See Jewish Humor Central Live in Boca Raton on Wednesday, January 15 at Florida Atlantic University

If you're a fan of Jewish Humor Central and happen to be in South Florida this Wednesday January 15, you can see Blogger-in-Chief Al Kustanowitz present a 90 minute program on TV comedy at Florida Atlantic University's Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) in Boca Raton.

The program, Rowan and Martin's Laugh-in: A Trailblazer in Television Comedy, will include video clips from the show, which ran for six years from 1968 to 1974 on NBC.

The presentation is from 12:30 pm to 2 pm at FAU's Friedberg Auditorium in the Lifelong Learning Building. Entrance to the University is at 777 Glades Road in Boca Raton. Admission at the door is $35. Members can purchase tickets in advance for $30.

So bring your friends and let's meet afterwards at the conclusion of the program.

Here's a sample of what you'll see:

Wishing All of Our Readers a Shanah Tovah - Happy New Year 5785

 

Thanks to our loyal subscribers and casual readers worldwide who have joined us during the year.

We started Jewish Humor Central on October 5, 2009 and it's been going strong with more than 4500 blog entries and more than 10 million page views over the last 15 years.  

We appreciate your loyalty and we hope to keep bringing you a daily mix of Jewish humor in all of its forms -- traditional, eclectic, musical, unbelievable but true, and just funny, tempered with touches of nostalgia and Yiddishe nachas. 

We'll be attending services on Thursday, Friday, and Shabbat, and we'll be back posting again on Sunday.  Here's wishing you a happy, healthy, joyous, prosperous and funny New Year from our family to yours!

L'shanah Tovah Tikatevu v'techatemu!

See Jewish Humor Central Live in Boca Raton, Florida Next Thursday February 23

If you're a fan of Jewish Humor Central and happen to be in South Florida next Thursday February 23, you can see Blogger-in-Chief Al Kustanowitz present a 90 minute program on Jewish Humor at Florida Atlantic University's Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) in Boca Raton.

The program, Funniest Jewish Moments in Movies and Television, will include video clips from The Frisco Kid, All in the Family, Seinfeld, When Harry Met Sally, The Johnny Carson Show, Robin Hood: Men in Tights, and Blazing Saddles.

The show is from 3 pm to 4:30 pm at FAU's Friedberg Auditorium in the Lifelong Learning Building. Entrance to the University is at 777 Glades Road in Boca Raton. Admission at the door is $35. Members can purchase tickets in advance for $30.

So bring your friends and let's meet afterwards to share some jokes at the conclusion of the program.

Here's a sample of what you'll see:

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.

Celebrating Our 4,000th Post in 13+ Years of Jewish Humor Central

Jewish Humor Central made its first appearance on the Internet on Sunday, October 4, 2009. In the following 13+ years we have posted video clips to fulfill the mission that we established at the beginning -- an objective that has appeared as the header on our home page ever since.

We posted Jewish humor items in the following categories: Jokes,  stories, parodies, satire, legends, books, films, Unbelievable But True, and In the News. Some were new, and some were classics. Occasionally some were not really funny, but thought-provoking.We included our own comments, but generally relied on the links to tell their own story.

We included items from religious and secular sources of all Jewish denominations, and we tried to keep the site family-friendly. Any perceived slight to any group or subgroup has been unintentional, and we trusted that people without a sense of humor would not be offended by anything we posted or linked to.

 

So for today's 4,000th post, we are looking back over the years and repeating the five most viewed posts since Jewish Humor Central began. We hope you enjoy seeing them again and understand why they have been so popular. 

#1 - Barbra Streisand Performs Avinu Malkeinu at Shimon Peres' 90th Birthday Celebration in Jerusalem.

http://www.jewishhumorcentral.com/2013/06/barbra-streisand-performs-in-hebrew-and.html

#2 - Alan King Explains All the Middle East Conflicts

http://www.jewishhumorcentral.com/2015/12/a-rare-comedy-find-alan-king-explains_3.html

 

#3 - Ivanka Trump Goes to Shul on Sukkot and the Media Doesn't Get It

http://www.jewishhumorcentral.com/2011/10/ivanka-trump-goes-to-shul-on-sukkot-and.html

 

#4 - I Could be Jewish For You

http://www.jewishhumorcentral.com/2014/07/i-could-be-jewish-for-you-from-songs-by.html

 

#5 - Yiddishology - How Good Is Your Yiddish - "Shtipper" or "Shtupper"?

http://www.jewishhumorcentral.com/2010/04/yiddishology-how-good-is-your-yiddish.html

 

Enjoy them all!

 

Thanks to all of our subscribers and casual readers for your feedback, encouragement, and loyalty through the years. We look forward to more postings to keep you smiling always. We'll be back with more posts tomorrow starting with our weekly Welcoming Shabbat video.

An Important Message for Email Subscribers to Jewish Humor Central

If you subscribe to Jewish Humor Central via email, you have received or will soon receive a strange-looking message from Follow.it, a distributor of blog posts via email. Here's how it looks:

You received this email because the publisher of the feed Jewishhumorcentral imported you to this list, claiming that you were already subscribed to this content in other ways previously. Please confirm this is correct and you want to receive this content by clicking here, or decline if you don't want to receive it.

 

This is not a hack. It is a legitimate message that we authorized because Feedburner/Google, the previous distributor of our daily emails, has decided to stop providing this service. We had to find a replacement service to continue sending out the daily emails, and we chose Follow.it.

You must click on the confirmation link in the email that you received from follow.it to continue receiving blog posts from Jewish Humor Central. If you accidentally clicked on the red decline link, then you must re-subscribe by entering your email address in the new form atop the left column at www.jewishhumorcentral.com.

Thank you for your continuing support and spreading the word about Jewish Humor Central to your friends and contacts. We've been doing this for 12 years, posting more than 3,500 videos and we don't intend to stop any time soon. So please accept our apology for this unexpected service interruption and stay with us as we continue to bring you daily doses of Jewish humor. 

Al Kustanowitz and the staff of Jewish Humor Central

Just Published - "Jewish Traces in Unexpected Places." Get the e-Book Edition Free Now Through Sunday!

Among the more than 1,800 video clips that we've shared with you on Jewish Humor Central, there are about 150 video examples of Jewish life and music that appear in places you wouldn't expect them to. 

This week we published the collection in a new book, Jewish Traces in Unexpected Places (and Unexpected Traces in Jewish Places). It's available now from Amazon.com in paperback and in a Kindle (e-book) version that you can read on any device with free Kindle reader software from Amazon.

The paperback version sells for $9.95, and when you buy it, Amazon will offer you a free Kindle download. So when you receive the paperback version you can give it as a gift and keep the Kindle version for yourself.

For the next 5 days (Wednesday, January 20 through Sunday, January 24) you can get the Kindle version free of charge directly from Amazon.com by clicking here. 

The book presents 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.

Jewish Traces in Unexpected Places is also the title of a popular lecture that Al will be presenting in South Florida in February and in the Berkshires in July. If you're interested in information about Al's lectures and Jewish humor programs for your organization, you can reach him at akustan@gmail.com. 

Here are the videos shown on the cover. There are 146 more videos that you can link to in the book.

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.)

Adon Olam with Leaping Brazilian Dancers



Sh'ma Yisrael in Papua New Guinea


Chabad Wins World Cup Soccer in South Africa


Are the Japanese the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel?

Israel Forever Website Features Jewish Humor Central in a Week of Chanukah Laughter

The Israel Forever Foundation is 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.

 

 One of their projects is the Israel Forever Blog, a dynamic collection of personal perspectives, insights and stories that empower others to explore and strengthen their own personal connection to Israel.

 

With the Israel Forever blog focusing on Jewish humor during the eight days of Chanukah, we were invited to share our perspective on Jewish and Israeli humor. We included some of the funniest video clips that we've posted over the years. We thought that our Jewish Humor Central readers would enjoy revisiting them, so we're reproducing our Israel Forever blog post below.

 

Jewish Humor - Does Israel make it different?

 By Al Kustanowitz

In all the press coverage of Israel as a center of conflict in the Middle East, one very important characteristic of this colorful and friendly country that’s not often reported is the role of humor in everyday life.

 

This aspect is sorely lacking in the columns of newspapers around the world, but all it takes is a visit to Jerusalem or Tel Aviv, a reading of the local papers, or watching Israeli television to see the fun that Israelis are having in their activities. This is true among religious and secular communities. It may not be as readily apparent in the religious or Haredi worlds, but living among them will reveal that even in the most serious halls of study and prayer, smiles and laughter are often lurking just below the surface.

Since 2009 I have published a blog called Jewish Humor Central. In it I’ve posted more than 1,800 video clips relating to Jewish humor around the world in all of its forms. And there are many forms.

More than 350 of these posts are specifically related to humor that has a connection to the land and people of Israel. They include jokes, funny TV commercials, parody, satire, improv, standup comedy, music videos for Chanukah and other holidays, and unbelievable but true reports of funny and unusual happenings that could occur only in Israel.

 

Not all humor in Israel is laugh out loud funny, but that’s also the case everywhere else in the world. Some anecdotes, news items, and jokes are hilarious, and some bring a grin, chuckle, laugh, guffaw, or just a warm feeling that's likely to produce a knowing smile and some Yiddishe nachas.

I selected the best of the bunch, some 120 blog posts with associated video clips, and published a book about them called Israel is a Funny Country. With links to more than six hours of Internet video, it 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, I take a look at humorous slices of Israeli life, unusual stories about food, simchas as they can only be celebrated in Israel, endearing aspects of Israeli culture, a look at the growing phenomenon of flash mobs, and a glimpse of a few unusual Israeli sports.

 

My objective in writing the book and sharing these anecdotes and video clips is to give readers and viewers a new and different insight into life in Israel, and encourage them to join in the fun by planning a visit to the land flowing with milk and honey.

 

FUNNY HAPPENINGS IN ISRAEL

---

 

Here are just a few examples of funny happenings in Israel that are not widely reported worldwide, but that appeared in Jewish Humor Central.

 

Mermaid Spotted Off Haifa Coast; $1 Million Reward Offered

A mermaid was reported in Kiryat Yam, a suburb of Haifa. A local resident insisted that it came ashore and touched him. The story was reported by Israel21c.

Kojak the Camel Gets Tied Up in Jerusalem Bureaucracy

 

Kojak, the kissing camel of Jerusalem, got tied up in Jerusalem bureaucracy when the municipality insisted that he apply for a business permit.

 

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FUNNY ISRAELI TV COMMERCIALS

 

Israeli TV Commercials, whether for food and drink, or to encourage tourism, can also be funny with special appeal to the Jewish viewer.

 

Israel Ministry of Tourism: History is Everywhere

 

A tourist is shocked when David and Goliath make an appearance in modern Jerusalem.

 

Neviot Flavored Water: The real story of how Michelangelo sculpted David

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ISRAELI HUMOR AND JEWISH HUMOR: ARE THEY THE SAME?

 

What we think of as Jewish humor in the USA and Israeli humor are quite different.

While most of the old great comedians in America were Jewish, there is very little Jewish content in their performances. Jack Benny, George Burns, Danny Kaye, Alan King, Shelley Berman, Victor Borge, Henny Youngman, Sid Caesar, and Milton Berle were obviously Jewish, but their jokes, sketches, and routines were largely devoid of any ethnic or religious content. Even Myron Cohen, with his strong Yiddish accent, told jokes that were more universal than sectarian.

Carl Reiner and Mel Brooks also projected a strong Jewishness but it did not dominate their work, even when they were writing sketches for Sid Caesar. Sure, their 2000 year old man skits were filled with Jewish sensibilities, and there were short recognizable (and funny) Jewish lines in some of their movies, but only Jackie Mason stands out as the quintessential Jewish stand-up comedian.

Younger comedians, such as Jerry Seinfeld and Billy Crystal, follow the same pattern of general humor with a faint Jewish inflection.

Israeli humor, however, is very, very Jewish through and through. And it’s different in many ways. Most American Jewish humor takes the form of jokes, and often racy ones, that are repeated endlessly wherever Jews gather, whether at social functions or in the synagogue. Much of Israeli humor is in the form of TV skits, and lots of parody of politicians and the political process. This may be funny to Israelis, but to visitors, and especially those not fluent in Hebrew and the day to day activities of these politicians, it has no impact.

The Israeli humor that makes non-Israelis laugh is generally presented by olim from America and other countries such as Benji Lovitt, Deb Kaye, Yisrael Campbell, and Molly Livingstone who recount their battles with the Israeli bureaucracy, their struggles to learn Hebrew and hold their own in a new culture where direct and sometimes rough talk and behavior is considered normal, and where political correctness is virtually unheard of.

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. A long-term devotee of Jewish humor, Al has been collecting it even before there was an Internet. For the last 25 years he has been editor and publisher of The Kustanowitz Kronikle, originally a family newsletter that went public when the Purim editions became too popular to keep private. Now they're all available as a book, The Kustanowitz Kronikle: 25 Years of Purim Parody. 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 information visit www.jewishhumorprograms.com or send an email by clicking HERE.

Jewish Humor Central Featured on Voice of Israel Radio Show

On the set of Israeli satire show Eretz Nehederet (Tomer Neuberg/Flash 90)

On Tuesday we were interviewed on the Voice of Israel radio network by Molly Livingstone, the station's humorist and interviewer on her show, The Big Falafel.

Molly shares our interest in spreading laughter and showing the world that Israel is a funny country.

Molly kicked off the interview with her comments on a 24-hour-visit to Jerusalem the day before by Kim Kardashian and Kanye West, a visit that we didn't know about and frankly didn't care about. 

But then she settled into the main interview about Jewish Humor Central, how it got started, and how we manage to keep it going through 1,700 posts over six years to thousands of readers in 210 countries. OK, most of them are in the US, Israel, Canada, the UK, Australia, and South Africa, but we do get some in Iran, Syria, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.

We talked about humor in Israel and how it differs from humor in other countries. Toward the end of the interview, we discussed the challenges of a humor site posting appropriate material on days such as Yom HaShoah, Yom HaZikaron, and Yom HaAtzmaut. We hope you find the questions and the answers interesting and meaningful.