A Joke to Start the Week - "The Brewers of Chelm"

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.

Last November, Novak retold the joke, along with many others, in an hour-long webinar sponsored by Moment Magazine called Election Day 2022: Jewish Jokes Edition. The session was recorded and includes many more jokes, which we will share with you in the coming weeks.

Novak has since written another book titled Die Laughing: Killer Jokes for Newly Old Folks, which is filled with many more jokes that will keep you laughing for a long time.

Here's the setup for today's joke: One day the residents of Chelm decided to deal with the high price of beer by making their own. After months of trying different recipes they finally choose what they think is the very best one.  And then...

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.

Chelm Jokes: An Analysis by JTA's Andrew Silow-Carroll

There's more to many Jewish jokes than meets the eye. Andrew Silow-Carroll, editor-in-chief of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency has started a series of short YouTube videos in which he walks you through a classic Jewish joke and explains what it's all about.

This first video analyzes the jokes (actually stories) about the Wise Men of Chelm, an actual town in Poland that has become synonymous with so-called wisdom which actually turns out to be foolishness.

We'll bring you more of these analyses of classic Jewish jokes from time to time. We hope there will be more of them soon.

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.

Storyteller Peninnah Schram: Humor in Jewish Folklore - "A Detour Through Chelm"

Last Sunday the historic Provincetown Playhouse in New York's Greenwich Village was the scene  of a visit to Chelm, the fictional Eastern European town of fools, presided over by internationally renowned storyteller Peninnah Schram. 

In a program of tales from Jewish folklore, Schram presented folklore from the Sephardic and Ashkenazic oral traditions that included intrigue, clever wit, and chokhma (wisdom). 

A few of these stories were captured on video and today we're sharing one of the classic Chelm stories, The Debate Over the Sun and the Moon.

In 1970 Peninnah Schram started recording books for the blind at the Jewish Braille Institute. That experience inspired her to begin to teach Jewish storytelling as a separate subject, and in 1974 she taught her first course on Jewish storytelling. In the same year she started several other groundbreaking projects: She became "storyteller-in-residence" at The Jewish Museum, and she recorded three record albums and broadcast two storytelling series on radio. Some of this recorded material is now in the National Jewish Archive of Broadcasting. 

Schram is the Founding Director of the Jewish Storytelling Center. She has told stories in America, Canada, England, and Israel, at synagogues, festivals, conferences, colleges, organizations, camps, and schools. She is also a catalyst, sparking ideas, inspiring others to tell stories, and creating places for other storytellers to gather and share stories. 

Several of her collections of folktales have been published by Jason Aronson Inc.: Jewish Stories One Generation Tells Another; Eight Tales for Eight Nights: Stories for Chanukah; and Tales of Elijah the Prophet. She is the editor of Chosen Tales: Stories Told by Jewish Storytellers, a collection of the works of 68 storytellers.

In the coming weeks, we'll share some more of Peninnah's stories. In the meantime, enjoy this one!

(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.)