Thursday, March 7, 2013

The Funniest Rabbis in Cleveland: Rabbi Lauren Werber on Cultural Differences in Dining Etiquette


Continuing our series on the Funniest Rabbi in Cleveland, in today's episode Rabbi Lauren Werber, spiritual leader of Temple B'nai Abraham, takes to the stage to deliver her standup comedy routine.

Starting off by explaining that she often counsels couples who are considering intermarriage, she goes into a funny description of the cultural differences that show up in restaurant dining habits. She contrasts dining etiquette using examples of  Jews (her relatives of Eastern European origin) and rural North Carolina Southern Baptists (members of her husband's family.)

For example,she tells of the odd behavior of the Southern Baptists:
- When they are shown a table, they accept it even if there's a draft or if it's in the center of the room.
- They sit without complaining.
- They actually order items from the menu. Then they talk.
- When they talk, one is talking at a time. And they actually pause to let someone else talk.
- They plan on going to a movie, and they all agree on what to see.

Then she describes the scene as her 15 congregants go to the same restaurant and bring the server to tears with the 15 different ways they want their water. 

Finally, she tells one of our favorite jokes, The Cow From Minsk, the joke that always brings the house down with laughter.

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.)


5 comments:

  1. The rabbi is very funny. Unfortunately, the photographer is not very good.

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  2. What a great routine! Very funny and great presentation!

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  3. Her routine is very cute.....reminds me of the very famous "Gentiles and Jews in a Restaurant" routine by Jackie Mason. You've shown several of these comedic rabbi videos with the same background, and the photgraphy is always bad. They are either chopping the person's head off, or not being steady. Are they using tripods?? It's very annoying.

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    1. Sorry about the quality of the video. All the performances were on the same day at the Maltz Museum, and it looks like the videographer set up the camera and walked away, resulting in the head chop when the rabbi moved around the stage. But I think the jokes and the the rabbis' willingness to perform were worth sharing despite the flaws in the photography.

      Here's an idea for all readers: Find a suitable location in your community, get all the rabbis in town to do some standup comedy, and get a good videographer to record it for posterity. Send the videos to me or post them on YouTube, and I'll share them with all Jewish Humor Central fans.

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  4. I agree with the comments above; I particularly liked the cow joke.

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