Throwback Thursday Comedy Special: Eddie Cantor Sings '"By the Light of the Silvery Moon" in 1931

It's another Throwback Thursday and we're turning the clock back 89 years to 1931 when Eddie Cantor was featured in the Max Fleischer's Screen Songs for By The Light Of The Silvery Moon, My Baby Just Cares For Me and Show Me The Way To Go Home. 

Cantor, born Isidore Itzkowitz (1892–1964) was an American "illustrated song" performer, comedian, dancer, singer, actor, and songwriter. Familiar to Broadway, radio, movie, and early television audiences, this "Apostle of Pep" was regarded almost as a family member by millions because his top-rated radio shows revealed intimate stories and amusing anecdotes about his wife Ida and five daughters. 

In this video clip, Cantor sings, dances, plays the clarinet and tells a couple of jokes.

Enjoy!

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Unexpected Traces in Jewish Places: Coronavirus Doesn't Prevent Israel from Celebrating International Yoga Day

In celebration of the sixth annual International Yoga Day, the Indian embassy in Israel organized Yoga sessions across the country.

For the past five years, Israel has celebrated in the thousands. This year amid the pandemic, India's new cultural center in Tel Aviv hosted a small Yoga session, broadcast online.

The center will eventually serve as a space for Israelis and internationals to celebrate Indian culture.

The Press Counselor of the Indian Embassy says that Yoga has tremendous health benefits for the mind and the body and can help to strengthen the immune system.

Namaste!

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Comedy Showcase: Sarge Standup (and Sitdown) Comedy on The Jake Ehrenreich Show

Whenever we go to Florida and need a comedy fix we try to catch a performance by Sarge. A world famous comedian, Sarge (Steve Pickman), shares his personal insights with his audience, performing riffs on growing up black and Jewish in Long Island, NY. 

His personal anecdotes on being a black Jew in America give him an extraordinary view on life and give his comedy just the right edge.

In his stand-up comedy performances, Sarge, the author of an autobiography titled Black Boychik, keeps the audience laughing out loud at his unique perspectives in growing up in Great Neck.

Last year Sarge was a guest on The Jake Ehrenreich Show in a performance broadcast on the Jewish Broadcasting System. Ehrenreich, who gained fame with his one man show A Jew Grows in Brooklyn, entertains audiences from the small stage of the Triad theatre and mixes his own comedy and music with interviews of Jewish show business guests.

In this stand-up (and sit-down) set, Sarge touches on his unusual origin story, politically correct racial labels, the difference between Black and Jewish slaves, and differences between Jews and Gentiles.

Enjoy!

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A Joke to Start the Week - "The Haircut"

It's another Monday, and time for another Joke to Start the week. Here's another one from author and lecturer Michael Krasny.

Krasny has been telling Jewish jokes since his bar mitzvah, and it’s been said that he knows more of them than anyone on the planet. He certainly states his case in his latest book Let There be Laughter.

In promoting the book, Krasny has been giving lectures and interviews in which he tells some of the classic Jewish jokes, explaining the cultural expressions and anxieties behind the laughs.

We found some videos of these lectures, and today we're sharing another oldie but goodie.

Here's the setup: A barber opens a new barber shop and he's got a spiffy new barber pole. A priest comes in, and he gives the priest a haircut. And then...

Enjoy!

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Yiddish Word of the Day - Nonsense!

As people continue to spend their days and evenings at home, due to coronavirus social distancing restrictions, the Forverts has launched a daily series of short informal video clips called Yiddish Word of the Day.

The series, written and narrated by Forverts editor Rukhl Schaechter, aims to give non-Yiddish speakers an introduction to familiar Yiddish words and phrases and how they might be used in everyday situations. 

 Schaechter, who was appointed the new editor of the Forverts in 2016, is the first woman to helm the paper in its 119-year history, its first editor to have been born in the United States, and likely its first editor who is shomeret Shabbat.

We posted the first of this series in May. Now that the Forverts is continuing the series, we'll be sharing some of the words and phrases as a regular feature of Jewish Humor Central.

Today Rukhl explains four Yiddish expressions that mean Nonsense, Baloney, Never gonna happen -- phrases used to dispel a rumor.
 
Enjoy! 

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Welcoming Shabbat with Shalom Aleichem by Yosef Goldman

Yosef Goldman is a musician and rabbi, and Co-Director of Hadar's Rising Song Institute.

A sought-after vocalist, Yosef is a featured vocalist with Joey Weisenberg & the Hadar Ensemble and founding member of the Middle Eastern Jewish music ensemble The Epichorus.

For over a decade he has advised prayer communities seeking to deepen communal spiritual experience through musical prayer.  

This version of Shalom Aleichem was recorded live at Germantown Jewish Centre in Philadelphia in April 2019 with Joey Weisenberg, Dan Blacksberg and Dan Godwin.

Enjoy, and Shabbat Shalom!

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Throwback Thursday Comedy Showcase: Sid Caesar as an Italian Chef

Foreign doubletalk was one of Sid Caesar's specialties. Today we're turning the clock back to May 27, 1949. Yes, 71 years ago Sid was carrying forth on the Admiral Broadway Revue with his sidekick Howard Morris.

In this full blown sketch comprised of mostly foreign language gibberish, Italian chef Sid teaches his apprentice how to make chicken soup. 

Enjoy!

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#Throwback Thursday    #TBT

Wacky Wednesday Comedy Special: First Appearance of 2000 Year Old Man on Ed Sullivan Show

The 2000 Year Old Man skit that Carl Reiner and Mel Brooks performed for many years on records and TV began as a joke between the two of them that they shared at parties.

After their first record album became a hit in 1960, they made a TV appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show in February 1961. 

We have posted a few versions of the routine on Jewish Humor Central over the years, but today we are sharing their very first performance on Sullivan's show.

Each performance is a treasure because while Reiner had a fixed set of questions that he asked, Brooks always ad-libbed and never gave the same answer twice.

Here is their original sketch from 59 years ago. Enjoy!

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Tumbalalaika Around the World: Sharsheret WIZO Choir from Sao Paolo, Brazil

The Yiddish folk love song Tumbalalaika originated in Eastern Europe in the 19th century, but its exact origin is hard to pinpoint. 

That hasn't prevented it from being sung and played over and over, not only in places where Yiddish songs are sung, but just about everywhere in the world, in vocal and instrumental versions, in cabarets and in the movies.

Just as we have followed the songs Hava Nagila, Adon Olam, Hevenu Shalom Aleichem, and Abanibi as they took different forms as interpreted by a wide variety of singers, musicians, and dancers, we've been posting many interpretations of this universal courting and love song.
 
This version is performed by The Sharsheret WIZO Coral , a female choir which has been active since the 1980s, whose members are volunteers from WIZO São Paulo, a charity for women and children. They are amateur singers, but they have already recorded 6 CDs, with Jewish songs in Hebrew, Yiddish and Ladino, and Brazilian songs, in Portuguese and some translated into Hebrew.

Enjoy!

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A Joke to Start the Week - "Yizkor Miracle"

 

It's another Monday, and time for another Joke to Start the Week. Today's joke teller is Rabbi Jack Engel, spiritual leader of Anshei Emuna Congregation, a modern Orthodox shul in Delray Beach, Florida.

Rabbi Jack and his wife Miriam have brought a fresh approach to serving the needs of the Anshei Emuna community. 

They have reinvigorated Anshei Emuna in the ten+ years they have been at the shul. The experiences gleaned from serving in pulpits in South Africa, Australia and New Zealand have enhanced their ability to address the diversities of their Jewish community.

They are advocates of a modern Orthodoxy, that is open minded yet adheres to the integrity of Halacha.

While the shul has been closed because of the coronavirus outbreak, Rabbi Jack has been leading a 45 minute topical discussion via Zoom on weekdays that attracts attendees from the U.S., Canada, Israel, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand. And he can also tell a good joke.

Here's the setup: Two young men, a Chasid and a learned non-Chasidic scholar wanted to go into business together. So they decided to open a shul. And then...

Enjoy!

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Yiddish Word of the Day - Terms Frequently Misused in Yiddish

As people continue to spend their days and evenings at home, due to coronavirus social distancing restrictions, the Forverts has launched a daily series of short informal video clips called Yiddish Word of the Day.

The series, written and narrated by Forverts editor Rukhl Schaechter, aims to give non-Yiddish speakers an introduction to familiar Yiddish words and phrases and how they might be used in everyday situations. 

 Schaechter, who was appointed the new editor of the Forverts in 2016, is the first woman to helm the paper in its 119-year history, its first editor to have been born in the United States, and likely its first editor who is shomeret Shabbat.

We posted the first of this series in May. Now that the Forverts is continuing the series, we'll be sharing some of the words and phrases as a regular feature of Jewish Humor Central.

Today Rukhl gives examples of Yiddish words that have become so common that they're almost part of the English language. But they're frequently mispronounced or misused.
 
Enjoy!

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After Shabbat Havdalah Service with Cantor Shai Abramson and the IDF Rabbinical Choir

On Fridays we usually post a musical welcome to Shabbat with a version of Shalom Aleichem, Lecha Dodi, or Adon Olam. But this week we're skipping to the end of Shabbat and continuing the series of Havdalah services that we started a few years ago.

There's a rich lode of musical endings to Shabbat, and Havdalah ceremonies around the world reflect the traditional and local musical tastes of each location.

This is a unique musical havdalah because the Chief Cantor of the IDF, Lt. Col. Shai Abramson, the soldiers of the Military Rabbinate Band and the musical director Ophir Sobol are participating independently, each from his home.

 

Shabbat Shalom and Shavua Tov. Enjoy!

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Throwback Thursday Comedy Special: "Wonder Years" Bar Mitzvah Episode

The Wonder Years is an American coming-of-age comedy-drama television series created by Neal Marlens and Carol Black. It ran on ABC from March 15, 1988 until May 12, 1993. The pilot aired on January 31, 1988.

The series stars Fred Savage as Kevin Arnold, a teenager growing up in a suburban middle-class family.

It co-stars Dan Lauria as his father Jack, Alley Mills as his mother Norma, Jason Hervey as his brother Wayne, Olivia d'Abo as his sister Karen, Josh Saviano as his best friend Paul Pfeiffer, and Danica McKellar as his girlfriend Winnie Cooper. It takes place from 1968 to 1973 and is narrated by Daniel Stern as an adult version of Kevin.

In this Bar Mitzvah episode from 1989, Paul Pfeiffer and Kevin Arnold's birthdays are just days apart, and the two friends have usually always celebrated together. But this year, upon turning 13 Paul (as per Jewish Tradition), will become a man. The only problem is that Paul's Bar Mitzvah happens to take place on the same day as Kevin's Birthday!

All six seasons with a total of 115 episodes are streaming now on Hulu.

Enjoy!

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"An American Pickle" - Seth Rogen Survives 100 Years in Pickle Barrel

Starting tomorrow, HBO Max subscribers will have access to a new multi-generational comedy titled An American Pickle.

Adapted by Simon Rich from his 2013 New Yorker novella Sell Out, the movie stars Seth Rogen as Herschel Greenbaum, a struggling laborer who immigrates to America in 1919 with dreams of building a better life for his beloved family.

One day, while working at his factory job, he falls into a vat of pickles and is brined for 100 years. The brine preserves him perfectly and when he emerges in present day Brooklyn, he finds that he hasn’t aged a day. But when he seeks out his family, he learns that his only surviving relative is his great-grandson Ben Greenbaum (also played by Rogen), a mild-mannered computer coder whom Herschel can’t even begin to understand.

If you don't have HBO Max but are an HBO, HBO Go, or HBO Now subscriber, you can get a free upgrade if you follow the (sometimes difficult to follow) instructions.

Enjoy!

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Another Jewish Holiday? Yep, Tomorrow is Tu B'Av, the Holiday of Love

Tomorrow is Tu B’Av, the 15th day of the month of Av, a modern semi-holiday with ancient roots.

Although it is mentioned in the Mishnah as a day on which the women of ancient Israel went out to find husbands, Tu B’Av more or less disappeared from the Jewish calendar for close to two millennia, only to be rediscovered by mainly secular Israelis, seeking a Jewish equivalent to Valentine’s Day in the non-Jewish world. Over the course of the last few years this mid-summer celebration of love has become increasingly popular in Israeli society.

Today most eligible men and women find their own matches through the workplace, the synagogue, summer camp, and, increasingly, Internet dating. In the very Orthodox world, traditional matchmaking is still practiced.

To mark the day, Cantor Hanan Leberman of San Diego's Tifereth Israel synagogue has written a song evoking the spirit of the day.

Enjoy!
 
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A Joke to Start the Week - "Christian Kid's Wisdom"

Bob Alper is an ordained Reform rabbi from Vermont who served congregations for fourteen years and holds a doctorate from Princeton Theological Seminary.

But he's also a stand-up comedian with a twenty-seven year comedy career. He presents wonderfully unique material in a way that's intelligent, sophisticated, and 100% clean.

Since 2010 we have posted 24 video clips of his stand-up routines. Now Bob has launched a new series of daily Quick Laughs that you can subscribe to.

In this Quick Laugh, Bob tells about the unexpected wise response his minister friend got from a student when he asked a question in a church class.

Enjoy!

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Yiddish Word of the Day: Saying Thanks

As people continue to spend their days and evenings at home, due to coronavirus social distancing restrictions, the Forverts has launched a daily series of short informal video clips called Yiddish Word of the Day.

The series, written and narrated by Forverts editor Rukhl Schaechter, aims to give non-Yiddish speakers an introduction to familiar Yiddish words and phrases and how they might be used in everyday situations.

Schaechter, who was appointed the new editor of the Forverts in 2016, is the first woman to helm the paper in its 119-year history, its first editor to have been born in the United States, and likely its first editor who is shomeret Shabbat.

We posted the first of this series in May. Now that the Forverts is continuing the series, we'll be sharing some of the words and phrases as a regular feature of Jewish Humor Central.
 
Today's word (and a few alternatives) show us a few ways to say thanks.

Enjoy!

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