Country Singer Jake Owen Advertises Fake Chanukah Album on Jimmy Kimmel Show

Many Jewish singers, songwriters and musicians have released Christmas albums. But never before has a non-Jewish entertainer released an album of Chanukah songs, until now.

But not really. Late night host Jimmy Kimmel aired a skit as a fake commercial for a fake Hanukkah music album featuring Owen.
 
As Annie Reuter reported on the Taste of Country website,

Jake Owen is gearing up for the holidays, but not like you might expect. During a recent appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live! the non-Jewish country singer joked he will be releasing an album of Hanukkah songs.

“Never before has a non-Jewish entertainer released an album of Hanukkah songs until tonight,” Kimmel says, introducing Owen.The host prefaces the skit by asserting that while many Jewish musicians have released Christmas albums (Barbara Streisand, Neil Diamond, Barry Manilow and Kenny G), Owen will be the first non-Jewish artist to release a Hanukkah themed album.

“Well hey, I’m Jake Owen,” Owen says, grinning at the camera. “Some of you may like to call me Jay Cohen. What I love more than country music is the wonderful festival holiday of Chanukah.”Wearing a sweatshirt with a Menorah, Owen then begins to play his guitar while singing some songs that will be featured on his fictitious album, including the uniquely titled tracks “Let’s Do Jewish Stuff,” “Lighting the Pointy Candle Thingy” and “Reuben the Red-Nosed Rabbi.”

In the skit, Owen performs the songs for a Jewish family who are less than enthused while an advertisement pops up with a Billboard review of equal caliber.“The most misinformed, poorly researched holiday album of all time,” the advertisement boasts.

Enjoy!

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A Vibrant, Energetic Chanukah Music Video from the Israeli City of Netanya

This year we've seen an unusually rich collection of music videos made specifically for Hanukkah. They keep coming, and we'll continue to post one daily until the eight days of Hanukkah run out.

This week, in the city of Netanya, about half way between Tel Aviv and Haifa, an energetic group of singers and dancers from the Netanya Foundation gave us a joyful, energetic greeting for Hanukkah in a music video. The foundation develops and supports programs for the benefit of the residents of Netanya.

Participants in the video were the Netanya municipality, the Netanya Foundation, Masa Tlalim, and HaGag-Center for young adults in Netanya.

Enjoy!

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Four London Synagogues Form "Shul of Rock" and Produce Chanukah Music Video

 

In Harrow, a London suburb, four Harrow synagogues formed a ‘Shul of Rock’ in 2013, fusing traditional Shabbat songs with some very untraditional tunes inspired by The Beatles, Status Quo and Led Zeppelin.

The ‘Friday Night Rock Service,’ which was first performed by a ten-piece rock band at Middlesex New Synagogue, marked the beginning of a nationwide tour that aimed to attract young people and families back to shul.

The unusual initiative was the brainchild of musician Simon Cooper and involved Harrow and Wembley Progressive Synagogue, Middlesex New Synagogue, Hatch End Masorti Synagogue and Kol Chai Synagogue.

Rabbi Kathleen Middleton of Middlesex New Synagogue said: “Whether you come to shul once a week or once in a blue moon, this will be a Friday Night like no other.”

This week the group, calling itself Friday Night Rock Service, announced the release of their first single and video, "Light a Candle for Chanukah"

Based on original tune and lyrics by Debbie Friedman, "Light a Candle for Chanukah" has been lovingly re-recorded to the style of 'Status Quo' meets 'The Darkness'!

Re-recorded with full permission from The Debbie Friedman trust, this brand new "rocked up" version brings "Light a Candle for Chanukah" right up to date and to a new audience.

Enjoy!


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A Joke to Start the Week - "Three Friends, One Diagnosis"

Here's wishing a Happy Chanukah to all of our readers and viewers, whether by email, Facebook, or Twitter. 

Today is the first day of Chanukah, but it's also Monday, and that means it's time for a Joke to Start the Week.

We're taking a break from all the Chanukah music videos because it's become a tradition to start off the week with a joke and we wouldn't want to disappoint our joke lovers. 

One of the benefits of presenting lectures and programs on Jewish humor is that we get to meet new joke tellers wherever we go. Yesterday we did a presentation at Congregation B'nai Israel in Kearny, New Jersey and encountered Steve Kaplan, who volunteered to add a few more jokes to our Monday series.

We're saving some for future Mondays, but today's joke starts off like this: Three old friends have known each other for decades. One is a Catholic, one is a Protestant, and one is a Jew. And then...

Enjoy!

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A New Chanukah Music Video From Shir Soul - "Lift Yourself Up"

Last year we introduced you to Shir Soul, a wedding band and a cappella singing group founded in 2005 by David Ross.
With their eclectic mix of Jewish rock, pop, and soul music, Shir Soul has recorded a few albums and plays at weddings, bar/bat mitzvahs, and other occasions with musical instruments or a cappella.

This week they launched Lift Yourself Up, their new music video for Chanukah. We found the music, lyrics, and choreography uplifting. We think it sets just the right mood as we light the first Chanukah candle tonight.

Enjoy!


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A New Chanukah Music Video From Six13 - "Watch Me Spin"

No collection of Jewish holiday music videos would be complete without an entry from Six 13, an a cappella group that has produced videos for Chanukah, Rosh Hashana, and Passover. In previous years we posted their Chanukah Rights and Thanksgivukkah Anthem videos.


Driven by a mission to connect Jews around the globe with their heritage through music, anchored by a strong Jewish identity, and fueled by thumping beatbox, intricate arrangements, and soulful harmonies. Six 13 brings a fresh style of Jewish music to the stage, with songs ranging from hip-hop dance tracks to rock anthems. The members of the New York City-based group sound like a full band – while using nothing but their voices.

This year Six 13 produced Watch Me Spin, a Chanukah parody of Watch Me by Silento, a pop song that has 441 million page views on YouTube.

Enjoy!

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A Rare Comedy Find: Alan King Explains All the Middle East Conflicts

One of the pleasures in searching the Internet for funny Jewish videos is the unexpected discovery of gems in largely unknown old video clips.

While surfing on YouTube this week, we came across a video of an appearance by comedian Alan King in which he explained all the Middle East conflicts in a seven minute commentary that ends in a song and dance number.

Since the clip was made in the early 1980s, the explanations have no relevance today. Really? The more things change, the more they remain the same. The key players are all gone, but the game hasn't really changed much.

The video clip was made in the 1980s, but was just posted by Jack Abdo earlier this year. It shows a side of the great comedian that we never knew and never expected.

Enjoy!

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A New Chanukah Music Video From Julie Geller - "The Spark"

We're only four days away from lighting the first Chanukah candle, and the Chanukah videos keep coming in. So we're sharing the best of them with you. Today we're posting another original Chanukah song by Julie Geller.

Julie, raised in Colorado where she now lives with her family, also spent time in Boston, San Diego, and Israel. She has taken on a mission to bring love and healing into the world through her music.
  
Julie is a graduate of Harvard University and the New England Conservatory of Music. She studied at Bar Ilan University and Midreshet Lindenbaum in Israel.
 
In the last few years Julie gave us new, original songs that she composed for Passover, Rosh Hashanah, and Shine With Me and I Believe in Miracles for Chanukah. Now she's done it again with another new song for this year's Chanukah celebrations called The Spark.
 
We hope it enhances your Chanukah experience. Enjoy the video and the lyrics below!

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Light a fire for the world

Be the path through the dark

Be the answer, the love

Be the hope, be the spark

The joy not the pain

The pride not the shame

We’re igniting these flames

For Hanukkah

For the sake of Your name

On Hanukkah

On this Earth we see some pretty dark days

From our birth we’re always looking for something

Then the days they get short and the questions begin

But when Hanukkah comes, yes when Hanukkah comes

Light a fire for the world

Be the path through the dark

Be the answer, the love

Be the hope, be the spark

The joy not the pain

The pride not the shame

We’re igniting these flames

For Hanukkah

For the sake of Your name

On Hanukkah

Now here we are it’s warm inside and we’re together

Here we are making wonderful memories

Illuminated by candle light    

And it’s radiant here in our home tonight

Watch the candles burning

Remembering the past

We are always learning

To make the fire last

And we’re proud of who we are

And we’re not afraid to show

That we’re proud of who we are

So let your spirit glow

Light a fire for the world

Be the path through the dark

Be the answer, the love

Be the hope, be the spark

The joy not the pain

The pride not the shame

We’re igniting these flames

For Hanukkah

For the sake of Your name

On Hanukkah

© Julie Geller 2015

The Great Jewish Comedians: George Burns Does a Burns and Allen Routine with Madeline Kahn

George Burns was born Nathan Birnbaum on January 20, 1896 in New York City, the ninth of 12 children born to Jewish immigrants who had come to the United States from Romania. Burns was a member of the First Roumanian-American congregation, the Orthodox synagogue where Red Buttons sang in the choir and Edward G. Robinson became a bar mitzvah.

Burns had a long career as a comedian, actor, and writer. He was one of the few entertainers whose career successfully spanned vaudeville, film, radio, and television. His arched eyebrow and cigar-smoke punctuation became familiar trademarks for over three-quarters of a century.

One of his career highlights was The Burns and Allen show, in which he co-starred with his wife, Gracie Allen. Allen's part was known in vaudeville as a "Dumb Dora" act, named after a very early film of the same name that featured a scatterbrained female protagonist, but her "illogical logic" style was several cuts above the Dumb Dora stereotype, as was Burns' understated straight man. 

The twosome worked tirelessly on the road, building a following, as well as a reputation for being a reliable "disappointment act" (one that could fill in for another act on short notice). Burns and Allen were so consistently dependable that vaudeville bookers elevated them to the more secure "standard act" status, and finally to the vaudevillian's dream: the Palace Theatre in New York.

In 1976, twelve years after Gracie died, George appeared in a television special in which he revived one of the Burns and Allen routines with comedian Madeline Kahn.

Enjoy!

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A Joke to Start the Week - "A Rainy Night"

It's the Monday after Thanksgiving, and we're giving thanks for the joke tellers whom we've encountered this year and who have volunteered to share their favorite jokes as our Joke to Start the Week.

One of our recent joke tellers is retired CPA Mel Bleemer. Mel is back today with a punny joke.

Here's the setup: In days of old, in Merry old England, knights used to ride around the countryside doing good deeds. They would ride on their trusty steeds. And then...

Enjoy!

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A New Chanukah Video From Boys Town Jerusalem - Mi Yemalel in Hebrew and English

With the approach of every Jewish holiday, we eagerly anticipate a new crop of music videos created just for the occasion. We have a few favorites who come through just about every year with a high quality musical production.

Just like the Maccabeats from Yeshiva University, whose latest song we posted on Friday, the Boys Town Jerusalem Choir can be counted on to enrich our holiday observance with an uplifting musical number.

This Chanukah, the Boys Town Jerusalem Choir takes the familiar Mi Yemalel and renders it in English as well as in Hebrew, at the Israel Armed Corps Memorial Site - Yad Lashiriyon Memorial at Latrun.

Established in 1948 to provide a home and education for young immigrants to the newly-created State of Israel, Boys Town Jerusalem has become one of the country's largest and most respected educational institutions.

Boys Town was founded by Alexander S. Linchner, a Brooklyn-born rabbi who, after the Holocaust, devoted his life to building a school for the children of immigrants who poured into Israel from countries around the world. His goal: providing them with a quality education that would prepare them to build the State of Israel with technological skill and traditional Jewish idealism.
 
Today, the beautiful 18-acre Boys Town campus in the Bayit Vegan neighborhood of Jerusalem is one of Israel’s major technological training centers. Approximately 800 students, ranging in age from 12 to 20, live on the campus, with a capacity to house up to 1,000.
 
The children and grandchildren of immigrants from 45 countries on six continents, they mirror the ethnic diversity of the Israeli population. More than 75% come from economically disadvantaged backgrounds and require substantial scholarship assistance. No student is ever turned away from Boys Town due to inability to pay tuition.
 
In addition to receiving a fine technological and academic education, Boys Town students are deeply imbued with traditional Jewish values and ideals, and pride in their Jewish heritage. As a result, Boys Town graduates are proud to serve in the Israel Defense Forces and then go on to build fine Jewish homes and families, while making important contributions to their communities and the State of Israel. Among Boys Town’s more than 6,200 graduates are many engineers, technicians, educators, fine craftsmen and professionals.
 
Enjoy the video!

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A New Chanukah Music Video From The Maccabeats - "The Latke Recipe"

In 2010 The Maccabeats, an a cappella group from Yeshiva University, released their first Hanukkah music video, Candlelight, and every Hanukkah (and other holidays) since then we've seen many more videos by them and lots of other groups.

Originally formed in 2007 as Yeshiva University’s student vocal group, the Maccabeats have recently emerged as both Jewish music and a cappella phenomena,  with a large fan base, more than 20 million views on YouTube, numerous TV appearances, and proven success with three albums, 2010′s Voices From The Heights, 2012′s Out Of The Box and 2014′s One Day More.

Many of the songs are parodies of pop hits and The Maccabeats' latest is no exception. The Latke Recipe is a parody of the pop song "Shut Up And Dance" originally performed by Walk the Moon, a song that has 143 million views on YouTube since it was posted in October 2014.

Enjoy!

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Here Come the Chanukah Videos: Adam Sandler Releases 4th Version of his Hanukkah Song

Chanukah is ten days away, and we're starting to get this year's crop of music videos created just for the occasion. You'll be seeing many of them in the next two weeks.

Adam Sandler wrote his original The Hanukkah Song and sang it on Saturday Night Live back in 1994. This 21-year-old modern classic has been revised with added new lyrics twice, in 1999 and in 2002.

After waiting 13 years, Sandler's fans got their wish a few weeks ago when he took his guitar to the Judd Apatow and Friends event at the New York Comedy Festival in New York's Carnegie Hall.

As before, the song is a recitation of the names of people in the entertainment industry who have been newly discovered to be Jewish (fully Jewish, half Jewish, or quarter Jewish.)

Yesterday Sandler released the long-awaited video of him singing the new version in San Diego. If you want to sing along, check out the lyrics just below the video.

Enjoy!

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Put on your yarmulke, here comes Chanukah
So much fun-ukah to celebrate Chanukah
Chanukkah is the Festival of Lights,
Instead of one day of presents, we have eight crazy nights.
When you feel like the only kid in town without a Christmas tree,
Here’s the fourth list of people who are Jewish, just like Jesus, Olaf, Punky Brewster, Scott Rudin, and me!
Joseph Gordon-Levitt enjoys eating kugel
So does Stan Lee, Jake Gylleenhaal, and the two guys who founded Google
Adam Levine wears a Jewish star
So does Drake and Seth Rogen
Goldberg has a gold yarmulke to match the belt he won from Hulk Hogan
We got Scarlett Johansson, talk about a Kosher crush
And if you need a higher voice to turn you on, how about Geddy Lee from Rush?
We may not have a cartoon with a reindeer that can talk
But we also don’t have polio, thanks to Dr. Jonas Salk (smart Jew!)
Put on your yarmulke, it’s time for Chanukah
Harry Potter and his magic wand-ukah, celebrate Chanukah
Jared from Subway: God dammit, a Jew
But guess who’s Jewish and can fix him? Loveline’s Dr. Drew (get on it doc!)
Princess Leia cuts the challah with Queen Elsa from Frozen
David Beckham is the king of soccer studs and also a quarter chosen
Ron Jeremy is fully Jewish and so is his foot-long buddy
Shia LaBeouf is half a Jew but 100 percent nutty

It’s cool that Santa Claus who makes Christmas so merry
But we get two jolly fat guys: ice cream’s Ben & Jerry (both Jewish!)
From New York to Iran-ukah, get up and celebrate Chanukah
Don’t mess with us, oh Chanukah, let’s all get along for Chanukah
So drink your Jaegerbomb-ukah and smoke your medical-chron-ukah
If you really, really wan-ukah, have a happy, happy, happy, happy, happy, happy, happy, happy Chanukah

Funniest Jewish Film Moments: Mel Brooks as the Indian Chief in Blazing Saddles

Today we're starting another new series on Jewish Humor Central called Funniest Jewish Film Moments. Over the years there have been many films on Jewish themes, and it's only natural to expect Yiddishisms and overt references to be include in them.

But what really tickles us is to find a covert reference in an otherwise non-Jewish film that was put in by the Jewish director just for fun or to wink at "Members of the Tribe" who will get an extra kick out of the private joke that they share.

Speaking of members of the tribe, the first film clip in this series, which will run sporadically, is the classic Indian (they weren't know as native Americans then) scene that Mel Brooks directed and acted in when he played the Indian chief in Blazing Saddles.

In this scene, Cleavon Little tells Gene Wilder how he came to be Sheriff in this Western town. He came as a little boy with his parents in a wagon train that was intercepted by the entire Sioux nation. When Indian chief Mel Brooks gets a good look at the occupants of the wagon, he lets loose a hilarious stream of Yiddish. 

For the few readers who don't understand Yiddish, he says:
Blacks! No, no, don't be crazy.
Let them go!!!!
As long as you're healthy.
Have you seen such a thing in your lifetime?

Enjoy!

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Yiddish Web Comedy Series, YidLife Crisis, Features Food and Coarse Language

Two Montreal comedians, Jamie Elman and Eli Batalion, have created a series of web videos called YidLife Crisis in Yiddish with English subtitles. It's been characterized as comedy, culture, and religion on a plate. While it sometimes pokes fun at religious customs, Elman says that it comes from a place of love.

Elman and Batalion made an appearance last year at the Comedy for a Change Conference in Jerusalem, an event that we reported on a few weeks ago. So far there are 7 videos in their series. Food is a major part of their comedy, especially the ethnic food available in the close-knit Jewish communities of Montreal and New York.

They were recently the subjects of a report on Sunday Bite, a Montreal TV program. Their videos start with a warning: "The following contains adult situations and coarse language. In Yiddish."

We offer the same warning: If you're going to be offended by a few off-color words, then skip this one. Otherwise, enjoy (and laugh)!

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A Joke to Start the Week - "How to Treat Flucky"

It's Monday morning and time for another Joke to Start the Week. Today we're introducing a new joke teller -- Freyda Kolinsky, a retired teacher. 

We met Freyda when we were doing a Jewish humor program at a synagogue on Long Island last week. We always ask the audience if there are any joke tellers who would like to be featured in our Monday "Joke to Start the Week" slot, and we're delighted when we get a positive response.

Here's the setup for today's joke: On Friday my husband and me we were crossing the street and Boom! he gets hit by a car. He falls down, gets up, and says "I'm all right." And then...

Enjoy!

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The Great Jewish Comedians: Morey Amsterdam in a Vaudeville Routine

Morey Amsterdam was a great stand-up comedian in the days when political correctness was unheard of. His ability to come up with a joke on any subject earned him the name of The Human Joke Machine. 

Amsterdam had his own TV shows from 1948 to 1950. Among his regular guests was song-and-dance man Art Carney. In 1950 he hosted the comedy-variety show Broadway Open House, TV's first late-night entertainment show, on NBC. It demonstrated the potential for late-night programming and led to the later development of The Tonight Show.

This eight-minute video clip will have you laughing as Amsterdam hits women's lib, tells Polish jokes, doctor jokes, and golf jokes.

Enjoy!

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