Eating Twinkies with God - A Modern Day Parable by Meir Kay

Filmmaker Meir Kay created a parable called Eating Twinkies with God, starring a young boy named John James Cronin. A Catholic school kindergartener and an Orthodox Jewish filmmaker. It's an unusual team, but one that has created a stir in the blogosphere.

In the film, the boy takes a package of Twinkies from his kitchen and heads out, as he explains to his mother, to find God. And then......

The moral of the story: We don't need to look for and wide for God. He's in every one of us and in every thing that we do. Whether you believe or not, we all can agree that by helping each other, each good act that we do makes this world a brighter place. Let us rise to the occasion and be kinder to each other, to help one another. We are all on the same team.

Fox 5's Dar Alexander spoke to the two of them about the meaning of this heart-warming short film.

Here's the short film, followed by the TV interview.

Enjoy!

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A Joke to Start the Week: "Looking for the Indian"

It's Monday again, and it's time for another Joke to Start the Week. Here's another one from the archives of Old Jews Telling Jokes. Today's joke teller is Sportscaster, Producer, and TV Host Mike Leiderman.

Here's the setup:  The desperados and outlaws in the old west commandeer the stagecoach -- the Wells Fargo, they shoot everybody and they've got the strongbox. The only survivor among the passengers is this little old Jewish man. They say to him "Look buddy, we're not going to kill you because we need you to be our lookout." And then...

Enjoy!

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Remembering Bill Dana (Jose Jimenez) and His Many Characters

Last week we lost one of our favorite Jewish comedians, Bill Dana. Bill, who passed away last week at the age of 92, was born William Szathmary to Jewish-Hungarian parents.

A character actor and script writer who adopted a variant of his mother's name Dena as his surname, Bill was most widely known in his role as Jose Jimenez, the Colombian-accented hapless astronaut, bellhop, and karate expert.

We've featured Bill a few times on Jewish Humor Central, including an interview in which he explained the origin of the Jose Jimenez character.

Today we're sharing one of his original appearances in 1968 on The Ed Sullivan Show as Jose Jimenez the astronaut. Enjoy!

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Welcoming Shabbat with The Maccabeats and The Sound of Silence

Art Garfunkel once summed up The Sound of Silence as "the inability of people to communicate with each other."In this day where texting has supplanted speaking as the preferred form of communication for so many, the Simon and Garfunkel song that's 52 years old seems prophetic.

The website Jew in the City, founded by Allison Josephs, has undertaken a mission to break down stereotypes about religious Jews and offer a humorous, meaningful look into Orthodox Judaism.

In collaboration with The Maccabeats, the Jewish music and a cappella phenomenon originally formed in 2007 as Yeshiva University’s student vocal group, Jew in the City has created a music video that shows the contrast between a family communicating electronically and a family enjoying the joy of a quiet Shabbat. It's something to think about as we welcome another Shabbat.

Enjoy and Shabbat shalom!

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Sound of Silence originally performed by Simon and Garfunkel
Music: The Maccabeats http://maccabeats.com
Director of Photography - Elie Gabor http://eliecreative.com
Executive Producer - Seth Feldman
Associate Producer - Sara Levine
Makeup - Louise Lerman @makeupbyloulerman
Candelabra and tray by http://hazorfim

Throwback Thursday Comedy Special: Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca in "The Sneeze"

It's Throwback Thursday again and today we get another chance to go back 67 years to 1950 and another episode of The Hickenloopers on Your Show of Shows.

Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca starred in many episodes of the hilarious marital tribulations of Doris and Charlie Hickenlooper.

In this sketch, the fun starts when Charlie (Sid  Caesar) sneezes and Doris (Imogene Coca) over-reacts.

Enjoy!

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#Throwback Thursday   #TBT 

Comedy Showcase: Comedian Danny Lobell as Sami the Israeli

Today is the first day of summer, and if you have kids at home, you may already have sent them off to camp or will be sending them soon. But what if your kids have no camp plans this summer and having them at home means you can't take a vacation?

Comedian Danny Lobell, in character as Sami the Israeli, has some advice for you, based on the Israeli model of sending their kids to America to sell Dead Sea products in shopping malls. You've probably seen them in suburban malls at free-standing kiosks all over the country.

What's his idea? Make products from pepper and say that they come from Mount Rushmore. Then send them to Israel to sell the products in Tel Aviv shopping malls.

Lobell's idea is funny, and his caricature of an Israeli is painted in broad strokes and with a somewhat exaggerated accent. But it does provide food (and spices) for thought.

Enjoy!

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From Ramah to Broadway: Where Best Musical Tony Award Winner Ben Platt Got His Start

Ben Platt, the 23-year-old actor who last week won the coveted Tony award for Best Actor in a Musical for his starring role in Dear Evan Hansen, has been singing the praises of Camp Ramah in California. That's where Platt got his start in writing and acting in Broadway musicals that were translated into Hebrew.


As Shiryn Ghermezian wrote in The Algemeiner,

Platt, who plays the titular role in the upcoming show “Dear Evan Hansen,” sang a Hebrew version of “Luck be a Lady” — from the musical “Guys and Dolls” — on NBC‘s “Late Night with Seth Meyers.”

The 23-year-old actor, who previously starred in the film “Pitch Perfect,” told Meyers that he learned the song when he was at a Jewish summer camp, where all productions were performed in Hebrew, and noted that campers would sometimes run into trouble translating lyrics.

The following videos show Platt accepting his Tony Award and discussing the Jewish influences on his career with Seth Meyers .

Enjoy!

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A Joke to Start the Week: "In Loving Memory"

Next week Jewish Humor Central is going on the road in the Northeast, where we'll be doing shows in Ellenville and Albany, New York, and in Montreal. But we'll keep on blogging and posting new videos every day as we celebrate our email subscriber list passing 6,000 viewers in 205 countries.

It's Monday again and we wouldn't want to miss our Joke to Start the Week, so here it is. Today's joke teller is sales rep Jay Palatnik, from the cast of Old Jews Telling Jokes.

Here's the setup: Two elderly Jewish women meet in Florida and one says to the other: "Barbara, I heard that your husband passed away recently." And then...

Enjoy!

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Jewish Traces in Unexpected Places: Jewish Greek Festival on New York's Lower East Side

In 70 C.E., when the Roman emperor Titus conquered Jerusalem and carried Jewish slaves with him to Rome, the ship holding them was driven by a storm onto the Albanian coast. 

Instead of throwing his captives into the sea, he allowed them to disembark, and they eventually made their way to the area in northwest Greece where the city of Janina was established. 

In 1927, descendents of the Jews of Janina built a Greek synagogue, Kehila Kedosha Janina, on New York's Lower East Side. It was declared a New York City landmark, and last month it was the focus of a Jewish Greek Festival.

Here is a video with scenes from the festival and a video describing the founding of the synagogue.

Enjoy!

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Welcoming Shabbat with Yedid Nefesh in Tzfat, Israel

Yedid Nefesh is a piyyut (poem) usually sung on Friday night just before the Kabbalat Shabbat (Welcoming Shabbat) service begins.
According to Wikipedia, this beautiful poem is commonly attributed to the sixteenth century kabbalist, Rabbi Elazar ben Moshe Azikri (1533-1600), who first published it in Sefer Charedim (published in Venice 1601), but Azikri did not claim authorship of it and there have been other suggested authors (e.g. Judah Halevi, or Israel Nagara).  

The first letters of each of the four verses make up the four letter name of God, known in English as the tetragrammaton.

This beautiful rendition by singers Rick Recht and Happie Hoffman was recorded in Israel, in the mystical city of Tzfat. Rick Recht is a celebrated Jewish artist, playing family concerts, Shabbat Alive! services, religious school concerts, teen concerts, camp concerts, and tot concerts throughout the United States and abroad. He is widely recognized as a pioneer of the Jewish rock music genre. In addition to his role as an artist, Recht is regarded as a top Jewish educator and leader in the Jewish world.

Happie Hoffman is a song leader at Jewish Camps and gatherings throughout the U.S. and abroad, performing and leading services at temples and synagogues. Happie’s range of music and spirituality flows from the depths of her conviction. She is passionate about her faith and her music, which when intertwined, offer an experience that is truly memorable.

The song is introduced by Micah Greenstein, Senior Rabbi of Temple Israel in Memphis, Tennessee.

Enjoy and Shabbat shalom!

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