jewish Humor Central is discovering new versions of traditional Jewish and Hebrew songs as they are performed around the world, often in unexpected places.

Since we started Jewish Humor Central in 2009 we have posted 104 different versions of Hava Nagila. The song has shown up in many countries, including some unexpected ones (Scroll down the left column on this page and click on Hava Nagila in the Keywords list and you'll see what we mean.)

Today we're posting a version of Hava Nagila that was performed at a Uzbekistan TV Talent Show by Malika Hakimova.

Enjoy!

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Farewell to Pesach and Welcome to Shabbat - Josh Goldberg Sings Oseh Shalom with Rap by Tamir Tencer

Josh Goldberg is a Los Angeles-based singer/songwriter, producer, and soon-to-be ordained Cantor, whose perspective on life, love, faith, and the world is reflected in his music as well as his personal endeavors. 

Born and raised in Dallas, Texas, Josh studied music from an early age and is an accomplished pianist, guitarist, and singer, traversing a variety of musical genres with equal dexterity. 

Tamir Tencer is an Israeli rapper. As we celebrate the end of Passover and welcome another Shabbat, Josh and Tamir collaborate in a rendition of Oseh Shalom that expresses the wish that the one who makes peace in the heavens will bring peace down upon us. 

This song is dedicated to all those who are suffering in Ukraine or have been displaced from Ukraine, and all whose who are suffering due to terrorism in Israel. It's a prayer that we may collectively raise our voices and do everything in our power to stop this violence so we may all live together as creatures made in the divine image. 

We will be celebrating Shabbat and the last days of Pesach so there will be no post tomorrow. We'll be back on Sunday with our usual mix.

Shabbat shalom and Chag Pesach sameach!

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Yiddish "Fiddler" Actors Form New Sexy Yiddish Singing Group Called "Mameles"

A trio of actors who met while members of the cast of the Yiddish version of Fiddler on the Roof have created a new singing group that brings back memories of The Barry Sisters.

As Julia Gergely wrote in the New York Jewish Week,

The women who make up the trio, Maya Jacobson, Raquel Nobile and Jodi Snyder, had gotten together for a night of fun and to reminisce about the 2018 production of “Fiddler on the Roof” (“Fidler afn Dakh”) at the National Yiddish Theater Folksbiene, where they met as members of the cast.

Jacobson had been listening to The Barry Sisters — a duo whose Yiddish covers were wildly popular in the mid-20th century —  and realized it was time for the next generation to carry on the tradition.

“I heard The Barry Sisters’ version of ‘Abi Gezunt’ and I knew I wanted to record this with these two, my favorite people and some of the best performers I know, and make a trio,” Jacobson, 25, told the New York Jewish Week. “I knew people in the Jewish community would be really into this. Yiddish is such huge part of Jewish culture stomped on by the Holocaust that is really being found again.”

Despite acting in Yiddish productions and singing Yiddish covers, none of the women speaks Yiddish fluently, though Jacobson bragged that she had a continuous 71-day streak in Yiddish on the language-learning app Duolingo.

The name of the group, The Mamales, is an homage to the 1938 Polish Yiddish film “Mamele.” It starred Molly Picon, “Second Avenue’s longest-reigning queen and the best-known Yiddish actress/singer later on Broadway,” according to the Milken Archive of Jewish Music. Picon wrote the lyrics for Abraham Ellstein’s melody and performed "Abi Gezunt” in the film, where it became an instant hit.

Enjoy!

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Passover Humor: Houston Texans Photo Shows Players Carrying Matzo Instead of Football

The Houston Texans football team stirred up a minor firestorm this week by posting two photos of their players carrying matzos instead of a football.

As Jason Miles wrote for KHOU-11,

Some believe the Houston Texans fumbled by posting photo-shopped images of two players holding Matzah bread instead of footballs to the team's social media.

The post includes the caption “Happy Passover to all who celebrate!”

“I think they’re trying to be funny but I can see how people would take offense to it,” said Thomas Welham of Houston.

"It’s a little jarring to see them photoshopped in there," said Charlie Nater.  "But I'm not offended by it.”

“I think there’s too much negativity in the world and people should just live and let live,” said Samantha Sutton.

“I thought it was great,” said Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe of the Torah Outreach Resource Center of Houston, or TORCH.  "People need to lighten up a little."

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Celebrating Passover with "When You Believe" from "The Prince of Egypt"

Today we continue our week of Passover programming with a rendition of the song When You Believe from the animated film The Prince of Egypt. It's from the Shabbat Shira service at the Park Avenue Synagogue earlier this year. 

Cantor Azi Schwartz was joined by his children Daniel and Emmy and Cantor Mira Davis on the Bimah of the synagogue.

The first feature film from DreamWorks to be traditionally animated, The Prince of Egypt (1998) is an adaptation of the Book of Exodus and follows the life of Moses from being a prince of Egypt to his ultimate destiny to lead the Jews out of Egypt.

The song When You Believe, written by Stephen Schwartz, became a commercially successful single in a pop version performed by Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey, and went on to win Best Original Song at the 71st Academy Awards.

Enjoy! 

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Welcoming Passover and Shabbat with a Seder Medley by Cantor Azi Schwartz and His Children

Tonight Jews all over the world will sit down for the first of two seders and retell the story of the Exodus from Egypt about 3400 years ago. In Israel there will be one seder. 

This year the first day of Passover coincides with Shabbat, so instead of our weekly posting of a Shabbat melody, we are posting a medley of Pesach songs from the Haggadah.

Last year Cantor Azi Schwartz of the Park Avenue Synagogue in New York City joined with two of his children to sing a medley of the most popular seder songs, including Ma Nishtana, V'Hi She'amda, and Dayenu.

Tomorrow and Sunday we will be celebrating Pesach with our family at home and in the synagogue, so there will be no Jewish Humor Central posting until Monday.  

If you will be unable to attend Passover services this year, many congregations will be conducting services on Zoom and on TV. The Jewish Broadcasting Service will feature Orthodox services from The Hampton Synagogue and Reform services from the Central Synagogue. The Conservative Park Avenue Synagogue will be live streaming its Passover services on their website.

Shabbat shalom and Chag Pesach kasher v'sameach!

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Passover Musical Countdown: A Yiddish Version of Echad Mi Yodea (Who Knows One)

Lea Kalisch is a multi-lingual and multi-disciplinary New York City based performer. Originally from Switzerland, Lea moved to NYC in 2014 to study at the American Musical and Dramatic Academy. She earned a BFA in Musical Theater from The New School.

 

In this video she is accompanied on guitar by Rabbi Tobias Divack Moss, a rabbi at Temple Israel of Minneapolis, in Mu Asapru, a Yiddish version of the classic seder song Echad Mi Yodea (Who Knows One). It's a version made famous by folksinger Theodore Bikel in his record albums and personal appearances.

 

Enjoy! 

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Remembering Gilbert Gottfried and His Shrill-Voiced Stand-up Comedy

The world of Jewish comedy lost one of its shining stars yesterday with the death of Gilbert Gottfried at the age of 67. Gottfried's specialty was crude humor and delivering punch lines in an annoying, grating voice.

His numerous roles in film and television included voicing the parrot Iago in Disney's Aladdin animated films and series, Digit LeBoid on PBS Kids's long-running Cyberchase, and Kraang Subprime in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Gottfried was the voice of the Aflac Duck until 2011. He appeared in the critically panned but commercially successful Problem Child in 1990. 

He was a cast member of Saturday Night Live's 6th season. Gottfried's persona in SNL sketches was very different from his later characterization. He rarely (if ever) spoke in his trademark screeching, obnoxious voice and never squinted.

In this video clip from a Just for Laughs Festival appearance in Montreal, Gottfried tells the audience of how he was the inspiration for Herman Melville when he wrote his classic Moby Dick.

Enjoy!

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Passover Musical Countdown: An a Cappella Billy Joel Passover with Six13

No collection of Jewish holiday music videos would be complete without an entry from Six13, an a cappella group that has produced videos for Chanukah, Rosh Hashana, Purim, and Passover. In previous years we posted many of their Jewish music videos.

Now, with the Passover seder only three days away, Six13 has released a video with parodies of some of Billy Joel's greatest hits.

This year they have outdone themselves with very creative parodies of Piano Man, Movin' Out, We Didn't Start the Fire, and Scenes from an Italian Restaurant.

Enjoy!

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A Joke to Start the Week - "An Exceptional Dog"

A few years ago, Toronto's Koerner Hall was the site of a performance of Jewish Folks Telling Jokes, a night of comedy to benefit Jewish Family and Child, one of the foremost Jewish service agencies in North America.

Jewish Family and Child supports the healthy development of individuals, children, families, and communities through prevention, protection, counseling, education and advocacy services, within the context of Jewish values.

We previously posted a few jokes that were told at the event, a Canadian contribution to the world of Jewish humor, probably inspired by the off-Broadway show Old Jews Telling Jokes, still touring around the USA.

We were lucky to discover a few more jokes from these talented Toronto joke tellers, and we'll be sharing some of them in future posts of A Joke to Start the Week.

This week's joke is told by Chas Gordon.

Here's the setup: A guy goes into shul with his Saint Bernard dog. Instead of the usual cask of rum, this dog has a tallis bag. And then...

Enjoy!

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Passover Musical Countdown Begins with a Yiddish Jazz Version of "Go Down Moses"

With the first (and in Israel, the only) seder only five days away, we're getting ready by posting some Passover music to get into the mood.

Yisroel Leshes, Assistant Cantor at Lincoln Square Synagogue, has released Go Down, Moyshe - a video of the African-American spiritual “Go Down, Moses” in Yiddish – with a jazzy twist.

As reported by the staff of The Forward,

Leshes has previously infused Yiddish songs with jazz elements, as in his release of the song “Younger World”. In this video, he performs “Go Down, Moses” during a live performance of Yiddish jazz at The Mansion, a private venue near Union Square, that is open once a month for Jewish music.

“Go Down, Moses” was sung by African-American slaves as a song of freedom, beginning in the 1800’s. The words, quoting the Bible, re-interpreted Moses’ calls for freedom for the Israelites, as demands for freedom by enslaved Black people. It was first published as sheet music in 1861 after Reverend Lewis Lockwood heard runaway slaves singing it. The song became well-known across America since its widespread popularization during and after the Civil War.

For years, many American Jews have taken the song as emblematic of the Pesach story, and sing it at their Seder. Now Leshes’ clip may encourage some of them to sing it in Yiddish as well.

Enjoy!

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Welcoming Shabbat with Adon Olam by Sephardic Music Interpreter Paco Diez

A versatile musician who plays guitar, zanfona (hurdy gurdy), gaita (Galician bagpipes) and countless other folk instruments, Paco Díez curates a musical instrument museum adjacent to his home in Mucientes, Castile. 

He is not only a performer, but also a scholar of Spanish folk music, and has collected songs, melodies, and rhythms from all over the Iberian peninsula, the Mediterranean, and northern Africa.

He is especially well known as a performer of Sephardic music, the heritage of Jewish people who were expelled from Spain in 1492 and dispersed into a diaspora where they maintained the Ladino language (closely related to modern Spanish). He performs all over the world, and in 2016 he was nominated for Spain’s highest honor in the arts, the Premio Princesa de Asturias de las Artes.

Today we're welcoming Shabbat with Paco Diez's interpretation of Adon Olam.

Enjoy, and Shabbat shalom!

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Throwback Thursday Comedy Showcase: Sophie Tucker and "Some of These Days"

Sophie Tucker (born Sofia Kalish) was a Russian-born American singer, comedian, actress, and radio personality. Known for her powerful delivery of comical and risqué songs, she was one of the most popular entertainers in the U.S. during the first half of the 20th century.

During the 1930s, Tucker brought elements of nostalgia for the early years of the 20th century into her show. She was billed as "The Last of the Red Hot Mamas" as her hearty sexual appetite was a frequent subject of her songs, unusual for female performers of the day after the decline of vaudeville.

In 1911 she introduced what would become her signature song, Some of These Days. She included this song in all of her performances until her last TV appearance in 1965 on the Ed Sullivan Show.

In her later years she waxed nostalgic about the song and often didn't sing the whole song but delivered emotional poems about the song and what it meant to her career. In this video clip from 1953 she pays tribute to the song and ends with singing a few bars.

Enjoy!

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   #Throwback Thursday     #TBT

Wacky Wednesday Comedy Special: Victor Borge and Robert Merrill in "Autumn Leaves"

Robert Merrill (born Moishe Miller in Williamsburg, Brooklyn) was an American operatic baritone and actor, who was also active in the musical theatre circuit. He received the National Medal of Arts in 1993.Victor Borge (born Borge Rosenbaum in Copenhagen, Denmark) was a Danish-American comedian, conductor, and pianist who achieved great popularity in radio and television.

So what did these musically talented and successful Jewish boys do when they got together? Comedy shtick, of course. In this undated video clip, Borge plays the introduction, Merrill starts to sing, and then the leaves begin to fall. Borge carries on while Merrill keeps a straight face. Hilarious.

Enjoy!

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Comedy Showcase: Alex Edelman on Getting and Paying for a Liberal Arts Education at NYU

Alex Edelman grew up in an Orthodox Jewish family and, following high school, spent a year in a yeshiva in Jerusalem. During his time, he helped to establish the city's first comedy club -- Off the Wall Comedy. 

In 2008, he moved to New York City to study English at New York University. He graduated in 2012. During college, he continued to perform stand-up and later joined Upright Citizens Brigade. 

His first show, Millennial, won the Edinburgh Comedy Award for Best Newcomer, the first show by an American to do so since 1997. 

In this video clip, Edelman tells the comedy club audience about his experiences in attending and paying for his studies at New York University.

Enjoy!

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A Joke to Start the Week - "A Joint Medical Practice"

It's another Monday and time for another Joke to Start the Week. Today Mickey Greenblatt is back with one that we haven't heard before.

Marshal (Mickey) Greenblatt received degrees from Columbia (BA and BS in Flight Sciences), a DC from Von Karman Institute (1963) and his PhD from Princeton in Aerospace Sciences. He worked as a researcher for NASA and the Naval Research Laboratory. 

With four other scientists, he founded Fusion Systems Corporation, which invented microwave-powered UV lamps for drying coatings. He founded and served on the boards of technology companies and is active in volunteer work. He served on the executive committee of the Jewish Council for the Aging of Greater Washington for many years.

Mickey also loves Jewish jokes and sent us this one to share with you. Here's the setup: Abrams and Corman were best friends. They went to medical school together. They had their residencies at the same time. When they graduated and they were ready to set up their individual practices, they decided to rent office space together. And then...

Enjoy!

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More Israeli Standup Comedy in English with Shahar Hason and Yohay Sponder

Comedians Yohay Sponder and Shahar Hason got their start as comedians in Israel catering exclusively to Hebrew-speaking audiences. 

As the two became more and more well-known to Hebrew speakers throughout Israel, they noticed a huge demographic in the country that was missing out on the laughs.   

Sponder and Hason took the risk of crafting and re-writing their material from Hebrew to English (and from Israeli humor to American humor), all the while unsure whether or not they would even get a laugh out of an English speaking crowd. Their hard work and dedication to broadening the audience of one of Israel’s most unique cultural elements has launched the growing scene of Israeli Stand-up in English.

Sponder, Hason, and some of their friends performed regularly on Monday nights in a Tel Aviv bar and restaurant until the start of the COVID pandemic. We're watching for a notice of a re-opening. In the meantime, here's a clip from one of their shows.

Enjoy!

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Welcoming Shabbat with Yedid Nefesh in Sydney, Australia

Today we welcome Shabbat with a beautiful rendition of Yedid Nefesh, which is sung at the beginning of the Kabbalat Shabbat service on Friday night. The singers are Rabbi Motti Feldman and his son Menachem Feldman, both Chabad emissaries in Sydney, Australia.

The song was originally performed by Yehoram Gaon. The musical arrangement is by Raymond Goldstein.

Enjoy and Shabbat shalom!

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