Jewish Humor Central is a daily publication to start your day with news of the Jewish world that's likely to produce a knowing smile and some Yiddishe nachas. It's also a collection of sources of Jewish humor--anything that brings a grin, chuckle, laugh, guffaw, or just a warm feeling to readers.
Our posts include jokes, satire, books, music, films, videos, food, Unbelievable But True, and In the News. Some are new, and some are classics. We post every morning, Sunday through Friday. Enjoy!
Lechu Neranena is the opening psalm of Kabbalat Shabbat, inviting us to
come together and sing our hearts out.
Here is a melody composed by Cantor Jacqueline Rafii of the Shomrei Torah Synagogue in West Hills, California for this text, inspired by its joyous and uplifting
words.
Cantor Lisa Peicott of the Wilshire Boulevard Temple in L.A. joins her for this performance.
Enjoy, and Shabbat shalom!
A
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Just when we thought
that there were no more Myron Cohen jokes on the internet, our
relentless research found a vintage clip from The Ed Sullivan Show in
1962.
So let's turn the clock back almost 60 years for a few minutes with this legendary comedian masking his perfect English diction with a Yiddish accent as he tells two jokes as a tribute to Jewish women.
Enjoy!
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Back in 1963, Jerry
Stiller and Anne Meara appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show with a skit
about a man named Jonah who washed up on Laguna Beach in California
after being entombed alive for 24 hours in the abdominal cavity of a
whale.
Stiller played the Brooklyn-accented survivor and Meara played the annoying reporter who interviewed him and kept interrupting him.
All in all, a classic Stiller and Meara skit. Enjoy!
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It’s easy to think that Haredi (“ultra-Orthodox”) communities are all black and white. But the increase in TV shows and films that portray the complexities of Orthodox Jewish, especially Haredi, life in the past ten years has allowed us to catch a glimpse into what life in these communities is really like.
The video below will take you through some of pop culture's favorite Haredi characters, like Esty from Unorthodox and Akiva from Shtisel.
And now comes the news that Shtisel is
being adapted into an American version.
The show, which besides the name will share a few thematic elements
with the original, is being written by Lauren Gussis and directed by
Kenneth Lonergan, who is best known for his Oscar-winning drama
“Manchester By the Sea.”
We will be tracking this version and other upcoming binge-watching candidates from Israel and share the trailers with you as soon as they become available.
Enjoy!
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It's Monday again, and time for another Joke to Start the Week. Today we're sharing one of the classic jokes told by William Novak, co-author with Moshe Waldoks of The Big Book of Jewish Humor.
On January 5, Novak retold the joke, along with many others, in an hour-long webinar sponsored by Moment Magazine called What's so Funny About Jewish Humor. The session was recorded and includes many more jokes, which we will share with you in the coming weeks.
Here's
the setup for today's joke: Mandel, a man whose bank account exceeds his education, comes to the rabbi, and says "Rabbi, I want to become a Levi." And then...
Enjoy!
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Meet Cookie Kibbitznik – your favorite Jewish mother! She's a
technically-challenged Boomer fashionista – a tell-it-like-it-is kind of unfiltered gal ... a
power-walking, pool-jogging, brisket-making, mah jongg maven ... your
new favorite Funny Girl and giver of sage advice! She's here to teach
you Yiddish, as you fall out of your chair, laughing!
These
videos are not meant to compete with serious Yiddish language tutorials such as the new Duolingo course or Rukhl Schaechter's Word of the Day lessons from the Forward. They focus on Yiddish words that you probably already know, but illustrate their use in hilarious ways. They are produced and
acted out by a woman who reveals only her first name, Perri. In today's
video and other that we will be sharing in the coming weeks, she
assumes the identity of Cookie Kibitznik, a yenta if we ever saw won.
In this episode, Cookie teaches you how to build on the word "oy." Learn
the phrases:
Oy vey,
Oy vey iz mir,
Oy gottenyu, and
Oy gevalt.
Enjoy!
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Once again it's time to welcome Shabbat with Lecha Dodi, the centerpiece of the Kabbalat Shabbat evening service. Today's version is performed by Cantorial Soloist Shelly Fox of Temple Israel of Hollywood, California.
Shelly Fox has served Temple Israel of Hollywood as Cantorial Soloist
since 2015 and as Music Director since 2017. Shelly is deeply interested
in exploring the balance between tradition and innovation in worship
music and encouraging people to discover and develop their own voice in
prayer and song.
Before focusing on Classical Music, Shelly was a folk singer-songwriter
in Upstate New York and Nashville, Tennessee. She enjoys bouncing
between styles and in any worship service one can hear her lead the
congregation in song with her guitar and also fill the room with old
synagogue classics.
Enjoy, and Shabbat shalom!
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Sid Caesar was considered a "sketch comic" and actor, as opposed to a
stand-up comedian. He also relied more on body language, accents, and
facial contortions than simply dialogue. Unlike the slapstick comedy
which was standard on TV, his style was considered "avant garde" in the
1950s.
After Caesar's successful TV career with Your Show of Shows and Caesar's
Hour which ran from 1950 to 1957, he focused more on movies, with
occasional TV appearances on variety shows such as Ed Sullivan's.
In this 1964 solo appearance, Caesar analyzes the different responses of married men and bachelors to the onset of a common cold.
Enjoy!
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Here's a wacky scene -- "Every Man for Himself" -- from a really wacky movie -- one of our favorite comedies, It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.
The story begins during a massive traffic jam, caused by reckless driver Smiler Grogan (Jimmy Durante), who, before kicking the bucket, cryptically tells the assembled drivers that he's buried a fortune in stolen loot, under the Big W.
The drivers, who meet by chance, include Buddy Hackett, Mickey Rooney, Sid Caesar, Milton Berle, Phil Silvers, Ethel Merman, and Jonathan Winters. When negotiations for dividing up the buried treasure break down, everyone runs to their cars and the race for the money is on.
The 1963 movie runs three and a half hours and it's worth taking the time to watch it all.
Enjoy!
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HiHo Kids
is a YouTube channel with lots of short videos of kids doing funny
things. Many of the videos involve kids tasting foods of different
countries and ethnic groups.
This week they posted a video of kids learning some Yiddish words and trying out some typical Jewish grandma recipes, including bagels & lox with a schmear, matzo ball soup, kugel, brisket, and babka.
Enjoy!
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It's another Monday and time for another Joke to Start the Week. Today Mickey Greenblatt is back with another good one.
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: One day, late in the afternoon, a thief broke into the house. He found a man and a woman there. He pulled out a knife, and then...
Enjoy!
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Surfing
the internet can result in some unexpected surprises, and that's what
we encountered today in discovering a new comedy series called A Minute
of Yiddish with Cookie Kibitznik (Her Royal Thighness).
Unlike the educational Yiddish Word of the Day series which we have been running for the last few months, this one focuses on the comedy inherent in the use of Yiddish words in everyday English speech.
These videos, which we are starting to share with you today, are produced and acted out by a woman who reveals only her first name, Perri. In today's video and other that we will be sharing in the coming weeks, she assumes the identity of Cookie Kibitznik, a yenta if we ever saw won.
In each episode Cookie will explain a Yiddish word and show many funny examples of its use in spoken Yinglish. Today's word is kvetch. So stop kvetching already and enjoy!
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Argentinean-born Cantor Gastón Bogomolni of the Beth Torah Benny Rok Campus in North Miami Beach is a versatile, soulful, and
energetic edu-tainer and performer.
Prior to his arrival to the US in
2002, Cantor Gastón worked and organized multiple Jewish events in the
Dominican Republic, Europe, and South America.
Cantor Gastón’s embracing
of Ashkenazic, Sephardic, Neo-Hassidic, Renewal, Latin and Folk
background allow him to create a unique spiritual experience when
davening at shul.
Back in 2004 Cantor Gastón got a special gift to record the album of his
dreams: a Latin-Jewish recording. Each song in the album was crafted
and designed to have a connection between the text of the liturgy and
the special Latin American style.
Lecha Dodi was set to a Ranchera style
(from Mexico) having in mind that a group of Mariachis would be
welcoming and serenading the Bride and Queen of Shabbat.
Enjoy and Shabbat Shalom!
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Today is Yom Ha'atzmaut, Israel's 73rd birthday. It's a day for festivities and barbecues all over the country. It commemorates
the establishment of the modern state of Israel in 1948. In Israel,
it's celebrated with fireworks, barbecues, and public concerts.
The Aardvark Israel organization has produced a video tour of Israel as experienced by participants in its gap year programs located in the two most exciting cities in Israel: Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.
Its students have the privilege to live in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, travel with new friends from Israel and around the world, walk the city streets, hike the desert hills, speak Hebrew, and intern at their dream companies.
Happy Independence Day to Israelis and lovers of Israel around the world!
Enjoy!
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Last week comedian Shecky Greene celebrated his 95th birthday. Greene (born Fred Sheldon Greenfield on April 8, 1926) is known for his
nightclub performances in Las Vegas, where he has been a headliner for
more than thirty years.
He has appeared in several films, including Tony Rome, History of the World, Part I and Splash, and has guest starred on such television shows as Mad About You, Laverne & Shirley, Love, American Style, and Combat! In 1959 Greene appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show. After bantering with Sullivan about his real name being Shmoyel Greenfield, Greene launches into a routine about the great European composers, complete with German and French accents reminiscent of sketches by Sid Caesar.
The sketch includes a scene that you wouldn't see on network TV today, with Sullivan and Greene lighting up and smoking cigarettes. Enjoy! A SPECIAL NOTE FOR NEW EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS:
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You wouldn't expect Rad Halaila,
a classic Israeli hora dance, to show up in a courtyard in Valladolid, a
city in northwest Spain about 100 miles from Madrid. But it had so much
appeal to the Valladolid World Dance Association that they adopted the
name Radalaila for their dance group.
Rad Halaila is a hora in which the dancers move individually to the right, describing a circle and entering and leaving it.It is a very energetic dance.
Enjoy!
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It's Monday again, and time for another Joke to Start the Week.
Today we're sharing one of the classic jokes told by William Novak, co-author with Moshe Waldoks of The Big Book of Jewish Humor.
On January 5, Novak retold the joke, along with many others, in an hour-long webinar sponsored by Moment Magazine called What's so Funny About Jewish Humor. The session was recorded and includes many more jokes, which we will share with you in the coming weeks.
Here's
the setup for today's joke: In the Polish town of Chelm, The people of Chelm were worriers. And they worried that they were too worried. So they came up with a solution. They appointed one man, Yossel, who would do all the worrying for the town. And then...
Enjoy!
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Lisa Fishman and Ben
Liebert, members of the cast of the Off-Broadway hit, "Fiddler on the
Roof" in Yiddish, conceived and co-produced a performance of "God Bless
America" sung in Yiddish. It features the
show's director, Academy and Tony Award-winning actor, Joel Grey, along
with Steven Skybell, who starred as Tevye. Yiddish was one of the two
native tongues of Irving Berlin,
who wrote the iconic anthem.
“God Bless America” was originally written in 1918 for a musical revue
by Irving Berlin, a Jewish immigrant born Israel Beilin, while Berlin
was in the U.S. Army. Deciding the song didn’t fit the tone of the
revue, the song was set aside.
Twenty years later in 1938 with the rise
of Adolf Hitler and fascism, Berlin revisited and revised the song and
released it as a prayer for the country and a patriotic song of peace.
“God Bless America” was introduced on an Armistice Day broadcast in
1938, sung by Kate Smith.
The Yiddish version of the song being presented by the cast, entitled
“Got Bentsh Amerike,” was originally translated by producer,
musicologist, performer and Yiddish Radio Project co-creator, Henry
Sapoznik, who worked on Yiddish translations for Mandy Patinkin’s album,
Mamaloshen.
The video features Steven Skybell, the award-winning actor who played
Tevye in Fiddler in Yiddish, along with Jennifer Babiak, Samantha Hahn,
Ben Liebert, Stephanie Lynne Mason, Rosie Jo Neddy, Raquel Nobile, Drew
Seigla, and Rachel Zatcoff.
The production also includes a special message by Joel Grey.
Additional Fiddler cast members appearing in the video (from both the
Museum of Jewish Heritage production along with the Off-Broadway, Stage
42 production) include: Joanne Borts, Josh Dunn, Michael Einav, Lisa
Fishman, Kirk Geritano, John Giesige, Lydia Gladstone, Abby Goldfarb,
Mary Illes, Josh Kohane, Maya Jacobson, Moshe Lobel, Evan Mayer,
Jonathan Quigley, Nick Raynor, Bruce Sabath, Kayleen Seidl, Adam B.
Shapiro, Jodi Snyder, James Monroe Stevko, Ron Tal, Bobby Underwood, and
Mikhl Yashinsky.
The video also features Lauren Thomas, who played the titular role in
Fiddler, on violin, along with the show’s clarinetist, Zisl Slepovitch,
on piano.
Enjoy!
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A tip of the kippah to Stan Lieberman for bringing this video to our attention.
With Pesach in the
rear view mirror, we return to our regular Friday posting of liturgical
melodies from the Kabbalat Shabbat and Shabbat services.
This week we came across a version of Lecha Dodi with a melody that's used only for the days between Pesach and Shavuot, the days of counting the Omer.
It's sung by Hazzan Elisheva Dienstfrey. A native of Albuquerque, New Mexico, Hazzan Dienstfrey is the cantor at Agudas Achim Congregation in Alexandria, Virginia. In addition to her usual cantorial duties at Agudas Achim, Hazzan
Dienstfrey has been a member of the Executive Council of the Cantors
Assembly, and an enthusiastic leader of the Agudas Achim house band, Ein Lanu Z’man (www.einlanuzman.com), We Have No Time.
Enjoy, and Shabbat shalom!
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There are very few days in the year when we don't post jokes or funny anecdotes, and today is one of them.
Tonight and tomorrow we commemorate Yom HaShoah,
Holocaust Remembrance Day. It's not a day for Jewish humor, but it can
be and should be a day to recognize acts of bravery and compassion of
Jews and non-Jews who saved lives in those troubled days of the 20th
century.
The essence of heroic resistance was captured in Steven Spielberg's 1993 film Schindler's List and the haunting theme that recurs during the film.
This recording of the Schindler's List theme was made for the 2021 Rochester Jewish Federation Yom
Hashoah Holocaust Remembrance ceremony. Due to Covid safety rules, the
event was moved fully online this year. The performers are Shannon Nance, Assistant Concert Master in the
Rochester Philharmonic and Bob Sneider, Jazz Guitar Professor at
the Eastman School of Music.
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In celebration of the addition of Yiddish to their popular most downloaded education app worldwide—Duolingo partnered with bagel shops
in five cities to offer a free bagel yesterday to anyone who
attempted to order the Jewish dietary staple in the Yiddish dialect. And
of course, these bagels came with a free schmear because, just like the
word bagel, the term schmear also comes from Yiddish.
To order, customers had to give their best
attempt at saying 'Ken ikh hubn a baygl mit shmirkeyz' or in English, 'I
would like a bagel with schmear,'" the announcement explained. But even customers who were close enough were given a free breakfast from Duolingo.
The five participating shops were:
New York City: Katz's Deli (205 E Houston St.)
Los Angeles: Factor's Famous Deli (420 W Pico Blvd.)
Chicago: Manny's Cafeteria & Deli (1141 S Jefferson St.)
Miami: Zak The Baker (295 NW 26th St.)
Pittsburgh: Pigeon Bagels (5613 Hobart St.)
Yiddish is the 40th language Duolingo offers, and
the company says that though Yiddish was once spoken by as many as 13
million people, around 600,000 still speak the traditionally Ashkenazi
Jewish language to this day. "Yiddish is spoken all around the world,
and even if you've never heard of the language before, we bet you
probably already know some Yiddish words," the company wrote.
Here's a report from a local New York TV station on the morning action at Katz's Deli.
Enjoy!
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Last July the Forward
posted some Jewish comedy in their series #ForwardFocus: Talks in
Trying Times. Hosted by Forverts editor Rukhl Schaechter, the session
included a sketch by Yiddish actors Allen Lewis Rickman and Yelena
Shmulenson.
The setup for the sketch: A Jewish immigrant who is fond of cantorial music overhears a conversation about a new cantor named Yankel who is performing in the Bronx. He rushes onto the subway to hear his concert. Of course there is no cantor -- what he thought he heard as Yankel was really the Yankees who were playing a baseball game in Yankee Stadium.
Rickman acts out the role of the immigrant who knows nothing about baseball and is excited to be swept up in what he thinks is an enthusiastic crowd for the cantor but is just Yankee fans headed for the stadium. He spins his story entirely in Yiddish, with Shmulenson translating sentence by sentence into English.
Enjoy!
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It's another Monday and time for another Joke to Start the Week. Today Mickey Greenblatt is back with another good one.
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:
Morris Schwartz is on his deathbed. He's with his nurse, his wife, his daughter and his two sons. And then...
Enjoy!
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This
weekend marks the end of Passover. In Israel this Shabbat is the last
day of the holiday, and in the rest of the world Pesach ends on Sunday
night.
If you're like us, you'll spend the night putting away Pesach dishes and restoring the kitchen to the way it was before five pound boxes of matza and all the other Passover stuff found its way into the house.
But Jews of Moroccan and North African origin have a fun way of ending the holiday by celebrating the Mimouna festival just as Passover ends, continuing into the next day. With singing, dancing, and a dazzling array of sweet pastries, it's catching on in Israel and spreading into mainstream Israeli culture.
In Morocco, neighbors travel to each other’s houses, and it is customary to
leave all doors open to welcome any possible guests. Tables are laden
with symbols to ensure a good year: blossoming spring flowers, fish for
abundance and fertility, and dates sweetened with honey to inspire an
equally sweet life. The next day, festivities continue with barbecues,
picnics, and large gatherings.
Let's join a Mimouna festival that Israel TV reported on last year. We wish you a happy ending to the week of Pesach. We'll be observing two days of Yom Tov so Jewish Humor Central is taking a break until Monday when we'll be back with our usual mix, including a Joke to Start the Week.
Shabbat Shalom and Chag Sameach!
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It's
another Throwback Thursday and today we're turning the clock back 69
years to 1952 for a skit that Smith and Dale performed on The Ed
Sullivan Show.
In this skit Smith and Dale argue about a $2.85 bargain radio on sale at Gimbels department store.
Joe
Smith (originally Joseph Seltzer) and Charlie Dale (originally Charles
Marks) grew up in the Jewish ghettos of New York City. Many of the
famous comic performers of vaudeville, radio and movies came from the
same place and the same era, including Gallagher and Shean, George
Burns, Eddie Cantor, George Jessel and The Marx Brothers. Seltzer and Marks met as teenagers in 1898 and formed a partnership.
They named their act "Smith and Dale" because a local printer gave them a
good deal on business cards reading "Smith and Dale" (intended for a
vaudeville team that had dissolved). Joe Seltzer became Joe Smith, and
Charlie Marks became Charlie Dale.
During
the 1920s, they became famous for their signature sketch "Doctor
Kronkheit and His Only Living Patient," which like "Who's on First?" for
Abbott and Costello,
became one of the famous comedy sketches of the 20th century. The name
of the doctor is an inside joke: Smith and Dale, both being Jewish,
named the physician Kronkheit, which is Yiddish and German for
"sickness". Thus we have a doctor named "Dr. Sickness". Indeed a
hospital in German is called a Krankenhaus, or literally "sick house".
Enjoy!
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Jewish Humor Central Staff
Publisher and Editor-in-Chief:
Al Kustanowitz Food and Wine Editor:
Aviva Weinberg Israel Food and Wine Consultant Penina Kustanowitz Reporter and Photographer:
Meyer Berkowitz Reporter Phyllis Flancbaum
Now You Can Book Program and Lecture Dates for 2023 and 2024 in Person and Via ZOOM
Now is the time to book our Jewish humor programs and lectures for your 2023 and 2024 events in person and via ZOOM anywhere in the world. Book any of our 22 popular programs including "The Great Jewish Comedians", “Israel is a Funny Country”, and "Jewish Traces in Unexpected Places." Click above for details and videos. To book a program, contact Al at akustan@gmail.com or 201-390-7535.
"Jewish Traces in Unexpected Places" is now available on Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle editions
This book presents 150 anecdotes and associated video clips that reveal the myriad ways that Jewish culture, religion, humor, music, song, and dance have found expression in parts of the world that, at first glance, might not seem supportive of Jewish Life. It includes 50 videos of Hava Nagila being performed from Texas to Thailand, from India to Iran, and from Buenos Aires to British Columbia. Also highlighted are 34 international versions of Hevenu Shalom Aleichem, Adon Olam, Abanibi, and Tumbalalaika. Whether you’re reading the print version and typing in the video URLs or reading the e-book version and clicking on the links, you’ll have access to 150 video clips totaling more than 10 hours of video. Enjoy!
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This book explores the multifaceted nature of humor in Israel, some of which is intentional and some of which is unintentional. Either way, the quirks of Israeli life contribute to making that life interesting and fulfilling. In the pages of this volume, we take a look at humorous slices of Israeli life, Israeli comedy, satire and parody, funny TV commercials, unusual stories about food, surprising rabbinic bans on daily activities, simchas as they can only be celebrated in Israel, and endearing aspects of Israeli culture. There are more than 120 anecdotes and links to video clips totaling more than six hours of video. We hope that these anecdotes and video clips give you a new and different insight into life in Israel, and encourage you to join in the fun by planning a visit to the land flowing with milk and honey.
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About the Publisher and Editor-in-Chief
Al Kustanowitz, Jewish Humor Central's Publisher and Editor-in-Chief, has collected Jewish humor even before there was an internet. For the last 25 years he has been editor and publisher of The Kustanowitz Kronikle.
Al is a member of the Jewish Speakers Bureau.
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