Report From Israel: Gullible Tourists Lampooned in TV Comedy Show

Since we started Jewish Humor Central two years ago, we've been running a lot of video clips from Israel -- funny commercials, stand-up comedians, and skits from popular TV shows that put a unique Israeli spin on news and daily life.

We decided it's time to take a closer look at the state of humor in the State of Israel, so for the next three weeks we will be blogging from our hotel in Jerusalem.

One of our objectives here is to connect with Israeli comedians, comedy clubs, and producers of funny TV shows to insure a rich supply of humor in all its forms to keep you, our readers and viewers, laughing your way through each day. 

If you're an Israeli comedian who works in English or are involved with funny TV shows that are broadcast in English or with English subtitles, please call us on our Jerusalem cellphone (057-270-2758) to set up a meeting on the phone or in person between today and February 7.

Today's post is a clip from a popular Israeli TV comedy show called Tzchok M'avoda (Laughter from Work) where an Israeli tour guide takes advantage of the gullibility of a group of tourists on a double decker bus, and sells them phony souvenirs, such as a holy plunger and a holy trowel used by Moses to put a smooth finish on the tablets on which the Ten Commandments are written.

The first part of the sketch is in Hebrew with no English translation, but just bear with it for a minute or so and you will be able to follow when the tour guide starts speaking to his charges in English.

The tour guide is played by comic Roi Levy, and the gullible tourists by Benji Lovitt and Eric Samuels. Enjoy!

The Yiddish Chefs Return With Gluten-Free (and Varnish-Free) Kashe Varnishkes

It's time for another cooking demo, and if you listen carefully, a lesson in spoken Yiddish.

Yes, the Forward's Est Gezunterheit chefs are back in another video from their cooking series. This time the Yiddish-speaking cooking ladies prepare gluten-free kashe varnishkes in a video just posted on YouTube.

We like these videos because you get a cooking lesson combined with a Yiddish lesson, just by listening to the light conversation between the chefs and reading the English subtitles. 

From this video, we learned some Yiddish words that we didn't know before.  Here they are:

Bowties = Schnips

Frying pan = Petelnye

Jagged cutting wheel = Tchabattateh schneidredel

Squeeze = Kneitch

The recipe appears at the end of the video.  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.)

Jewish Traces in Unexpected Places: German Children's Choir Sings Hava Nagila and Hevenu Shalom Aleichem

Hava Nagila and Hevenu Shalom Aleichem have become popular worldwide, and we have posted some renditions of these songs being performed in places that you would least expect to hear them.

Here is another example of how Jewish music can pop up unexpectedly, in this case in a church in the small town of Osterode, in Lower Saxony, Germany. And you don't have to be Jewish to sing it.

The Rainbow Children, a children's choir from Osterode, led by Rita J. Sührig sing along with the black ravens from Förste led by Holger Schlenczek and the soloist Siegfried Seyfarth in the Market Church in Osterode front of an enthusiastic audience, the Israeli songs Hava Nagila and Hevenu Shalom Aleichem.

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.)

"The Rabbi's Cat," First a Graphic Book, is Now a Movie

France's best-loved talking cat, star of a hit comic book series, makes his big screen debut in this long awaited adaptation by celebrated graphic artist-turned-director Joann Sfar (Gainsbourg). 

Rabbi Sfar lives a quiet life by the sea with his beautiful daughter Zlabya and her pet cat in 1920s Algeria. After swallowing his arch-rival the family parrot, the cat receives the miraculous gift of speech, with no intention of ever shutting up! This irreverent, quick-witted feline loves discussing philosophy and Jewish law and demands to have a Bar Mitzvah. When a mysterious stranger arrives in the city, the Rabbi, his cat and an array of motley characters set off on a fantastical Indiana Jones-style adventure into the unknown heart of Africa.

Co-directors Sfar and Antoine Delesvaux use beautiful hand-drawn animation and a nostalgic, groovy soundtrack to bring multicultural, pre-war Algiers, with its Arab, Jewish and European inhabitants lovingly to life, in this funny, quirky and thoroughly enjoyable film.

The film has been shown at Jewish film festivals around the world, but somehow has not yet made it to the United States. We are keeping an eye out for announcements of showings and will let you know as soon as we have more information. For now, we'll have to be content with the trailer below.

In the meantime, it's worth getting a copy of the book and reading it before you get a chance to see the movie. We got a copy as a gift and devoured it, much as the cat devoured the parrot in the story.

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.)

Stuff Jewish Men Rarely Say

There's been a rash of internet videos recently titled "S*** Somebody Says," where S*** is one of the seven words you can't utter on TV and radio. The "somebodys" in these videos are girls, Jewish girls, Frum Jewish girls, and so on. Each one seems to be a parody of the others. Some are funny, and some are not.

We just found this one from Ben Czeladnicki, who calls himself The Wondering Jew. Ben has been posting some funny stuff on his web site. We've included some of his material before and we think this one is good enough to share with you. He's one of the rare ones who keeps his titles clean, which fits with our policy of posting only family-friendly humor.

Self-deprecation is one of the most popular types of humor and there's no shortage of it in this video. It may or not be your cup of tea, but there are a lot of reflections on what passes for normal in Jewish life today that may be food for thought.

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.)

The Perils of Poor Translation from Hebrew to English: A Comedy Sketch From Israel

Hahafuch is Israel's premiere English-speaking comedy troupe. Their goal is to make people see the funny side of life in Israel. They are the only comedy troupe bringing humor to an English-speaking audience in their native tongue; of course Israelis can always have a laugh too. Remember, Israel is funny. And if you don’t think so then you haven’t seen their show.

The Hahafuch comedy troupe provides the other side of Israeli life, the daily dramas of bureaucracy, cafes, traffic jams, political troubles and more. And they do it through humor using improvisation, sketches, videos and music to let the world know that it’s ok to laugh at Israel and in fact there are a lot of funny things happening there.

Here is an example of Hahafuch humor. In this video clip, Benji Lovitt is Bibi Netanyahu giving a stirring speech in Hebrew, with simultaneous translation by Aaron Friedman as a sup-par Ulpan student.

If you understand Hebrew, you will hear all of the funny mistranslations that convey a message quite different from what the speaker intended.

Some mistranslations to watch for:

In my visit to Washington, I went swimming with President Obama

(The Hebrew words for swimming and discussing are similar)

It doesn't matter if you're a member of the Labor Party or the Dance Party

(Likud, the name of Netanyahu's party, sounds similar to rikud, or dance)

Peace is not some instant coffee

(The world nes, meaning miracle, is also shorthand for Nescafe, the term Israelis use for instant coffee)

Even if you don't get all of the mistranslations, the sketch is still funny.

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.)

The Sounds of Shabbos Echoes Simon and Garfunkel's 1964 Hit Song

Sounds of Silence is the song that propelled the 1960s folk music duo Simon & Garfunkel to popularity. It was written in February 1964 by Paul Simon in the aftermath of the 1963 assassination of John F. Kennedy. In the U.S., it was the duo's second most popular hit after Bridge Over Troubled Water.

Now, along comes a group called Jewbilation with a new set of lyrics to the Simon song. Titled The Sounds of Shabbos, it conveys the calm and serene effect of Shabbat arriving every week, and the role it plays in uniting all elements of the Jewish nation.

Here's the video, followed by the original sung by Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel.

Enjoy and Shabbat Shalom!

(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.)

(A tip of the kippah to Linda Englander for calling our attention to this video.)

Monsey Supermarket Covers Bare Arms and Legs of Girl on Downy Softener Bottle

You don't have to go to Beit Shemesh, Israel to see the lengths some of our brethren go to in order to avoid looking at images of women of any age.

Monsey, New York, a quiet little enclave less than an hour north of the George Washington Bridge, is home to many Chasidim and Haredim. It's also the home of the Rockland Kosher Marketplace - The Shoppers Haven, which claims to be the largest kosher supermarket. We've heard of similar claims from Pomegranate in Brooklyn and Seven Mile Market in Pikesville, Maryland, but we haven't checked them out yet.

The Monsey store is a shopping wonderland for anyone who is looking for an amazing variety of kosher food and household products, but if you're looking for a bottle of Downy Fabric Softener, you'll have to find it by the shape and color of the bottle, not by the product label.

Why? All of the bottles of Downy on the store shelves have a 4 x 2 1/2 inch white label completely covering the product name and the image of a young girl in a dress with bare arms and legs frolicking in a field of flowers. 

We first found out about this cover-up in a blog by DovBear last week. Even though the blog included a photo of the store shelf, we wanted to be sure it wasn't a set-up for a joke timed to the cover-ups of women now being protested in Israel. So, since we were shopping in the area on Monday, we visited the store to check out the display. Sure enough, there were the Downy bottles, every one covered with not one, but two thicknesses of white labels.

Our curiosity aroused (but only our curiosity), we checked the aisles wondering what the store did to Aunt Jemima Pancakes and Sun-Maid Raisins boxes, but alas, we couldn't find any. The only brands of these products they sell are Gefen and Mishpacha. We did, however, find boxes of Life Cereal that had a photo of a mother and daughter with some skin showing. (We didn't complain.)

It's quite the scene, with Yiddish songs playing on the speakers placed throughout the store.  Check out the video below and consider a field trip to this slice of Haredi life. But be sure you're not barefoot or wearing shorts or sleeveless clothing.

Women Dance Towards Change in Bet Shemesh Flashmob

Last Friday, a group of 250 women from Bet Shemesh decided to raise their voices against the exclusion of women from the public domain by holding a mass public flashmob dance in the city square.

The women, residents of the city from all ages and sectors, religious, traditional and secular, gathered together in a flashmob dance to the sounds of Queen's Don't Stop Me Now.

As Liron Nagler-Cohen reported yesterday in Ynet News,

The song was not chosen randomly, and neither was the timing. "We had all kinds of ideas," says Miri Shalem, the project's initiator and director of the Ramat Beit Shemesh community center.

"We thought, for example, about Aretha Franklin's 'Respect' or 'I Will Survive'. It was important that the song would be in English, so that the message would be conveyed abroad too."

The song was not chosen randomly, and neither was the timing. "We had all kinds of ideas," says Miri Shalem, the project's initiator and director of the Ramat Beit Shemesh community center.

"I Will Survive" was eventually dropped, "because we didn't want a connotation of survival," says Shalem. The rhythmic Queen song was chosen by the choreographer, Liat Amar, and the rest is history.

Flash mob is a way to convey a social message – and when religious and secular women dance together in the center of the city most identified with the exclusion of women, the message gets through.

The initiators – all social activists who hold management positions – set up a "women's council" several years ago, whose members are ultra-Orthodox, religious and secular women, veteran residents alongside new residents.

"We were very unhappy with everything that's happened recently in terms of the exclusion of women," adds Orna Nachmani, manager of the Beit Shemesh seminary.

"It was important for us not to attack a certain public, but on the contrary – to come and say that we have a voice. We expressed our voice through the dance."

Here's a video of the Bet Shemesh flashmob, followed by a video of the original Queen performance, with all the lyrics.

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.)

A Dog Becomes "Bark Mitzvah" in New Jersey (You Just Can't Make this Stuff Up)

The Associated Press reported this week on the latest mishegas -- a "Bark Mitzvah" for a Pomeranian dog named Nicky. The ceremony was performed by Lee Day, whose web site lists her as a celebrity pet hair stylist and pet entertainer, in Stanhope, New Jersey, where the pooch turned two years old, or thirteen in dog years.

There was champagne, cake, and a yarmulke for the guest of honor. The reporter covering the event asked "But with all the wacky chutzpah involved in a Bark Mitzvah, It's hard not to ask: Is there a line being crossed?"

Matzav.com reported the story on Friday as follows:

The latest development in dubious “religious” trends: the rise of bar mitzvahs for dogs.

While not exactly mainstream, the ceremonies, known as “bark mitzvahs,” are apparently now a rite of passage for some Jewish dog owners and their pets, part of what the Associated Press describes as a “booming multimillion-dollar industry.”

The AP yesterday released footage of a ceremony honoring a New Jersey canine named Nicky, who celebrated reaching age 13 - in dog years - by donning a kippah for a ceremony attended by his owner and friends. “I really believe that the animals have a right to have a party and a religion,” said Lee Day, a talis-wearing woman described by the news service as a “bark mitzvah performer.”

Predictably, not everyone is thrilled with the trend. “It’s really part of a sacred tradition,” said Rabbi Daniel Satlow, referring to the human version of the ceremony. “To imagine that a dog could do anything like this is degrading.”

“This is nothing less than a desecration of a cherished Jewish tradition and degrades some of the central principles of Jewish life. I urge readers to reject such practices,” wrote Rabbi Charles A. Kroloff. “I enjoy a good time as much as the next person. But not at the expense of religious traditions that need strengthening, not desecrating.”

This isn't the first Bark Mitzvah. In October 2007, the Schneider family celebrated the Bark Mitzvah of Bumpy Schneider, their "first bred son." The party was complete, with specially printed kippot, Hava Nagila and limbo dancing with disco lighting, a photo sign-in board, and a fire hydrant centerpiece.

That same year, a group of Jewish doctors including Dr. Ruth Westheimer celebrated the Bark Mitzvah of a dog named Elvis, an event that included the dog reading the "Arf Torah."

If you think we're kidding, here's the video of the event published by the Associated Press, followed by the 2007 videos of the Bark Mitzvahs of Bumpy Edward Schneider and Elvis.

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.)

Comedy Showcase: Stuart Rappaport - Optometrist by Day, Comedian by Night

In 2005, Stuart Rappaport won the Jewish Week Best Jewish Comedian contest. We found a clip of this prize-winning performance and we're sharing it with you today.

A man of many talents, Rappaport is an optometrist by day in Cedarhurst, New York. When he's not doctoring, he is a stand-up comedian, a theater performer, and a cantor.

As Justin Sachs wrote in the Five Towns Herald last September,

Rappaport got his start in 2000 when he saw an advertisement in one of his local papers. “I like a challenge, and I’ve always had a flair for entertainment,” he said. “Comedy was something I always wanted to try my hand at.”

Success came early for the Orthodox Jewish doctor, who came in third place a mere three years contest after starting, followed by a second place finish the following year and taking the top spot in 2005.

Here is his prize-winning routine.  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.)

 

On Chanukah, What Happens to a Menorah Made of Dominos?

Last month during Chanukah, a crowd gathered in the entrance hall of the Israel Museum in Jerusalem to witness what may be listed in the Guiness Book of Records -- the world's largest Chanukah menorah made of 25,00 dominos falling in sequence after the first domino is pushed.

As Sivan Raviv reported in Ynet News,

The menorah was built by Nissim Lopez and Yogev Levy, who have turned the Domino Rally game into a time-consuming habit. They hope that collapsing the huge menorah will land them in the Guinness Book of Records.

"Many ask us how we ended up with this unusual habit of sitting for hours on a cold floor, placing one piece after another, just to see everything fall," says Levy.
"It all began with Nissim, who was looking for something to do on Yom Kippur, searched through his closet and found an old Domino Rally box. After arranging all the pieces, he realized it wasn't enough – and bought another box several days later. 

"One weekend, when it was too cold to go outside, I visited Nissim's house and we somehow began building a track around his living room. I think there were only about 1,000 pieces -- it was pretty short."

"We decided to turn it into something a bit more serious and bought another 1,000 pieces, and it just grew and grew -- until today's record."

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.) 

(A tip of the kippah to Sheila Zucker for bringing this story to our attention.)

When Shabbat Starts Early, Extreme Measures May Have To Be Taken

Shabbat has been starting pretty early since we moved our clocks back an hour in November and the days got shorter. Last month it started at 4:10 pm in New York. Today candle lighting time is 4:25 pm.

That doesn't leave much time to acquire the three traditional accoutrements of the day: Wine, challah, and flowers.

When time is tight, sometimes corners have to be cut in order to bring these items home before the candles are lit. That's the subject of this humorous film created by Jewish Impact Films, a fellowship of young Jewish filmmakers established in 2004 by leading Hollywood producers to empower young Jews to use creative media, specifically short internet-based films, to effectively communicate new messaging about Judaism and Israel.

Enjoy and Shabbat Shalom!

(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.)

Stu Moss Channels Barry Manilow's "I Write the Songs" as "I Own the Deli"

Stu Moss has performed stand-up comedy on tour with some of the biggest names in entertainment, and has performed on cruise lines and in Las Vegas, Lake Tahoe, and Atlantic City. His television credits include Showtime, Comedy Central, Chicago Hope and NYPD Blue.

Most recently he has been a member of the Kosher Comedy act together with Peter Fogel and Sharon Daniels that has been making appearances in Florida. In April 2010 we posted a few videos from their show.

Last month they were on stage at the Coral Springs Center for the Arts, where Stu Moss sang a parody of Barry Manilow's hit song I Write the Songs. In Moss' version, the lyrics are:

I've owned this store forever, and I made the very first knish.

I put the tongue and corned beef together, I made matzo and gefilte fish.

I sliced pastrami for the whole East Side, I got the business from an uncle who died.

I make potato salad, cole slaw too. I own the deli, I'm a Jew.

And there are more lyrics. And after seeing the parody, if you really want to see the original song sung by Manilow, we've posted it below. 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.)

 

Comedy Showcase: Myq Kaplan Does Another Round on Late Late Show

Just about a year ago we highlighted stand-up comic Myq Kaplan in a video explaining what it's like to write and perform comedy, along with an actual performance on the Late Late Show.

On Monday night he showed up once again on the Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson to deliver his latest stand-up routine. We weren't up late enough to see it and we assume many of our readers also missed it. So we're sharing it with you as today's comedy entry.

Myq was a Top 5 final­ist on the most recent sea­son of Last Comic Stand­ing and ended his tour this sum­mer. He has also appeared on Com­edy Central’s Live at Gotham, at the New Faces show of the 2009 Just For Laughs Fes­ti­val in Mon­treal, was voted 2008’s Best Local Come­dian in the Boston Phoenix, and won the NY’s Fun­ni­est Standup Com­pe­ti­tion in 2009.

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.)

Saintly Rabbi Grossman Dances into the Act to Promote Shabbat.com Website

Last July we posted a story about Rabbi Yitzchok Dovid Grossman, founder of Migdal Ohr, a network of organizations and the Migdal HaEmek youth village that provide social and educational programs for a wide range of religious and secular Israelis. 

That story told of a unique situation during the second Lebanon war where 700 Israeli paratroopers, packed in an uncomfortable tank hangar on an army base, were invited by Rabbi Grossman to his youth village where he told the group "Guys, everyone into the pool!"  After enjoying a cooling swim, the rabbi, who is often described as saintly, joined the paratroopers in singing, dancing, a barbecue, and writing the last few letters in a new Torah scroll.

Last week, Rabbi Grossman met and danced with a group of students touring Israel who were chosen for their future leadership potential on college campuses and communities all around the world. They were promoting the Shabbat.com website, which links visitors seeking a Shabbat meal with hosts in 1700 cities in 70 countries.

In the video below, you'll see the students singing and clapping for three minutes, at which point Rabbi Grossman couldn't resist and joined in the dancing, in another example of how it's possible for Haredi, modern observant, and secular Jews to rejoice in what they have in common.  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.)

Comedy Showcase: Introducing Jack Fuld, 9-Year-Old Chinese-Jewish Comedian

We're starting the New Year off with stand-up comedy, one of the first and most popular features at Jewish Humor Central. But there's something special about today's stand-up comedy video. The comedian is not a Catskills veteran or a regular on the comedy club circuit. It's a nine-year-old fourth grader named Jack Fuld.

We don't know much about him except that he has a Jewish father and a Chinese mother and that he uses this lineage as a way to warm up his audience. The kid is very poised and has a funny and confident delivery.

This performance was recorded at the New York Comedy Club on November 18 and just appeared on YouTube yesterday. We suspect that we'll be hearing more from him in the future.  Enjoy!

(FAMILY-FRIENDLY WORD OF CAUTION: Even though the performer is only nine years old, he does use a word toward the end of his routine that the New York Times would not consider fit to print.)

(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.)

HAPPY NEW YEAR! Reflections on New Year's Resolutions for 2012

It's time to wish all of our readers a Happy New Year and to make resolutions for 2012. But wait a minute! Didn't we just do this a few months ago on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur?

Well, yes and no. Yes to the wishing a Happy (and also Healthy and Prosperous) New Year. But we're not so sure about the resolutions part.

When you got home from shul after Yom Kippur services were over, did you get out a pad of paper, laptop, iPad, or smartphone and start making a list of specific changes you were going to try to achieve in the new year?  To be perfectly honest, we didn't. How could we, in our rush to put out the bagels, cream cheese, and other delicacies for the traditional break-fast?

Isn't it funny that on Yom Kippur we recite, over and over again, a set of 44 Al Chets, mistakes that we, the collective Jewish people, are sorry that we made during the past year, but there is no formal place in the services to list positive steps for change that we plan to take in the year to come?  

Of course, we're not going to actually write a list on the day of Yom Kippur, and there's an implied promise that we won't repeat the same mistakes next year. But unless we translate these very general categories of mistakes into a personal action plan, it's hard to think of the avoidance of general mistakes as New Years Resolutions. It's especially difficult when we have asked forgiveness for:

- the mistakes we committed before you willfully and intentionally
- the mistakes we committed before you by exercising power
- the mistakes we committed before you with eye movements
- the mistakes we committed before you with a strong forehead

Even the Al Chets that are more specific, like mistakes we committed before you with food and drink, or in business, are easy to dismiss as just another prayer in our rush to put up the Sukkah and start cooking for yet another Yom Tov.

But why write about Yom Kippur and Al Chet now, when we're starting a secular New Year?

Because there's a lesson here that we can learn from our secular friends and neighbors. The secular New Year's Day, January 1, long stripped of any religious meaning, can be a boon to us by infusing Jewish values into the New Year's resolutions that the secular world reminds us of every New Year's eve. 

For sure, nobody makes a resolution to abstain from using  a strong forehead, exercising power, or watching eye movements. But we can resolve to think through consequences (both intended and unintended) before making important decisions, we can resolve to not take advantage of anyone who is in a weaker physical or economic condition, and we can resolve to look people in the eye when having conversations and listening carefully to what they have to say before jumping in to make our point. These are just a few examples of how we can turn the mistakes (some say sins) that we renounce on Yom Kippur into positive actions if we think about applying Jewish values in making resolutions for the New Year.

So we, individually, and bloggerly (is that a word?) will be making a list of behavioral improvements for the coming year and trying to adhere to them for as long as possible.  By way of example, we came across a list of resolutions written in 1943 by Woody Guthrie, the legendary folk singer who gave us This Land is Your Land and So Long, It's Been Good to Know You among the hundreds of songs that he wrote.

Guthrie was not Jewish, but his second wife, and mother of Arlo Guthrie (Alice's Restaurant, The City of New Orleans) was the daughter of Aliza Greenblatt, a Yiddish poet. So, writing his list while living in the Jewish neighborhood of Coney Island in Brooklyn, he just might have been influenced by the values of his shvigger (mother-in-law) and neighbors.

Here is the actual list that Guthrie wrote and illustrated by hand:

 

Our favorites?  Learn people better, stay glad, and keep hoping machine running. 

If we've made you yearn for a few choruses of This Land is Your Land, here they are, as sung by Woody Guthrie himself. Enjoy, make a list, and have a Happy New Year!

(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.)