Temple Aliyah Presents TONIGHT! A musical for Rosh Hashanah

Take a peek inside Temple Aliyah to see last minute preparations the morning of Erev Rosh Hashanah. 

This parody of West Side Story's Tonight, featuring Rabbi Stewart Vogel, Rabbi Ben Goldstein, Hazzan Michael Stein and Hazzan Mimi Haselkorn, takes a somewhat satirical look at synagogue life from the inside. Some might call it overly utopian... 

But that's just everyday life at Temple Aliyah, a Conservative synagogue in Woodland Hills, California.

Enjoy! 

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Written and directed by Ben Vorspan, Director of Communications.

A Joke to Start the Week - "New Man in the Neighborhood"

In just a few days we'll be celebrating Rosh Hashanah, but there's still time to fit in a quick joke to get the week off to a good start. 

Here's another one from Bob Epstein, the New York City school system assistant principal who gave us a bunch of jokes when we were performing Jewish humor programs at the Eisenberg Berkshire Hills Adult Vacation Center during the summer.

Here's the setup:  This woman is sitting on a bench in Miami and a gentleman walks over and she hadn't seen him before. And then...

Enjoy!

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The Great Israeli Singing Groups: Chocolate, Menta, Mastik Sings "B'Rosh Hashanah"

Chocolate, Menta, Mastik (Hebrew: שוקולד מנטה מסטיק‎‎, translation: Chocolate, mint, gum) was an Israeli female musical trio, active in the 1970s, composed of Yardena Arazi, Ruthie Holzman and either Tami Azaria (1972-1973) or Leah Lupatin. All the girls served in the IDF as part of the Nahal Ensemble. 

The trio performed both in Israel and internationally, especially after being the 1976 entry to the Eurovision Song Contest in The Hague with "Emor Shalom".

In this video they sing B'Rosh Hashanah by Naomi Shemer, her most beloved New Year Song. The Hebrew lyrics and English translation appear below the video.

Enjoy!

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בראש השנה

נעמי שמר מילים ולחן: נעמי שמר
בראש השנה, בראש השנה
פרחה שושנה אצלי בגינה
בראש השנה סירה לבנה
עגנה לה בחוף פתאום

בראש השנה, בראש השנה
ליבנו ענה בתפילה נושנה
שיפה ושונה תהא השנה
אשר מתחילה לה היום

בראש השנה, בראש השנה
פרחה עננה ברקיע הסתיו
בראש השנה כנר נשמה
נדלק בשדה חצב

בראש השנה, בראש השנה
ליבנו ענה בתפילה נושנה
שיפה ושונה תהא השנה
אשר מתחילה עכשיו.

בראש השנה, בראש השנה
פרחה מנגינה שאיש לא הכיר
ותוך יממה הזמר המה
מכל חלונות העיר

בראש השנה, בראש השנה
ליבנו ענה בתפילה נושנה
שיפה ושונה תהא השנה
אשר מתחילה בשיר

On Rosh Hashanah, on Rosh Hashanah,
In my garden bloomed a rose.
On Rosh Hashanah, a white sailboat
Suddenly set anchor by the shore.

On Rosh Hashanah, on Rosh Hashanah,
Our heart responded in ancient prayer:
May the year beginning anew today
Be wonderful and special in every way.

On Rosh Hashanah, on Rosh Hashanah,
In the autumn sky bloomed a first cloud.
On Rosh Hashanah,
Rising like a memorial flame,
In the meadow bloomed the first squill.

On Rosh Hashanah, on Rosh Hashanah,
Our heart responded in ancient prayer:
May the year beginning anew today
Be wonderful and special in every way.

On Rosh Hashanah, on Rosh Hashanah,
Bloomed a melody - new and unknown,
And overnight its strains did resound
From every casement in town.

On Rosh Hashanah, on Rosh Hashanah,
Our heart responded in ancient prayer:
May the year beginning anew today
Be wonderful and special in every way.

Welcoming Shabbat with "Yedid Nefesh" by Los Angeles Cantor Shira Fox

Yedid Nefesh is a piyyut (poem) usually sung on Friday night just before the Kabbalat Shabbat (Welcoming Shabbat) service begins.
 
According to Wikipedia, this beautiful poem is commonly attributed to the sixteenth century kabbalist, Rabbi Elazar ben Moshe Azikri (1533-1600), who first published it in Sefer Charedim (published in Venice 1601), but Azikri did not claim authorship of it and there have been other suggested authors (e.g. Judah Halevi, or Israel Nagara).  
The first letters of each of the four verses make up the four letter name of God, known in English as the tetragrammaton.

The lead singer in this video is Cantor Shira Fox, the daughter of two Los Angeles cantors -- Herschel Fox, the Yiddish stand-up comedian we profiled in 2011 and his wife Judy, the cantor in the Synagogue for the Performing Arts in Los Angeles (where Joseph Telushkin is the rabbi). In this video she is joined by Deborah Jenkofsky.

This version of Yedid Nefesh was sung last month at Beit T'shuvah, a Los Angeles based synagogue community with a mission to guide individuals and families towards a path of living well, so that wrestling souls can recover from addiction and learn how to properly heal.

They also have a band, and in 2015 they recorded a Beatles Shabbat service with all the familiar songs in the Friday night liturgy sung to some of the most popular Beatles songs. We previously posted their version of Lecha Dodi set to Let it Be and V'Shamru set to Hey Jude.
   
Beit T'shuvah is led by Rabbi Mark Borovitz, described on the synagogue website as "spiritual leader, author, Senior Rabbi, ex-con, recovering alcoholic, and overall anomaly."

Enjoy and Shabbat shalom!

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Throwback Thursday Comedy Special: Jeffrey Ross at Montreal Just For Laughs Festival

It's another Throwback Thursday, and today we're revving up the old time machine and driving it back to 1998 when Jeffrey Ross appeared at the Just for Laughs Festival in Montreal.

Jeff Ross (born Jeffrey Ross Lipschultz to a Jewish family in Springfield, New Jersey) is a stand-up comedian, actor, and author. His skill in doing high-profile celebrity roasts and his appearances in Comedy Central's Roasts, have led him to be dubbed "The Roastmaster General."

He has appeared in various film, television, and cartoon projects. He has made appearances at events for U.S. soldiers and directed a documentary film covering his experiences touring U.S. bases in Iraq. 

Enjoy!

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 #Throwback Thursday     #TBT
 

The Great Jewish Entertainers: Hermione Gingold - "I Remember it Well"

Continuing our series on The Great Jewish Entertainers, we're heading "across the pond" to  reminisce about one of our favorite British character actresses, Hermione Gingold.

Watching the movie musical Gigi, we especially enjoyed I Remember it Well, the spoken/sung repartee between Gingold and Maurice Chevalier.

According to Wikipedia, Gingold was born in London to a prosperous Vienna-born Jewish stockbroker James Gingold and his wife, Kate, who came from a "well-to-do Jewish family". Although she was descended from the celebrated Solomon Sulzer, a famous synagogue cantor and Jewish liturgical composer in Vienna, Gingold grew up with no particular religious beliefs.
 
After a successful career in England as a child actress, Gingold later established herself on the stage as an adult, playing in comedy, drama, radio, and revue.  From the early 1950s Gingold lived and made her career mostly in the U.S. where she played formidable elderly characters in such films and stage musicals as Gigi (1958), Bell, Book and Candle (1958), The Music Man (1962) and A Little Night Music (1973).

Here is the memorable I Remember it Well number with Chevalier. Enjoy!

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Rosh Hashana Video Countdown - Afikei Tikshoret Apple Passing

Afikei Communications is an Israeli company that specializes in guiding children and youth in various media media: animation, film, television. The company also specializes in producing films for children and youth films, while giving the children experience in filming and directing.

They also have a knack for producing funny Rosh Hashana videos. In this one, they show the journey of an apple through 33 steps before it gets dipped into honey and eaten to symbolize a sweet New Year.

Wishing you a Shana Tova u'Metukah !

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A Joke to Start the Week - "The Candle" (Yiddish with English Titles)

A month of holidays is almost here, starting with Rosh Hashanah. We're going to be lighting lots of candles for the next four weeks, and the candles will burn out on their own. But there are other times when we have a lit candle that we want to extinguish. 

This Yiddish story, The Candle, from the archives of Old Jews Telling Jokes, is less of a joke and more of a special treat. The performer, Suzanne Shepherd, is a renowned character actress and acting teacher. She is best known for her portrayal of Karen's overbearing mother in the film Goodfellas, Carmela Soprano's mother Mary De Angelis in the HBO television series The Sopranos, and the assistant school principal in Uncle Buck.

This special piece of Jewish humor is spoken entirely in Yiddish, with English subtitles.

Enjoy!

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"If There Weren't Any Jews" - An Original Tribute to Jewish Achievement by David Zasloff

David Zasloff is a stand-up comedian, vocalist and multi-instrumentalist. He has performed in a wide variety of venues throughout the United States including comedy festivals and conventions, prisons, nightclubs, universities, theaters, retirement homes, corporate events, private parties, temples, weddings, funerals, birthday parties, affairs of state, spiritual living centers, a few churches and one bris.

David has perfected the art of playing the shofar as a musical instrument. We have featured him three times before on Jewish Humor Central, playing Hatikva on the shofar, in a standup comedy routine where he plays Christmas songs written by Jews on the shofar, and as part of a Cuban Jewish ensemble in a Cuban Jewish Jazz Shabbat. 

After reading lists of Nobel Peace Prize winners and Pulitzer Prize winners David noticed that  almost all the winners were Jews. This made him proud to be Jewish. So he wrote a song about it called If There Weren't Any Jews.
 
Enjoy!

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Welcoming Shabbat (and Getting Ready for Rosh Hashana) with Adon Olam by the Boys Town Jerusalem Singers

As we were searching for a musical video to help us welcome Shabbat this week, we took a closer look at the calendar and realized that Rosh Hashana is only 12 days away. 

We found another new version of Adon Olam that not only gets us in the mood for Shabbat but also serves as the first in a series of Rosh Hashana music videos that we will post as soon as they come in.

This Adon Olam is sung by the Boys Town Jerusalem choir on their Jerusalem campus. Over the years we've been posting their music videos for Pesach, Rosh Hashana, Sukkot, and Chanukah.

Boys Town Jerusalem is a high school in Jerusalem, Israel which has over 900 boys from grades 7 to grade 12 and a 2 year post high school engineering program. Once the boys graduate they continue on to enlist in the IDF ( Israel Defense Forces)

More than 75% of the boys come from economically disadvantaged backgrounds and require substantial scholarship assistance. No student is ever turned away from Boys Town Jerusalem due to inability to pay tuition.
We hope you enjoy their vocal and musical talents. Shabbat shalom!

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Throwback Thursday Comedy Special: Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca in "The Maid Sketch"

It's Throwback Thursday again and today we get another chance to go back 67 years to 1950 and another episode of The Hickenloopers on Your Show of Shows.

Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca starred in many episodes of the hilarious marital tribulations of Doris and Charlie Hickenlooper.

In this sketch, the fun starts when Charlie (Sid  Caesar) comes home from his job, having just received a promotion. He immediately starts worrying about how his wife Doris (Imogene Coca) will spend the extra money he is now earning.

Enjoy!

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Hava Nagila Around the World - A Performance by Russian Singer/Actress Larisa Lusta

Since we started Jewish Humor Central in 2009 we have shared more than 60 versions of Hava Nagila from around the world.We haven't run out of versions yet, and when we find an unusual performance we like to share it with you.

Arguably the most overplayed of Jewish songs, Hava Nagila still has the ability to mesmerize an audience, especially when performed in a striking rendition like this one by Larisa Lusta, an actress and singer from St.Petersburg, Russia. She received an award for the best classical vocal (2008), and was the winner of the all-Russian contest 'Romansiada' in Moscow (1999).

Larisa is known as the diva of Russian crossover. She works with very various genres - beginning from classic to modern rock, from Russian romance to French chanson.

Enjoy!

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The Great Jewish Entertainers: Bert Parks - "There She is...Miss America"

We were vacationing in Atlantic City, New Jersey a couple of weeks ago, and couldn't help noticing a bronze statue at the entrance to the Sheraton Convention Center Hotel. The statue, on a pedestal, showed a man in a tuxedo holding an outstretched crown. 

Of course, it could only be Bert Parks, who was synonymous with Atlantic City for 24 years when he hosted the annual Miss America Pageant each September.

Parks was born Bertram Jacobson in Atlanta, Georgia in 1914 to Aaron Jacobson, a Jewish merchant who had immigrated to the United States in 1900 from Latvia and his wife Hattie (Spiegel) Jacobson, the daughter of immigrants from Austria-Hungary.

Bess Myerson was the first and only Jewish-American and the first Miss New York to win the Miss America Pageant as Miss America 1945. This year the 97th Miss America Competition will return to Atlantic City's historic Boardwalk Hall on Sunday, September 10 from 9:00 PM - 11:00 PM on the ABC Television Network. 

Parks, who died in 1992, hosted his last Miss America Pageant in 1979. He was fired and replaced by a succession of 17 other hosts because the pageant organizers wanted to appeal to a younger audience. But he will always be associated with the pageant and remembered for his song There She is, Miss America, that he sang each year as the newly crowned beauty queen walked down the runway. Here is a video from the 1977 pageant to bring back memories of his performances.

Enjoy!

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A Joke to Start the Week - "The First Jewish President"

It's the first Monday in September, and with summer vacations behind us, it's time to get back to work or to school. And what better way to start the work week or the school week than with a joke, especially an old joke from the archives of Old Jews Telling Jokes?

This golden oldie, updated a bit for gender neutrality, is retold by Brenda Fishman, a retired elementary school principal and education consultant.

Here's the setup: It was Inauguration Day, and a very special inauguration in Washington, D.C. because the very first Jewish president-elect had won the vote. Seated right in the front row was her widowed mother. And then...

Enjoy!

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Remembering Shelley Berman: "I'm Not a Standup Comedian - I Work on a Stool"

Comedian Shelley Berman, who died Friday in California at the age of 92, brought a new and unique form of comedy to television in the 1950s and 1960s. Sitting on a stool and holding an imaginary telephone, he let his audiences listen in to one side of conversations he was having with hotel clerks, department store operators, and answering multiple phone calls in his office.

As Frazier Moore wrote for the Associated Press yesterday,

Berman was a pioneer of a new brand of comedy that could evoke laughter from such matters as air travel discomforts and small children who answer the telephone. He helped pave the way for Bob Newhart, Woody Allen, Jerry Seinfeld and other standup comedians who fashioned their routines around the follies and frustrations of modern living.

Late in his career, he played Nat David, father of Larry David, on HBO's "Curb Your Enthusiasm." With dialogue improvised by its cast, the comedy series gave Berman the opportunity to return to his improv roots and introduced him to a new generation of TV viewers.

"I'm not a standup comedian," Berman often insisted. "I work on a stool."

Here is a classic example of Berman's telephone humor, his phone call to a department store. Enjoy!

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Havdalah with Israeli a Cappella Group Kippalive

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 doing something different.

Because we don't post on Shabbat, we haven't been paying much attention to the closing minutes of Shabbat, when beautiful melodies are sung as part of Havdalah, the ceremony marking the transition from the holiness of Shabbat to the work week.

But 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.

Here's a video to save for tomorrow night at the conclusion of Shabbat. Playing it after dark will give us a reminder of the sweet taste of Shabbat and energize us to face the challenges of the coming week. This version is by Kippalive, an Israeli a cappella group.
  
They started out as a group of friends in Raanana who got together every Friday night to sing and were discovered while singing in the streets of Raanana.

We featured them previously in an a cappella song for Chanukah in 2013 and last year for Passover and in a Carlebach-style Shabbat service.

Their Havdalah is traditional, but if you listen carefully, you'll notice that they have seamlessly integrated a few bars from the Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter themes and the introduction from the pop hit Kiss From a Rose. Can you find any others? Share your findings in the comments section below.

Enjoy, Shabbat shalom, and Shavua tov!

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The Great Jewish Entertainers: "Let's Make a Deal" Host Monty Hall Reflects on Yiddish in Hollywood

Our series on The Great Jewish Comedians has blossomed into a lecture that's now one of the most popular on our lecture circuit. We're adding new comedians to it and it's scheduled to become a 90 minute program at Florida Atlantic University in March 2019.

Meanwhile we're working on a new series called The Great Jewish Entertainers, going beyond comedy to all forms of entertainment. Today we're profiling Monte Halparin, who you might recognize as Monty Hall, host of the 1970s TV game show Let's Make a Deal.

Hall, who was born in Winnipeg, Canada in 1921 to Orthodox Jewish parents, celebrated his 96th birthday last week. In 2014 he was interviewed as part of the Wexler Oral History Project at the Yiddish Book Center in Amherst, Massachusetts. 

In the interview, he speaks about his surprise and joy at finding fluent Yiddish speakers in Hollywood, including the great Danny Kaye and non-Jewish stars like James Cagney and Burt Lancaster.

Here's the interview, followed by a Throwback Thursday bonus -- a short clip from Let's Make a Deal that's more than 40 years old.

Enjoy!

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#Throwback Thursday   #TBT

The Maccabeats Release Hebrew/English Version of Pop Hit "Despacito"

Despacito (English: "Slowly") is a single by Puerto Rican singer Luis Fonsi featuring Puerto Rican rapper Daddy Yankee from the former's upcoming studio album. 

On January 12, 2017, Universal Music Latin released "Despacito" and its music video, which shows both artists performing the song in La Perla neighborhood of Old San Juan, Puerto Rico and the local bar La Factoría. The song's music video is the first video to reach over three billion views on YouTube. 

The Maccabeats, originally formed in 2007 as Yeshiva University’s student vocal group, have just released a Hebrew/English version of Despacito.

The original Spanish version (shown in this link with Hebrew subtitles) is a reggaeton-pop song composed in common time with lyrics about having a sexual relationship, performed in a smooth and romantic way. It became the first song primarily in Spanish to top the Billboard Hot 100 since Macarena (Bayside Boys Mix) in 1996.

The words of the Maccabeats English/Hebrew version, originally recorded by Amram Adar and Itzik Shamli, are not a translation of the Spanish lyrics, but advice about learning to savor every moment slowly and trust in God when you feel like you're being pulled in all directions.

The complete English/Hebrew lyrics appear just below the video. Enjoy! 

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 Lyrics

Like being pulled in all directions
Tryin’ to be thankful for my blessings, yeah
It’s like I never learn my lesson, yeah
I need a sunrise on my darkest day
Quit this feeling I just can’t shake
Learn how to savor every moment slowly, slowly

אם אתה מרגיש שאתה כל הזמן רוצה,
להספיק הכל פשוט תזכור,
כי הכל כתוב מלמעלה אז תנסה,
סמוך על הבורא הכל יכול,

שוב,יש תנועה בדרך אל העבודה,
אתה רץ לא לאחר אל הפגישה,
ואולי מרגיש שכל יום כמו מרוץ פה,
גם,גם אם אתה קצת מתוסכל
ונראה לך שזהו המזל,
בטח בשם ותאמין בו

דספסיטו
קח את החיים שלך בדספסיטו,
כל דבר בזמן שלו יבוא קרידו,
וכל עכבה זה טוב רק תאמין בו,

לאן כולם רצים לאן? תגידו?
תרגל מהגז תורידו,
החיים יפים תביטו...
לאן כולם ממהרים לאן תגידו תרגל מהגז תורידו
החיים יפים תביטו

דספסיטו,
קח את החיים שלך, בדספסיטו,
כל דבר בזמן שלו יבוא קרידו,
וכל עכבה זה טוב רק תאמין בו,

ואז פתאום תראה שלעבוד,
בלי לחצים אפשר ללמוד,
הכל יהיה פשוט מאוד,
אחרת איך אפשר לשרוד,
את החיים שלך תתחיל לקחת בקלות,
זמן זה כסף אך בלי אושר אין לו משמעות תלות,
עצור לחשוב לפני שתאחר את הרכבת, הילדים גודלים ומה נישאר רק המזכרת,
תגיד להם איזו מילה טובה ותחבק,
יש רגעים שבשבילם תתנתק,
ניסית ניסית, מה שלא עשית,
את הכל רצית,
בנית בנית,
מה שלא ראית, איך שהזמן עובר כאן
ולא יחזור שוב לאחור
לחייך.

אם אתה מרגיש שאתה כל הזמן רוצה,
להספיק הכל פשוט תזכור...

דספסיטו,
קח את החיים שלך בדספסיטו,
כל דבר בזמן שלו יבוא קרידו,
וכל עכבה זה טוב רק תאמין בו,
דספסיטו

Conan O'Brien's El Al Encounter en Route to Israel - Second of a Series

Late night talk show host Conan O'Brien is spending a week in Israel filming a Conan Without Borders travel show to be aired in September.

We're following his antics as he boards an El Al plane and brings his comedy to Israel.

In this video clip, second of the series, he has an encounter with the toilet on an El Al plane in flight. After spending an hour and a half in the toilet to get a suitable video sequence, he offers some very creative interpretations of the Hebrew words on the towel disposal bin and lotion dispenser. Meanwhile, an El Al passenger, not known for patience, bangs on the door repeatedly to try to gain access.

We'll be sharing more of his funny videos with you over the next few weeks. Next episode: The Tel Aviv skyline and shakshuka.

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.