February 2008 |
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San Francisco More »
The Mikvah and Beyond
Wednesdays, beginning February 6
Congregation Emanu-El, San Francisco
Leap Year Shabbat Dinner for Interfaith/Intercultural Families
Friday, February 29
JCC of San Francisco
North Bay More »
Osher Marin JCC Preschool Enrollment for 2008-09
Beginning Monday, January 28
Osher Marin JCC ECE, San Rafael
Beginning Jewish Living: Living a Life of Holiness
Tuesdays, ongoing through April 1
Congregation Rodef Sholom, San Rafael
Peninsula More »
Back to Basics: An Introduction to Jewish Texts, Holidays and Lifecycles
Sundays, ongoing through March 2
Peninsula Temple Beth El, San Mateo
Interfaith Couples Groups
Sunday, March 2
Congregation Shir Hadash, Los Gatos
East Bay More »
Two Hearts, One Home: How I Decided to Raise My Kids Jewish
Wednesday, February 6
Temple Sinai, Oakland
Women in Interfaith Relationships: Giving Kids Roots and Wings
Sunday, March 9
B'nai TIkvah, Walnut Creek
If your synagogue or organization is sponsoring an activity of particular interest to interfaith families, please let us know at bridges@sfjcf.org. |
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Jewish Humor?
Funny You Should Ask
In the cold, dark days of February, a little comic relief is in order. Comic and writer Fred Raker wrote this story for Bridges.
Jewish telegram: “Begin worrying. Details to follow.”
Groucho Marx once joked that he would never belong to any club that would have him as a member. That’s a very funny line. It’s also very Jewish. Why? Because it’s self-deprecating. Does that mean that all Jewish jokes are self-deprecating? Of course not. But psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud believed that many Jewish jokes contain that critical component. “I don’t know whether there are many other instances of a people making fun to such a degree of its own character,” he wrote.
This observation led some of Freud’s followers to hypothesize that Jewish humor arose as a way for Jews to cope with the hostility they found all around them, sometimes by using that hostility against themselves. In the words of psychoanalyst Martin Grotjahn, "Aggression turned against the self seems to be an essential feature of the truly Jewish joke. It is as if the Jew tells his enemies, 'You do not need to attack us. We can do that ourselves… and even better.'"
However, not everyone believes that the majority of Jewish humor is self-deprecating. One scholar, when asked if Jewish humor is masochistic, responded by saying, “No. And if I hear that line once more I’m going to kill myself!”
Of course, dissecting a joke or an entire style of humor to find out what makes it tick is not a very funny endeavor. Yet two gentlemen have made a heroic attempt to do so. William Novak and Moshe Waldoks, editors of The Big Book of Jewish Humor, have come up with five categories to help get a handle on exactly what Jewish humor is.
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Jewish humor is about something. It often focuses on topics such as food (noshing is sacred), family, business, anti-Semitism, wealth and its absence, health and survival. |
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As social or religious commentary, Jewish humor can be sarcastic, complaining, resigned or descriptive. Sometimes the point of the humor is more powerful than the laugh it delivers. In fact, for some jokes the appropriate response is not laughter, but rather a bitter nod or a commiserating sigh of recognition.
Let me tell you the one thing I have against Moses. He took us forty years into the desert in order to bring us to the one place in the Middle East that has no oil!
-- Golda Meir |
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Jewish humor tends to be anti-authoritarian. It ridicules grandiosity and self-indulgence, exposes hypocrisy, and kicks pomposity in the pants. It is strongly democratic, stressing the dignity and worth of common folk. |
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Jewish humor characteristically deals with the conflict between the people and the power structure, whether that is the individual Jew within his or her community, the Jew facing the larger world, or the Jewish community in relation to the rest of humanity.
A Jewish tailor walks by a czarist police inspector in the street. The inspector is furious that the Jew has neglected to doff his hat in the required manner.
“Jew!” he cries out. “What do you mean by this insolence? Where are you from?”
“From Minsk,” replies the Jew meekly.
“And what about your hat?” the inspector demands.
“Also from Minsk,” replies the Jew.
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Jewish humor mocks everyone – including God. It frequently satirizes religious personalities and institutions as well as rituals and dogma. At the same time, it affirms religious traditions and practices, seeking a new understanding of the differences between the holy and the mundane.
I once wanted to become an atheist but I gave up... they have no holidays. -- Henny Youngman
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And now that you know all about it, without further ado, here’s a bissel (Yiddish for a small amount) more of honest-to-goodness Jewish humor:
Joey calls his mother Sadie in Florida. "Mom, how are you?"
"Not too good. I've been very weak,” answers Sadie.
"Why are you so weak?" Joey asks.
“I haven't eaten in 38 days."
"That's terrible,” Joey replies. “Why haven't you eaten in 38 days?"
"Because I didn't want my mouth should be filled with food if you happen to call.”
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