Comedy Showcase: Rabbi Bob Alper Headlines Comedy Show at Borscht Belt Festival

The Borscht Belt Festival in Ellenville, New York, is in its third year. Last weekend, Catskills fans from all over descended on the festival at the Borscht Belt Museum for a dose of nostalgia, Jewish comedy, and classic Jewish food as it was served in the hotels of Sullivan and Ulster Counties.

Entertainment for the weekend featured standup comedy headlined by 80-year-old Rabbi Bob Alper who has been performing standup for more than 30 years in addition to his rabbinical duties in Philadelphia and Vermont, where he lives.

In this excerpt from his comedy routine, Rabbi Bob reminisces about his first pulpit and the funny encounters he had with children when he was first ordained in Buffalo and teaching in Hebrew school.

Enjoy!

Borscht Belt Street Festival Comes to Ellenville in the Catskills

Hundreds of visitors poured into the Borscht Belt Museum in Ellenville last weekend for a trip down memory lane highlighting hotels, food, culture, and comedy beloved by generations of Jewish families. 

Jeff Fox used to live in Loch Sheldrake and the museum brings back many memories for the resident who now lives on Long Island. “I think it's great. A lot of memorabilia. Love the signs. I remember them all. There’s great memories and food outside at the fair,” said Fox. 

Museum-goers spilled out onto Canal Street to sample a two-day celebration of Jewish food and culture including the star of the show-- Borscht--a creamy, slightly sour soup made from beetroot. “It's like the ultimate comfort food, but it's also healthy. Like you feel better after you eat it. Like it's like my grandma would make it, but it's not like fried food. Like, it's delicious, but also comforting,” said Kathryn Levy of Brooklyn.

A Seven Week Online Series "Is Anything Okay? The History of Jewish Comedy in America" Launches on Thursday

From the earliest jokes told on the Lower East Side to the comedy routines honed in the Catskills, Ashkenazi Jews developed radically new forms of comedic output in the 20th century. On film and television, pioneering Jewish comics broke norms and challenged taboos of American culture.

In the newest online course from the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, we can delve into the history of Jewish comedy and its explosive development in the United States. We will see hundreds of unique archival objects, including vintage jokebooks, early comedy records, film, television, and radio clips, photographs, and posters, along with interviews and discussions with leading scholars and personalities from the world of Jewish comedy.

The 7-week course, just in time for Purim and co-sponsored by the Catskills Borscht Belt Museum will launch on Thursday, March 20 online, with a new episode coming every week. The course is free but registration is required.

As Alan Zeitlin wrote in The Jewish Journal,

The first of seven episodes will be “Roots: Jewish Humor in Traditional Ashkenazi Jewish Life” and the last one will be “Contemporary Jewish Comedy” while others will explore the Catskills’ and internal Jewish conflict. The course will continue with a new episode dropping every week.

There will be lectures given by scholars and academics; Jewish comedians, writers and producers will also share their insights,. While it will focus on Ashkenazi Jewish humor, there will be some detours to the humor of Sephardic Jews. 

Enjoy!

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Throwback Thursday Comedy Special: Jerry Lewis Reminisces About His Days as a Borscht Belt Busboy

Jerry Lewis' gift of comedy lasted about 85 years, from his stage debut at age 5 in the Catskills until his death in 2017. Over the years we have posted video clips of some of his best shtick. But Jerry also left behind a collection of interviews in which he reminisces about parts of his career that aren't widely known.

On October 27, 2000, Jerry was interviewed by Sam Denoff in San Diego, California. In this excerpt, he talks about the Borscht Belt, working as a busboy at Brown's Hotel, and how it launched him into the world of comedy and entertainment. 

Enjoy!

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  #Throwback Thursday     #TBT

Remembering Freddie Roman - Master of Standup Comedy and Borscht Belt Icon

The world of Jewish humor lost one of its shining lights this week with the death of Freddie Roman, a stand-up comedian whose career spanned the decades when comedy and the Catskills were synonymous.

Roman's career expanded to years of shows in Las Vegas and in Florida. He was the Dean of the Friars Club for more than 20 years.

Roman was born Fred Kirschenbaum in Jamaica Queens, New York in 1937. He got his start in the Borscht Belt after working in his father's shoe store and then sold life insurance for a few years before making comedy his full-time job.

Starting out as social director at the Homowack Lodge in Spring Glen, New York, he worked his way through the Catskill mountain resorts and got to know all of the comedians who performed in the hundreds of hotels situated 90 miles from New York City.

He created and co-starred in Catskills on Broadway, a revue which brought the comedy of the Borscht Belt to Broadway in 1991 and then toured the country.

We're remembering Freddie today with a video clip of one of his classic routines in which he touches on some of his favorite topics -- love and marriage, aging, retirement, and living in South Florida.

Enjoy!

From the Catskills to TV: A Nostalgic Look-Back at Lou Goldstein and His "Simon Says" Game

 

If you spent any time in the Catskill Mountains of New York back in the twentieth century, especially if you were lucky to be at the Grossingers Hotel in Liberty, you must remember the Simon Says game that Lou Goldstein played with guests almost every day during the summer season.

 

Born in Poland in 1921, Goldstein performed his shtick at Grossingers from 1948-1986. He also did the half-time shows for NBA teams all over the country. Likewise the NHL and baseball games all featured his nationally known "Simon Says". He enjoyed doing these shows at all the Catskills Resorts, including the Pines, Concord, Nevele, Paramount, Granit, Swan Lake, and the Raleigh. 

 

Later, Goldstein brought the game to television and the ABC show Superstars. It was amazing to see how quickly he took control of the audience and used his rapid-fire instructions to get most of the players out.

We enjoyed watching this bit of nostalgia from the Borscht Belt era and hope that you will too.

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Remembering Mal Z. Lawrence - King of Catskills Comedy

Last week the world of Jewish humor lost one of its greatest stars with the death of Mal Z. Lawrence, one of our favorite comedians, who brought Borscht Belt comedy and waves of laughter to Jewish audiences in the Catskills, South Florida, Las Vegas, and Midtown Manhattan.

As Neil Genzlinger wrote in The New York Times,

Mr. Lawrence came to prominence in the Catskills in the 1950s but was soon known all over the country, playing Las Vegas, Atlantic City, Florida and other stops on the comedy circuit, where his brand of relatively mild Jewish-tinged humor was greeted enthusiastically. To a Florida audience he might joke about the Catskills; to a Northern audience, he’d poke fun at Florida.

Manny Miller was born on Sept. 2, 1932, in the Bronx and grew up there. “Mal Z. Lawrence,” as he variously told the story over the years, was the suggestion of an early agent, or perhaps several different agents. “Lawrence” was borrowed from a Long Island village where he was appearing. As for the Z, which stood for nothing, “My agent told me I’d get more marquee space,” he said.

As a tribute to Mal, we're sharing a video clip of one of his classic performances. Enjoy! 

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Comedy Showcase: Avi Hoffman's "Too Jewish, Too! - Welcome To The Catskills"

At age 10 Avi Hoffman (born Avrum Ber, in 1958) made his theatrical debut in a Yiddish Folksbiene Theater production called Bronx Express. In the decades that followed, the performer, a son of Holocaust survivors, has appeared in a wide range of theatrical endeavors, both in New York City and regionally.

Avi is the CEO of the Yiddishkayt Initiative, a not-for-profit organization that celebrates and promotes Jewish history, life, and culture and their positive and far-reaching impact on the world. From performing arts, publishing, and education to language, philosophy, and literature, YI offers a global clearinghouse of Jewish culture and entertainment. 

Avi is known for his shows, Too Jewish and Too Jewish Too. Today we're sharing Welcome to the Catskills, an excerpt from Avi's second show Too Jewish, Too. Enjoy! 

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A Joke to Start the Week - "Reward and Punishment"

It's another Monday, and time for another Joke to Start the Week.

In early July, when we were presenting programs on Jewish humor at the annual Camp Hazak week in the Catskills, we were glad to run into Sheldon Horowitz, a retired attorney and adjunct professor who loves to tell jokes and has been telling them for many years.

The camp, which was held at the newly refurbished Honor's Haven Resort and Spa in Ellenville, New York, attracted about 70 seniors, mostly from Hazak groups at Conservative synagogues from up and down the east coast. Sheldon had previously given us a few jokes at another Hazak retreat six years ago at Kutsher's Resort. Today we're sharing another one of his new old ones. We still have one more that we're saving for a future week.

Here's the setup: This Jew dies and goes up to heaven. He's walking around there for a couple of weeks and he sees this old rabbi that he knew years ago, and there's the rabbi walking arm in arm with a beautiful blonde. And then...

Enjoy!

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A Joke to Start the Week - "Belated Greeting"

It's another Monday, and time for another Joke to Start the Week.

Last month, when we were presenting programs on Jewish humor at the annual Camp Hazak week in the Catskills, we were glad to run into Sheldon Horowitz, a retired attorney and adjunct professor who loves to tell jokes and has been telling them for many years.

The camp, which was held at the newly refurbished Honor's Haven Resort and Spa in Ellenville, New York, attracted about 70 seniors, mostly from Hazak groups at Conservative synagogues from up and down the east coast. Sheldon had previously given us a few jokes at another Hazak retreat six years ago at Kutsher's Resort. Today we're sharing another one of his new old ones. We still have a few more that we're saving for future weeks.

Here's the setup: This Jewish guy is in a cemetery and he's saying Kaddish. As he's saying Kaddish he looks down the line and sees an old friend of his that he hasn't seen for 25 years. And then...

Enjoy!

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The Catskills Come Alive at Boca Raton JCC

If New York's Catskill Mountains were ever a part of your life, you should be spending this month at the Levis Jewish Community Center in Boca Raton, Florida, where the Catskills are coming alive in a month-long series of programs centering on Catskills nostalgia.

With 15 lectures, four live performances, nine feature films, and a museum gallery exhibition, Greetings from the Catskills, now underway through March 1, is a nostalgic trip down memory lane that you will treasure.

You'll find all the details on pages 4 and 5 of the JCC brochure. If you can't be in Boca Raton this month you can join in the fun by watching the featured movies. You can find them on Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, or borrow them from your local library. Here's the list of Catskills movies:

Sweet Lorraine
Welcome to Kutsher's: The Last Catskills Resort
Marjorie Morningstar
When Comedy Went to School
A Walk on the Moon
Dirty Dancing
The Rise and Fall of the Borscht Belt
Four Seasons Lodge
When Jews Were Funny

To get you started, here's the trailer for the 1987 film Sweet Lorraine, starring Freddie Roman, Maureen Stapleton, and Trini Alvarado. 

Enjoy!


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Kicking Off the Florida Comedy and Entertainment Season - Right Here!

The winter season in South Florida is known for its bounty of stand-up comedy and entertainment. It may not be the Catskills, but it certainly comes close in bringing fun to all the snowbirds who migrate to warmer weather each winter.

We're getting ready to spend the rest of this winter in the swimming pool and beaches by day, and in clubhouses and entertainment venues at night from Miami Beach to West Palm Beach.

We're also doing six shows of our own for senior groups in Deerfield Beach resort hotels and a 90 minute special lecture on The Great Jewish Comedians at Florida Atlantic University on March 6. It's almost sold out, so we hope you'll be able to get tickets and join us there.

We'll kick off the season with the opening number of a Kosher Comedy Tour in Coral Springs a few years ago starring Sharon Daniels, Stu Moss, and Peter Fogel. It features "Jewish F Words": Farklempt, Fardreyt, Farmished, Farblunget, Fartumelt, Farbissen, and more.

From now through March we'll be sharing some video clips of comedians and entertainers who are performing this season in Florida.

Enjoy!

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Throwback Thursday Comedy Special: Stewie Stone Reminisces on a Life in Comedy

Stewie Stone is a classic Catskills comedy performer who is still doing his shtick in Florida and wherever Jewish audiences can be found.

Stone is living proof that you can take the kid out of Brooklyn, but you can't take Brooklyn out of the kid. Even his name, Stewie, comes direct from Flatbush. "In Brooklyn," he explains, "we're very big on vowels. We put 'E's at the end of everything -- Hermie, Frankie, Stewie. "

Stone started as a drummer for New York bands, became a midweek entertainer at the Concord Hotel in the Catskills, and worked his way up to being the opening act for Paul Anka, Frankie Avalon, Dionne Warwick, Ben Vereen, Bobby Vinton, Sonny & Cher, and Engelbert Humperdinck in Las Vegas.

Dave Konig and Brent Katz created a short film  'Stewie Stone: In One', based on the life and comedy of Stewie Stone. In the film, Stone reminisces about his life in stand-up comedy.

Enjoy!

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#Throwback Thursday   #TBT

Brooklyn's Brighton Beach Baths Evoke Memories of Catskills Comedy

The Borscht Belt era of comedy in the Catskill mountains ended in the 1980s, although Kutsher's, the last of the big hotels, managed to hold out until 2013. After the closing of most hotels, the comedy scene shifted to the Brighton Beach Baths until they also closed in 1995.

Some years later, comedy veterans Freddie Roman, Stewie Stone, and Dick Capri were interviewed by the website thatsbrooklyn.com (now on Facebook) and they reminisced about the good old days. It's a great nostalgia piece and we think you'll enjoy hearing their stories about the long-gone hotels and entertainers.

Here's the video that we found on YouTube. Enjoy!

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Does your organization want to book Al for one of his 20 Jewish humor programs? Click here to check out all the details and program choices at www.JewishSpeakersBureau.com.

The Concord and Grossinger's Are On Their Way to Reopening in the Catskills

Artist's Rendering of the New Resorts World in Kiamesha Lake

The glory days of' the Borscht Belt and the Catskill Hotels in New York came to a sad end in the 1980s. Now, 30 years later, signs of hope are beginning to appear.

Current plans don't envision the return of the Concord and Grossinger's Hotels as the kosher getaways that flourished from the 1940s to the 1980s, but activity is picking up on the site of both hotels.

Construction of a new Resorts World casino hotel on the site of The Concord in Kiamesha Lake is well underway with a planned opening in March 2018. Meanwhile, 13 miles away in Liberty, the sleeping giant of Grossinger's is stirring, crumbling buildings and all.

As Sarah Maslin Nir reported in The New York Times last week,

In the spring, Louis R. Cappelli, a Westchester-based real estate developer who has owned the complex for two decades, applied to the State Department of Environmental Conservation requesting that a portion of the property be designated a brownfield, or contaminated site. The former resort is now a hodgepodge of scores of crumbling buildings on hundreds of acres, land he says is laden with chemicals spilled by dry-cleaning and machine repair shops. Such a designation would make the property eligible for state funds to help with remediation of the soil and groundwater, a necessary first step, Mr. Cappelli says, to bring back the world-class resort.

Mr. Cappelli, who bought the place in 1999, more than a decade after the Grossinger family had ceased operations, envisions a grand future: a conference center, housing, spa and chalet-style lodging. It is a bet that piggybacks on the crowds that he hopes will come to the Resorts World Casino, a $750 million complex opening next year in another former borscht belt destination, the Concord Resort Hotel in nearby Kiamesha Lake.

Here are two videos, one depicting the high hopes of area residents when the casino license was awarded to the hotel being built on the Concord property, and another report from a local TV station on the current state of the Grossinger's property.

Here's hoping!

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Remembering Eddie Fisher Singing Hava Nagila and Milk and Honey

Eddie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds with Jennie Grossinger

With all the press coverage of the passing of Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds in late December, very little was said about Eddie Fisher, Carrie's dad and Debbie's first husband.

We remember Eddie as a giant (although he was short) of the pop music world after he was discovered by Eddie Cantor at Grossinger's in the Catskills where he was working as a bus boy. 

Fisher was born in Philadelphia in 1928 and was the fourth of seven children. He was the son of Russian-born Jewish immigrants, Gitte Winokur and Joseph Tisch. His father's surname was changed to Fisher by the time of the 1940 census.

He was not an observant Jew, but returned many times to sing at Grossinger's, and that's where he and Debbie Reynolds were married.

As Benjamin Ivry wrote in The Forward,

David E. Kaufman, a Jewish studies professor at Hofstra University, pointed out in “Jewhooing the Sixties: American Celebrity and Jewish Identity.” how during his marriage to Reynolds and earlier, Fisher had been uninvolved with his Jewish heritage.

After leaving Reynolds and his children, Fisher informed movie magazine reporters that he had suddenly discovered his roots. This mechaya was supposedly the result of Fisher’s reading Leon Uris’s 1958 novel “Exodus” and befriending Rabbi Max Nussbaum, the Hollywood religious leader who would perform the wedding ceremony for Taylor and Fisher, also presiding over Liz’s conversion.

Witnessing her ex-husband’s belated realization of his roots must have ultimately struck an absurd note in Reynold’s sensibility, as she raised her children. The fact that Fisher showed no interest in Judaism while they were together may have made Reynolds' own approach to Jewish culture all the more celebratory in later years.

Her late daughter Carrie Fisher had perhaps the closest identification with Judaism in the family, and Reynolds good-humoredly assimilated a certain amount of everyday Jewish culture. Last year, after Carrie tweeted: “From her perch high above Canter's Deli in Hollywood, your half Jewish Princess ponders the world between her bagels,” her mother retweeted the message, adding: “My daughter Carrie is beautiful as she looks down at one of LA’s favorite delis. The whitefish is strong in this one.”

Fisher, who is hardly known by today's young pop music lovers, had many top hits, including Oh My Papa, I'm Walking Behind You, Wish You Were Here, I'm Yours and I Need You Now.

There aren't many traces of Fisher singing Jewish songs, but we found two that we'll share with you. In 1961 he recorded the title song from the Broadway musical Milk and Honey starring Molly Picon. The musical is about a busload of lonely American widows hoping to catch husbands while touring Israel and is set against the backdrop of the country's struggle for recognition as an independent nation.

In 1966 he sang Hava Nagila with The Young Americans on the Hollywood Palace TV show. 

Fisher died in 2010 at the age of 82. We hope you enjoy the videos below.

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Eddie Fisher Sings Milk and Honey



Eddie Fisher Sings Hava Nagila

Throwback Thursday Comedy Special: Mal Z. Lawrence on Atlantic City, Florida, and the Catskills

Mal Z. Lawrence probably holds the record for most stand-up comedy routines performed in Catskills hotels. When the hotels started to disappear, Mal simply moved his shtick to the casino hotels of Atlantic City and the playhouses of Century Village and other residential communities in Florida.

And as old as the jokes are, and no matter how many times the audiences heard them, they still laugh their heads off when Mal strides onto the stage and starts his delivery.

We featured Mal back in 2010 doing a few minutes of his routine on a stage in Florida and in a 2013 performance in Los Angeles. We think it's time to bring him back in a longer version of his act for our readers who have been asking for more of him and for our newer and younger readers who are not familiar with his humor. This video is a 25 minute performance on stage in Atlantic City. 

The secret of Mal's popularity is his uncanny sense of timing, irony, and exaggeration. The subjects covered in this routine include hotels and buses in Atlantic City, and the bountiful food of the Catskill hotels.

Enjoy!

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#Throwback Thursday #TBT  

Robert De Niro Tells Standup Jokes to Promote Catskills

Actor Robert De Niro has a home in New York's Catskill Mountains, and last month he joined New York Governor Andrew Cuomo in promoting tourism in the region that gave birth to standup comedy.

As Jon Campbell wrote for the Gannett Newspapers,

The actor used his time to launch into a Borscht Belt-era comedy routine, delivering a series of one-liners in tribute to comedians like Rodney Dangerfield and Joan Rivers who used to headline lavish Catskill resorts that are now largely out of business.

"OK," De Niro said as he took the podium. "So a man goes to a psychiatrist. The doctor says, 'You're crazy.' The man says, 'I want a second opinion.' The doctor says, 'OK, you're ugly, too.'"

De Niro, who has previously lent his voice to a series of New York tourism advertisements, spoke fondly of the Catskills, calling it his "unspoiled paradise."

In a few minutes, De Niro retold 11 jokes that have been told by most of the famous Jewish comedians. We're sure you've heard them all, but it's always good to hear them again.

Enjoy!

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The Great Jewish Comedians: Freddie Roman, King of the Catskills

Freddie Roman has had a long successful career as a stand-up comedian in the Catskills and in Las Vegas. He has been the Dean of the Friars Club for more than 20 years.

Roman was born Fred Kirschenbaum in Jamaica Queens, New York in 1937. He got his start in the Borscht Belt after working in his father's shoe store and then sold life insurance for a few years before making comedy his full-time job.

Starting out as social director at the Homowack Lodge in Spring Glen, New York, worked his way through the Catskill mountain resorts and got to know all of the comedians who performed in the hundreds of hotels situated 90 miles from New York City.

We met Freddie last June at the finals for The Jewish Week's Funniest Comedian contest and had a delightful conversation about his stand-up routines and his role in the recent documentary Welcome to Kutsher's.

He is still active and is now appearing in the Amazon Prime sitcom series Red Oaks, together with Jennifer Grey, Paul Reiser, and Richard Kind.

Here's a great example of the stand-up comedy that Freddie Roman has been performing for more than 55 years.

Enjoy!


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Revisiting the Borscht Belt - A Nostalgic Return to the Cradle of Jewish Humor

(A note to our readers: We were invited to submit a guest post about the Borscht Belt on the website of the Israel Forever Foundation. It's an engagement organization that develops and promotes experiential learning opportunities to celebrate and strengthen the personal connection to Israel as an integral part of Jewish life and identity. Here's the complete article, including two video clips, that was posted yesterday at Israel Forever.) 
 

Have You Ever Visited the Borscht Belt?

by Al Kustanowitz

Just as Israel has been called the cradle of world civilization, Sullivan County, a quiet rural area in upstate New York, has earned its reputation as the cradle of Jewish humor.

Sullivan County (and part of Ulster County) are the location of the Catskill Mountains, in whose rolling hills and valleys scores of resort hotels were built in the first half of the twentieth century.

These hotels, catering to Northeastern Jews hungry for fresh, cool air and bountiful portions of traditional Jewish cuisine, flocked to the hotels for recreation, entertainment, comedy, and unlimited portions of brisket, kugel, herring, gefilte fish, and borscht. This classic soup, served hot or cold, with sour cream at dairy meals or with meatballs at meat meals, is the source of the name that describes the summer scene in the mountains – The Borscht Belt.

The names of the hotels are now legendary – Grossingers, The Concord, Kutsher’s, The Granit, The Pines, Homowack Lodge, The Nevele, Brickman’s, Brown’s, The Fallsview, and others too numerous to mention. Kutsher’s was the longest lasting of the group, succumbing to a lack of interest by a younger generation more inclined to travel abroad. It lasted until its 100th anniversary year, and was the subject of a nostalgic film about it and its peers. Welcome to Kutsher’s was released last year. Here is the trailer for the film, which is still being shown at Jewish film festivals:


 
The food served at all of the Catskills hotels was legendary. At breakfast, lunch, dinner, and between meals in the tea room, guests would order everything on the menu and the waiters would accommodate every request. Guests, sometimes embarrassed at ordering so many portions of food would ask for multiple main courses as “a side of stuffed cabbage” or “a side of brisket” and the waiter would bring trays loaded with full main courses for each of the “sides” requested. Since all food was included in the cost of the room, the cost of each dish was never a concern.

Here are breakfast, lunch, and dinner menus from The Concord, Grossinger’s, and Kutsher’s to give you an idea of how many dishes were consumed on a typical day. Just note the five different types of herring and two types of sardines offered as breakfast appetizers.

Most of the hotels are gone now, along with most of the generation that clogged the highways all summer long en route to the resort hotels. But what remains is the comedy and the comedians who started out as waiters, busboys, and tummlers (slapstick entertainers) and made their way to become the most famous funny men and women of films and television. Almost all of them were Jewish.

The list is very long: Milton Berle, George Burns, Sid Caesar, Red Buttons, Danny Kaye, Jerry Lewis, Joey Adams, Shelley Berman, Joey Bishop, Fanny Brice, Carl Reiner, Mel Brooks, Eddie Cantor, Jack Carter, Myron Cohen, Irwin Corey, Billy Crystal, Bill Dana, Rodney Dangerfield, Phyllis Diller, Totie Fields, Buddy Hackett, Mickey Katz, George Jessel, Alan King, Alan Sherman, Phil Silvers, Henny Youngman, Jonathan Winters, Freddie Roman, etc, etc, etc.

The rise and fall of the Borscht Belt hotels was chronicled in a CBS Sunday morning segment that you can watch below:


 
The Catskills are trying to make a comeback as a resort destination with the old hotel sites being rebuilt as spas, golf clubs, and casino resorts, but without the kosher food and amenities that attracted a generation of Jewish guests.

If you visit the Borscht Belt today, you’ll find two of the old hotels that have been converted to corporate retreats, a few spas under construction, and many bungalow colonies populated by Orthodox and Haredi families.

But if you’re nostalgic for an all-inclusive vacation with unlimited food, you’ll find it in the hotels all over Israel. Instead of ordering lots of “side dishes” from a menu and being served by a waiter, you’ll have to serve yourself from the bountiful buffets served around the clock. It may not be the Borscht Belt, but the Shakshuka Belt can be just as delightful.

Al Kustanowitz founded Jewish Humor Central in 2009, to bring a daily dose of fun and merriment to readers who would otherwise start the day reading news that is often drab, dreary, and depressing. In 2012, Al wrote a series of seven interactive books with the series title Jewish Humor on Your Desktop. Israel is a Funny Country, now in an expanded second edition, is one of the books in the series. For more info, click HERE or send an email by clicking HERE.