Humor judío

El humor judío es la larga tradición del

humor en el judaísmo que se remonta a
la Torá y al Midrash del antiguo Medio
Oriente , pero en general se refiere a la
corriente más reciente del humor verbal y
a menudo anecdótico de los judíos
Ashkenazi que echó raíces en los
Estados Unidos durante el Los últimos
cien años, incluso en la cultura judía
secular . El humor judío europeo en su
forma temprana se desarrolló en la
comunidad judía del Sacro Imperio
Romano , y la sátira teológica se
convirtió en una forma tradicional de
oposición clandestina a la cristianización
. [1]

El humor judío moderno surgió durante el

siglo XIX entre los judíos de habla
alemana de la Haskalah (Ilustración
judía), maduró en los asentamientos del
Imperio ruso y luego floreció en la
América del siglo XX, llegando con los
millones de judíos que emigraron de
Europa del Este. Entre la década de 1880
y principios de la década de 1920.

Comenzando con el vodevil y

continuando a través de la radio , la
comedia , el cine y la televisión , un
porcentaje desproporcionadamente alto
de comediantes estadounidenses,
alemanes y rusos ha sido judío. [2] El
tiempo estimado en 1978 es que el 80
por ciento de los cómics
estadounidenses profesionales eran
judíos. [3]

El humor judío, aunque diverso, favorece

el juego de palabras , la ironía y la sátira ,
y sus temas son altamente
antiautoritarios , burlándose de la vida
religiosa y laica por igual. [4] Sigmund
Freud consideraba que el humor judío era
único, ya que su humor se deriva
principalmente de la burla del in-group
(judíos) en lugar del "otro". Sin embargo,
en lugar de simplemente ser autocrítico ,
también contiene un elemento dialéctico
de autoalogio, que funciona en la
dirección opuesta.

Historia
El humor judío está arraigado en varias
tradiciones. Una reciente beca coloca los
orígenes del humor judío en uno de los
primeros documentos registrados de la
historia, la Biblia hebrea, así como el
Talmud. [5] En particular, los métodos
intelectuales y legales del Talmud , que
utilizan argumentos y situaciones legales
elaborados que a menudo se consideran
tan absurdos como humorísticos , para
desentrañar el significado de la ley
religiosa. [6]

Hillel Halkin en su ensayo sobre el humor

judío [7] traza algunas raíces de la judía
autocrítico humor a la influencia de las
tradiciones medieval árabe en la
literatura hebrea citando un chiste de
Yehuda Alharizi 's Tahkemoni . Una
tradición sefardí posterior se centró en
un personaje popular derivado de
Nasreddin conocido como Djohá .

Una más reciente es una tradición

igualitaria entre las comunidades judías
de Europa del Este en la que los
poderosos solían ser burlados
sutilmente, en lugar de ser atacados
abiertamente, como dijo Saul Bellow :
"Los oprimidos tienden a ser ingeniosos".
Los bufones conocidos como badchens
solían burlarse de los miembros
prominentes de la comunidad durante
las bodas, creando una buena tradición
de humor como un dispositivo de
nivelación. El rabino Moshe Waldoks , un
erudito del humor judío, argumentó:

Tienes un montón de shtoch o

jab humor, que generalmente
está destinado a desinflar la
pomposidad o al ego, y a
desinflar a las personas que se
consideran altas y poderosas.
Pero el humor judío también
fue un dispositivo para la
autocrítica dentro de la
comunidad, y creo que ahí es
donde realmente estaba el más
poderoso. El humorista, como
el profeta, básicamente se
encargaría de las personas por
sus errores. El humor de
Europa del Este se centró
especialmente en defender a los
pobres contra la explotación de
las clases superiores u otras
figuras de autoridad, por lo que
los rabinos se burlaron, las
 figuras de autoridad se
burlaron y los ricos se
burlaron de ellos. Realmente
sirvió como una catarsis
social. [8]

After Jews began to immigrate to

America in large numbers, they, like other
minority groups, found it difficult to gain
mainstream acceptance and obtain
upward mobility (As Lenny Bruce
lampooned, "He was charming. ... They
said, 'C'mon! Let's go watch the Jew be
charming!'"). The newly-developing
entertainment industry, combined with
the Jewish humor tradition, provided a
potential route for Jews to succeed. One
of the first successful radio "sitcoms",
The Goldbergs, featured a Jewish family.
As radio and television matured, many of
its most famous comedians, including
Jack Benny, Sid Caesar, George Burns,
Eddie Cantor, Jack Carter , Henny
Youngman , Milton Berle y Jerry Lewis
eran judíos. La tradición de la comedia
judía continúa hoy en día, con un humor
judío muy entrelazado con el del humor
convencional, como lo indican las
comedias como Seinfeld , Curb Your
Enthusiasm y Woody Allen .

Sigmund Freud en sus chistes y su

relación con el inconsciente , entre otras
cosas, analiza la naturaleza de los
chistes judíos.

Tipos de humor judío

Religious humor

As befits a community to which religion

was so important, much humor centres
on the relationship of Judaism to the
individual Jew and the community.

Two Rabbis argued late into

the night about the existence of
God, and, using strong
arguments from the scriptures,
ended up indisputably
 disproving His existence. The
next day, one Rabbi was
surprised to see the other
walking into the shul for
morning services.

"I thought we had agreed there

was no God," he said.

"Yes, what does that have to do

with it?" replied the other.

The cognate to this is the part left out,

the fact that it was traditional to go to
services, regardless of what one
believed, and the rabbi was merely
following that tradition. This is like the
story of the boy who tells his rabbi he
can't daven (pray), because he no longer
believes in God. The rabbi merely tells
him, "Yes God, no God: doesn't matter!
Three times a day, you DAVEN!"

Assimilation

The American Jewish community has

been lamenting the rate of assimilation
and disappearance of their children as
they grow into adults.

Two Rabbis were discussing

their problems with squirrels
in their synagogue attic. One
 Rabbi said, "We simply called
an exterminator and we never
saw the squirrels again." The
other Rabbi said, "We just gave
the squirrels a bar mitzvah,
and we never saw them again."

Or,

The rate of Jewish

intermarriage is a serious
problem. Scientists estimate
that unless something can be
done to stop intermarriage, in
100 years, the Jewish people
 will be reduced to a race of
gorgeous blondes.

Self-deprecating

Jews often mock their own negative

stereotypes.

Question: How can you always

spot a convert to Judaism?

Answer: That's easy. They're

the only normal one in the
congregation.
Wits

Similarly, in the tradition of the legal

arguments of the Talmud, one prominent
type of Jewish humor involves clever,
often legalistic, solutions to Talmudic
problems, such as:

Q: Is one permitted to ride in

an airplane on the Sabbath?
A: Yes, as long as your seat belt
remains fastened. In this case,
it is considered that you are
not riding, you are wearing the
plane.
Tales of the Rebbes

Some jokes make fun of the "Rebbe

miracle stories" and involve different
hasidim bragging about their teachers'
miraculous abilities:

Three hasidim are bragging

about their Rebbes: "My rebbe
is very powerful. He was
walking once, and there was a
big lake in his path. He waved
his handkerchief, and there
was lake on the right, lake on
the left, but no lake in the
middle." To which the second
retorted, "That's nothing. My
rebbe is even more powerful.
He was walking once, and
there was a huge mountain in
his path. He waved his
handkerchief, and there was
mountain on the right,
mountain on the left, but no
mountain in the middle!" Said
the third, "Ha! That is still
nothing! My rebbe is the most
powerful. He was walking once
on Shabbos (Saturday, the holy
day in Judaism, on which it is
forbidden to handle money),
 and there was a wallet
crammed full of cash in his
path. He waved his
handkerchief, and it was
Shabbos on the right, Shabbos
on the left, but not Shabbos in
the middle!"

Or

Caesar said to Joshua ben

Hananiah "Why does the
Sabbath dish have such a
fragrant odor?" Joshua said
"We have a certain spice called
 Shabbat (shevet), that we put
in it. "Let me have some", he
requested. Joshua replied, "For
those who observe Shabbat, it
works; for those who don't, it
doesn't."

— Shabbat 119a.

The lives of the early hasidim, while not

funny in and of themselves, are rich in
humorous incidents. The dealings
between rabbis, tzadikim, and peasants
form a rich tapestry of lore.

Eastern European Jewish

humor
A number of traditions in Jewish humor
date back to stories and anecdotes from
the 19th century.

Chełm

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Jewish folklore makes fun of the Jewish

residents of Chełm (Yiddish: ‫כעלעם‬,
Hebrew: ‫ ;חלם‬often transcribed as Helm)
as well-meaning fools. These stories
often center around the "wise" men and
their silly decisions, similarly to the
English Wise Men of Gotham or the
German Schildbürger.
For example: One Jewish Chełm resident
bought a fish on Friday in order to cook it
for Sabbath. He put the live fish
underneath his coat and the fish slapped
his face with his tail. He went to the
Chełm court to submit a charge and the
court sentenced the fish to death by
drowning.

Most of these stories have become well-

known thanks to storytellers and writers
such as Isaac Bashevis Singer, a Nobel
Prize-winning Jewish writer in the
Yiddish language, who wrote The Fools of
Chełm and Their History (published in
English translation in 1973), and the
great Soviet Yiddish poet Ovsey Driz who
wrote stories in verse. The latter
achieved great popularity in the Soviet
Union in Russian and Ukrainian
translations, and were made into several
animated films.

Other notable adaptations of folklore

Chełm stories into the mainstream
culture are the comedy Chelmer
Khakhomim ("The Wise Men of Chelm")
by Aaron Zeitlin, The Heroes of Chelm
(1942) by Shlomo Simon, published in
English translation as The Wise Men of
Helm (Solomon Simon, 1945) and More
Wise Men of Helm (Solomon Simon,
1965), and the book Chelmer Khakhomim
by Y. Y. Trunk.[9] The animated short film
comedy Village of Idiots also recounts
Chełm tales.

Allen Mandelbaum's "Chelmaxioms : The

Maxims, Axioms, Maxioms of Chelm"
(David R. Godine, 1978) treats the wise
men less as fools than as an "echt
Chelm" of true scholars who in their
narrow specialized knowledge are
nonetheless knowledgeable but lacking
sense. The poetry of [Chelmaxioms] is
supposedly the discovered lost
manuscripts of the wise men of Chelm.

One popular humorous tradition from

Eastern Europe involved tales of the
people of Chełm, a town reputed in these
jokes to be inhabited by fools. The jokes
were almost always centred on silly
solutions to problems. Some of these
solutions display "foolish wisdom"
(reaching the correct answer by the
wrong train of reasoning), while others
are simply wrong.[10]

Chełm tales were told by authors like

Sholom Aleichem, Isaac Bashevis Singer
and Solomon Simon. A typical Chełm
story might begin, "It is said that after
God made the world, he filled it with
people. He sent off an angel with two
sacks, one full of wisdom and one full of
foolishness. The second sack was much
heavier. So after a time it started to drag.
Soon it got caught on a mountaintop and
so all the foolishness spilled out and fell
into Chełm." The short animated film
Village of Idiots is based upon classic
Chełm tales.

Here are a few examples of a Chełm tale:

In Chełm, the shammes used to

go around waking everyone up
for minyan (communal prayer)
in the morning. Every time it
snowed, the people would
complain that, although the
snow was beautiful, they could
not see it in its pristine state
because by the time they got up
in the morning, the shammes
had already trekked through
the snow. The townspeople
decided that they had to find a
way to be woken up for minyan
without having the shammes
making tracks in the snow.

The people of Chełm hit on a

solution: they got four
volunteers to carry the
shammes around on a table
when there was fresh snow in
the morning. That way, the
shammes could make his wake
 up calls, but he would not leave
tracks in the snow.

Or,

The town of Chełm decided to

build a new synagogue. So,
some strong, able-bodied men
were sent to a mountaintop to
gather heavy stones for the
foundation. The men put the
stones on their shoulders and
trudged down the mountain to
the town below. When they
arrived, the town constable
 yelled, "Foolish men! You
should have rolled the stones
down the mountain!" The men
agreed this was an excellent
idea. So they turned around,
and with the stones still on
their shoulders, trudged back
up the mountain, and rolled the
stones back down again.

Or,

A young housewife living in the

town of Chełm had a very
strange occurrence. One
morning, after buttering a
piece of bread she accidentally
dropped it on the floor. To her
amazement, it fell buttered side
up.

As everyone knows, whenever

a buttered piece of bread is
dropped on the floor, it always
falls buttered side down; this is
like a law of physics. But on
this occasion it had fallen
buttered side up, and this was
a great mystery which had to
be solved. So all the Rabbis and
elders and wise men of Chełm
 were summoned together and
they spent three days in the
synagogue fasting and praying
and debating this marvelous
event among themselves. After
those three days they returned
to the young housewife with
this answer:
"Madam, the problem is that
you have buttered the wrong
side of the bread."

Or,
The sexton of the synagogue
decided to install a poor box so
that the fortunate might share
their wealth with the needy. On
shabbes eve, he announced to
the congregation that a new
opportunity for a mitzvoh was
available. "But," one member
complained, "it will be so easy
for the goneffs (thieves) to steal
from the box." The sexton
thought long and hard that
night, and announced the next
day that he had found a
solution. Pointing upward, he
 showed, the poor box was now
suspended from a chain at the
ceiling, high, high, high
overhead. "But now how do we
put money in the box?"

The next week, the

congregation saw the
wonderful solution. A lovely
circular stairway now
ascended to the poor box
making it easy to contribute.

Hershele Ostropoler
Hershele Ostropoler, also known as
Hershel of Ostropol, was a legendary
prankster who was based on a historic
figure. Thought to have come from
Ukraine, he lived in the small village of
Ostropol, working as shochet, a ritual
slaughterer. According to legend he lost
his job because of his constant joking,
which offended the leaders of the village.

In his subsequent wanderings

throughout Ukraine, he became a familiar
figure at restaurants and inns.

Eventually he settled down at the court of

Rabbi Boruch of Medzhybizh, grandson
of the Baal Shem Tov. The rabbi was
plagued by frequent depressions, and
Hershele served as a sort of court jester,
mocking the rabbi and his cronies, to the
delight of the common folk.

After his death he was remembered in a

series of pamphlets recording his tales
and witty remarks.

He was the subject of several epic

poems, a novel, a comedy performed in
1930 by the Vilna Troupe, and a U.S.
television programme in the 1950s. Two
illustrated children's books, The
Adventures of Hershel of Ostropol, and
Hershel and the Hanukkah Goblins, have
been published. Both books were written
by Eric Kimmel and illustrated by Trina
Schart Hyman. In 2002, a play entitled
Hershele the Storyteller was performed in
New York City.[11]

Humor about antisemitism

Much Jewish humor takes the form of

self-deprecating comments on Jewish
culture, acting as a shield against
antisemitic stereotypes by exploiting
them first:

Rabbi Altmann and his

secretary were sitting in a
coffeehouse in Berlin in 1935.
"Herr Altmann," said his
secretary, "I notice you're
reading Der Stürmer! I can't
understand why. A Nazi libel
sheet! Are you some kind of
masochist, or, God forbid, a
self-hating Jew?"

"On the contrary, Frau Epstein.

When I used to read the Jewish
papers, all I learned about
were pogroms, riots in
Palestine, and assimilation in
America. But now that I read
Der Stürmer, I see so much
more: that the Jews control all
the banks, that we dominate in
the arts, and that we're on the
 verge of taking over the entire
world. You know – it makes me
feel a whole lot better!"

Or, on a similar note:

After the assassination of Tsar

Alexander II of Russia, a
government official in Ukraine
menacingly addressed the local
rabbi, "I suppose you know in
full detail who was behind it."

"Ach," the rabbi replied, "I have

no idea, but the government's
 conclusion will be the same as
always: they will blame the
Jews and the chimneysweeps."
"Why the chimneysweeps?"
asked the befuddled official.
"Why the Jews?" responded the
rabbi.

And another example, a direct slice of

galgenhumor (gallows humor):

During the days of oppression

and poverty of the Russian
shtetls, one village had a
rumor going around: a
 Christian girl was found
murdered near their village.
Fearing a pogrom, they
gathered at the synagogue.
Suddenly, the rabbi came
running up, and cried,
"Wonderful news! The
murdered girl was Jewish!"

There is also humor originating in the

United States, such as this joke:

During World War II, a

sergeant stationed at Fort
Benning gets a telephone call
from a prejudiced woman.

"We would love it," she said, "if

you could bring five of your
soldiers over to our house for
Thanksgiving dinner."
"Certainly, ma'am," replied the
sergeant.
"Oh... just make sure they
aren't Jews, of course," said the
woman.
"Will do," replied the sergeant.
So, that Thanksgiving, while
the woman is baking, the
doorbell rings. She opens her
 door and, to her horror, five
black soldiers are standing in
front of her.
"Oh, my!" she exclaimed. "I'm
afraid there's been a terrible
mistake!"
"No ma'am," said one of the
soldiers. "Sergeant Rosenbloom
never makes mistakes!"

This one combines accusations of the

lack of patriotism, and avarice:

Post-Soviet Russia. Rabinovich

calls the Pamyat headquarters:
 "Is it true that we Jews sold out
Mother Russia?" "Damn right,
you filthy kike!" "Oh good.
Could you tell me where I
might get my share?"

American Jewish humor

Role of Yiddish

"Gefilte fish" on an automobile, a humoristic parody

of the fish symbol
Some Yiddish words may sound comical
to an English speaker.[12] Terms like
shnook and shmendrik, shlemiel and
shlimazel (often considered inherently
funny words) were exploited for their
humorous sounds, as were "Yinglish"
shm-reduplication constructs, such as
"fancy-schmancy". Yiddish constructions
—such as ending sentences with
questions—became part of the verbal
word play of Jewish comedians.

About religion

One common strain of Jewish humor

examines the role of religion in
contemporary life, often gently mocking
the religious hypocrite. For example:

A Reform Rabbi was so

compulsive a golfer that once,
on Yom Kippur, he left the
house early and went out for a
quick nine holes by himself. An
angel who happened to be
looking on immediately
notified his superiors that a
grievous sin was being
committed. On the sixth hole,
God caused a mighty wind to
take the ball directly from the
 tee to the cup – a miraculous
shot.

The angel was horrified. "A

hole in one!" he exclaimed,
"You call this a punishment,
Lord?!"
Answered God with a sly smile,
"So who can he tell?"

Or, on differences between Orthodox,

Conservative and Reform movements:

An Orthodox, a Conservative,
and a Reform rabbi are each
asked whether one is supposed
 to say a brokhe (blessing) over
a lobster (non-kosher food,
normally not eaten by religious
Jews).

The Orthodox rabbi asks,

"What is this...'lobster'...thing?"
The Conservative rabbi doesn't
know what to say, muttering
about responsa. The Reform
rabbi says, "What's a brokhe?"

In particular, Reform Jews may be

lampooned for their rejection of
traditional Jewish beliefs. An example,
from one of Woody Allen's early stand-up
routines:

We were married by a Reform

rabbi in Long Island. A very
Reform rabbi. A Nazi.

Jokes have been made about the shifting

of gender roles (in the more traditional
Orthodox movement, women marry at a
young age and have many children, while
the more liberal Conservative and Reform
movements make gender roles more
egalitarian, even ordaining women as
Rabbis). The Reconstructionist
movement was the first to ordain
homosexuals, all of which leads to this
joke:

At an Orthodox wedding, the

bride's mother is pregnant. At
a Conservative wedding, the
bride is pregnant. At a Reform
wedding, the rabbi is pregnant.
At a Reconstructionist
wedding, the rabbi and her wife
are both pregnant.

Often jokes revolve around the social

practice of the Jewish religion:
A man is rescued from a desert
island after 20 years. The news
media, amazed at this feat of
survival, ask him to show them
his home.

"How did you survive? How did

you keep sane?" they ask him,
as he shows them around the
small island.
"I had my faith. My faith as a
Jew kept me strong. Come." He
leads them to a small glen,
where stands an opulent
temple, made entirely from
palm fronds, coconut shells
and woven grass. The news
cameras take pictures of
everything – even a torah made
from banana leaves and
written in octopus ink. "This
took me five years to
complete."
"Amazing! And what did you
do for the next fifteen years?"
"Come with me." He leads them
around to the far side of the
island. There, in a shady grove,
is an even more beautiful
temple. "This one took me
 twelve years to complete!"
"But sir" asks the reporter,
"Why did you build two
temples?"
"This is the temple I attend.
That other place? Hah! I
wouldn't set foot in that other
temple if you PAID me!"

As with most ethnicities, jokes have

often mocked Jewish accents—at times
gently, and at others quite harshly. One of
the kinder examples is:
One early winter morning,
Rabbi Bloom was walking
beside the canal when he saw a
dog in the water, trying hard to
stay afloat. It looked so sad and
exhausted that Rabbi Bloom
jumped in, and after a struggle,
managed to bring it out alive.

A passer-by who saw this

remarked, "That was very
brave of you! You must love
animals; are you a vet?"
Rabbi Bloom replied, "And vhat
did you expect? Of course I'm
 a–vet! I'm a–freezing cold as
vell!"

About Jews

Jewish humor continues to exploit

stereotypes of Jews, both as a sort of "in-
joke", and as a form of self-defence.
Jewish mothers, "cheapness",
hypochondria, and other stereotyped
habits are all common subjects. Frugality
has been frequently singled out:

An old Jewish beggar was out

on the street in New York City
with his tin cup.
 "Please, sir," he pleaded to a
passerby, "could you spare
seventy-three cents for a cup of
coffee and some pie?"
The man asked, "Where do you
get coffee and pie for seventy-
three cents in New York? It
costs at least a dollar!"
The beggar replied, "So who
buys retail?"

Or,

What did the waiter ask the

group of dining Jewish
 mothers? "Pardon me ladies,
but is ANYTHING all right?"

Or,

A Catholic priest, a Reverend,

and a Rabbi are discussing
their income.

The Priest says: "I draw a circle

on the ground, take the
offering, and throw it up into
the air. Any money that falls
outside the circle is for the
Lord, and the money that falls
inside the circle is for me."
The Reverend says: "I do things
almost the same, except the
money that falls outside the
circle is my salary, and the
money that falls inside the
circle is for the Lord."
The Rabbi says: "I do things
quite different. I take the
offering, throw it up into the
air, and pray: "Lord take
whatever You need, and feel
free to send back the rest."
Or,

Did you hear they built the first

Starbucks in Israel? There's a
fork in the sugar bowl.

Or,

A Buddhist monk goes to a

barber to have his head
shaved. "What should I pay
you?" the monk asks. "No
price, for a holy man such as
yourself," the barber replies.
And what do you know, the
next day the barber comes to
open his shop, and finds on his
doorstep a dozen gemstones.

That day, a priest comes in to

have his hair cut. "What shall I
pay you, my son?" "No price,
for a man of the cloth such as
yourself." And what do you
know, the next day the barber
comes to open his shop, and
finds on his doorstep a dozen
roses.
That day, Rabbi Finklestein
comes in to get his payoss
 [sideburns] trimmed. "What do
you want I should pay you?"
"Nothing, for a man of God
such as yourself." And the next
morning, what do you know?
The barber finds on his
doorstep – a dozen rabbis!

Or,

A Jewish man lies on his

deathbed, surrounded by his
children. "Ah," he says, "I can
smell your mother's brisket –
how I would love to taste it one
 last time before I die." So one of
his sons hurries down to the
kitchen, but he returns empty-
handed.

"Sorry, papa. She says it's for

the shiva."

Or, about traditional roles of men and

women in Jewish families:

A boy comes home from school

and tells his mother he got a
part in the school play.
 "That's wonderful!" says the
mother, "Which part?"
"The part of a Jewish husband,"
says the boy, proudly.
Frowning, the mother says, "Go
back and tell them you want a
speaking role!"

Or,

A Jewish girl bemoans, "Finally,

I meet a nice, rich Jewish boy!
He's just like papa. He looks
like him. He acts like him. Oy
vey, mama hates him!"
Or,

After performing a marriage

the Rabbi gave some advice to
the newlyweds: "The first ten
years are always the hardest,"
said the Rabbi.

"How many years have you

been married?" They asked.
"Ten years," the Rabbi replied.

Or, on parenting (from David Bader's

Haikus for Jews):
 Is one Nobel Prize

so much to ask from a child

after all I've done?

Or

"Sarah, how's that boy of

yours?"

"David? Ach, don't ask – he's

living in Miami with a man
named Miguel."
"That's terrible!"
 "I know – why couldn't he find
a nice Jewish boy?"

Regarding hypochondria:

A Frenchman, a German and a

Jew walk into a bar. "I'm tired
and thirsty," says the
Frenchman. "I must have
wine." "I'm tired and thirsty,"
says the German. "I must have
beer." "I'm tired and thirsty,"
says the Jew. "I must have
diabetes."
Or, on kvetching,

A Jewish man in a hospital tells

the doctor he wants to be
transferred to a different
hospital.

The doctor says "What's

wrong? Is it the food?"
"No, the food is fine. I can't
kvetch."
"Is it the room?"
"No, the room is fine. I can't
kvetch."
"Is it the staff?"
"No, everyone on the staff is
fine. I can't kvetch."
"Then why do you want to be
transferred?"
"I can't kvetch!"

An old Jewish man riding on a

train begins to moan: "Oy, am I
thirsty; oy, am I thirsty", to the
annoyance of the other
passengers. Finally, another
passenger gets a cup of water
from the drinking fountain and
gives it to the old man, who
thanks him profusely and gulps
it down. Feeling satisfied, the
 other passenger sits down
again, only to hear "Oy, was I
thirsty; oy, was I thirsty".

A version of that joke is quoted in Born To

Kvetch: Yiddish Language and Culture in
All Its Moods, by Michael Wex, who
writes,

"It contains virtually every

important element of the
Yiddish-speaking mind-set in
easily accessible form: the
constant tension between the
Jewish and the non-Jewish; the
faux naivete that allows the old
man to pretend that he isn't
disturbing anyone; the
deflation of the other
passenger's hopes, the
disappointment of all his
expectations after he has
watered the Jew; and most
importantly of all, the
underlying assumption, the
fundamental idea that
kvetching—complaining—is
not only a pastime, not only a
response to adverse or
imperfect circumstance, but a
 way of life that has nothing to
do with the fulfillment or
frustration of desire."[13]

About Christianity

Many Jewish jokes involve a rabbi and a

Christian clergyman, exploiting different
interpretations of a shared environment.
Often they start with something like "A
rabbi and a priest..." and make fun of
either the rabbi's interpretation of
Christianity or (seeming) differences
between Christian and Jewish
interpretation of some areas.
A rabbi and a Catholic priest
are having lunch in a
restaurant. The priest's food
arrives, a scrumptious-looking
ham entrée.

The priest attacks his lunch,

savoring every bite of the ham.
Noticing the rabbi eyeing him,
he asks, "So tell me, Rabbi
Goldblum, have you ever had
any pork before?"
The rabbi hesitates. "Well, it's
not for me to say..."
The priest pushes on. "Oh,
c'mon, Rabbi. We're both men
of God here. We can tell each
other our sins. Nothing to it."
"Umm... well, yes, as a matter
of fact, I did have pork once."
Smugly the priest teases him,
"And a fine meat it was, wasn't
it? Heheh."
"Yeah, I'll say."
A few moments pass. The rabbi
asks the priest: "Tell me Father,
have you ever had sex with a
woman before?"
"Why of course... well, before I
took holy orders, that is."
 The rabbi smirks, "Better than
pork, eh?"

Or, much more succinctly,

A Catholic priest says to a

rabbi, "It seems to me that,
since the Creator made pork,
He must have made it for some
purpose. Therefore, it must be
a sin not to use it, don't you
think? So, will you finally eat
some pork?"
 The rabbi replies, "I will try
some, Father – at your
wedding."

A few more examples:

A rabbi once asked his old

friend, a priest, "Could you ever
be promoted within your
Church?"

The priest says, thoughtfully,

"Well, I could become a
bishop."
The rabbi persists, "And after
that?"
With a pause for consideration,
the priest replies, "Maybe I
could be a cardinal, even."
"And then?"
After thinking for some time,
the priest responds, "Someday I
may even rise to be the Pope."
But the rabbi is still not
satisfied. "And then?"
With an air of incredulity, the
priest cries, "What more could
I become? God Himself?"
The rabbi says quietly, "One of
our boys made it."
Or,

A rabbi is on his deathbed, and

a friend asks him if he has any
last requests. The Rabbi asks
his friend to find him a Catholic
priest, so that he might
convert.

Confused, his friend asks,

"Rabbi, why? You have been a
great teacher and leader of
your followers, and you have
led a good and honorable
Jewish life. Why would you
want to become a Catholic
 now, before you die?"
He says, "Eh, better one of
them than one of us."

(Note: This joke is also seen

with an Irish Catholic
replacing the Rabbi, and a
Protestant minister
replacing the Catholic
priest.)

Or,

A rabbi, a minister, and a

priest were playing poker when
the police raided the game.
Turning to the priest, the lead
police officer said, "Father
Murphy, were you gambling?"
Turning his eyes to heaven, the
priest whispered, "L*rd, forgive
me for what I am about to do."
To the police officer, he then
said, "No, officer; I was not
gambling." The officer then
asked the minister, "Pastor
Johnson, were you gambling?"
Again, after an appeal to
heaven, the minister replied,
"No, officer; I was not
gambling." Turning to the
 rabbi, the officer again asked,
"Rabbi Goldstein, were you
gambling?" Shrugging his
shoulders, the rabbi replied,
"With whom?"[14]

Or,

A minister told his friend Rabbi

Goldman, "Last night, I
dreamed of the Jewish Heaven.
It was a slum, and it was
overflowing with people –
running, playing, talking,
sitting – doing all sorts of
 things. But the dream, and the
noise, was so terrific that I
woke up."

The rabbi said, "Really? Last

night, I dreamed of the
Protestant Heaven. It was a
nice, proper suburb, with
neatly trimmed lawns, and
houses all neatly lined up."
"And how did the people
behave?" asked the minister.
"What people?"

Or,
A Catholic priest is called away
by a family emergency one day,
while on duty attending
confession. Not wanting to
leave the confessional
unattended, he asks his friend,
a rabbi from the synagogue
across the street, if he can fill
in for him.

The rabbi says he wouldn't

know what to do, so the priest
agrees to stay with him for a
few minutes and show him the
ropes.
They enter their half of the
confessional together and soon
enough, a woman enters and
says, "Father forgive me, for I
have sinned."
"What did you do?" asks the
priest.
"I have committed adultery,"
she replies.
"How many times?" continues
the priest.
"Three times."
"Do three Hail Marys, put $5 in
the poor-box, and sin no more,"
finishes the priest.
The woman leaves and not
long after a man enters and
says, "Father forgive me, for I
have sinned."
"What did you do?"
"I have committed adultery."
"How many times?"
"Three times."
"Do three Hail Marys, put $5 in
the poor-box, and sin no more."
The man leaves.
The rabbi tells the priest he
thinks he's got it figured out
now, so the priest leaves, and
the rabbi waits until another
woman enters the confessional,
 who says, "Father forgive me,
for I have sinned."
"What did you do," asks the
rabbi.
"I have committed adultery,"
she replies.
"How many times?"
"Twice."
"I tell you what," says the
rabbi. "Go do it one more time
and come back. We got a
special this week, three for $5!"

And finally, possibly the most gigantic

clash of religions:
One Pope, in the Dark Ages,
decreed that all Jews had to
leave Rome. The Jews did not
want to leave, and so the Pope
challenged them to a
disputation to prove that they
could remain. No one,
however, wanted the
responsibility... until the
synagogue sexton, Moishe,
volunteered.

As there was nobody else who

wanted to go, Moishe was
given the task. But because he
knew only Hebrew, a silent
debate was agreed. The day of
the debate came, and they went
to St. Peter's Square to sort out
the decision. First the Pope
waved his hand around his
head. Moishe pointed firmly at
the ground.
The Pope, in some surprise,
held up three fingers. In
response, Moishe gave him the
middle finger.
The crowd started to complain,
but the Pope thoughtfully
waved them to be quiet. He
took out a bottle of wine and a
wafer, holding them up. Moishe
took out an apple, and held it
up.
The Pope, to the people’s
surprise, said, "I concede. This
man is too good. The Jews can
stay."
Later, the Pope was asked
what the debate had meant. He
explained, "First, I showed him
the Heavens, to show that God
is everywhere. He pointed at
the ground to signify that God
is right here with us. I showed
him three fingers, for the
Trinity. He reminded me that
there is One God common to
both our religions. I showed
him wine and a wafer, for
God's forgiveness. With an
apple, he showed me original
sin. The man was a master of
silent debate."
In the Jewish corner, Moishe
had the same question put to
him, and answered, "It was all
nonsense, really. First, he told
me that this whole town would
be free of Jews. I told him, Go to
 Hell! We’re staying right here!
Then, he told me we had three
days to get out. I told him just
what I thought of that
proposal." An older woman
asked, "But what about the
part at the end?" "That?" said
Moishe with a shrug, "Then we
had lunch!"

About Antisemitism

Moishe and Solly are passing a

Catholic Church and see a sign
that reads "Convert to
Catholicism, $50 Cash."
Moishe turns to his friend Solly
and says, "Hey, I'm going to try
it." He enters the church and
returns a few minutes later.
"So, did you convert? What
was it like?" Solly eagerly asks.
"It was nothing", says Moishe,
"I walked in, a priest sprinkled
holy water on me, and said
'you're a Catholic.'"
"Wow," says Solly, "and did you
get the $50?"
 Replies Moishe, "is that all you
people think about?"

However, current events, situations,

traditions, and cultural factors which are
unique to the country make it hard to
understand the joke for someone who is
not aware of the events being referred to.

Jewish humor in the Soviet

Union

In the Stalinist police state, it was not

uncommon to get purged not only for
telling a casual joke, but even for not
reporting it to the authorities. See
Russian jokes in general, or more
specifically Rabinovich jokes, Russian
Jewish jokes, Russian political jokes; also
History of the Jews in Russia and the
Soviet Union.

Q: Rabinovich, what is a
fortune?
A: A fortune is to live in our
Socialist motherland.
Q: And what's a misfortune?
A: A misfortune is to have such
a fortune.

Or
 An old Armenian is on his
deathbed: "My children,
remember to defend the Jews."

"Why Jews?"
"Because if they are gone, we
will be next."

Or

An old Jewish man is picked up

by the Stalinist police and
brought in for questioning:
 Q: Where were you born?!
A: St. Petersburg.
Q: Where do you live?!
A: Leningrad.
Q: (menacingly) Where would
you like to die?!
A: St. Petersburg.

Or, in the last years of the Soviet Union:

Q: Comrade Lev, why now, just

when things are getting better
for your people, are you
applying for an exit visa to
make aliyah to Israel?
 A: Well, comrade, there are
two reasons. One is that my
next-door neighbor is Pamyat
and he tells me that after they
get rid of you communists, they
are coming next after the Jews.
Q: But they will never get rid of
us communists!
A: I know, I know, of course
you are right! And that's the
other reason.

Or
An old Jewish man was finally
allowed to leave the Soviet
Union, to emigrate to Israel.
When he was searched at the
Moscow airport, the customs
official found a bust of Lenin.

Customs: What is that?

Old man: What is that? What
is that?! Don't say "What is
that?" say "Who is that?" That
is Lenin! The genius who
thought up this worker's
paradise!
The official laughed and let the
old man through.
The old man arrived at Tel Aviv
airport, where an Israeli
customs official found the bust
of Lenin.
Customs: What is that?
Old man: What is that? What
is that?! Don't say "What is
that?" say "Who is that?" That
is Lenin! The sonofabitch! I will
put him on display in my toilet
for all the years he prevented
an old man from coming home.
The official laughed and let him
through.
 When he arrived at his family's
house in Jerusalem, his
grandson saw him unpack the
bust.
Grandson: Who is that?
Old man: Who is that? Who is
that?! Don't say "Who is that?"
say "What is that?" That, my
child, is eight pounds of gold!

Israeli humor

Israeli humor featured many of the same

themes as Jewish humor elsewhere,
making fun of the country and its habits,
while containing a fair bit of gallows
humor as well, as a joke from a 1950
Israeli joke book indicates:

An elderly man refuses to leave

for the air raid shelter until he
can find his dentures. His wife
yells at him, "What, you think
they are dropping
sandwiches?"

Israelis' view of themselves:

An Israeli, a Brit, a Russian, a

Vietnamese, and an American
are sitting in a restaurant. A
reporter comes by and asks,
"Excuse me, but can I get your
opinion on the recent grain
shortage in the third world?"
The Brit asks: "What's a
'shortage'?"
The Vietnamese asks: "What's
'grain'?"
The Russian asks: "What's an
'opinion'?"
The American asks: "What's
the third world?"
The Israeli asks: "What's
'excuse me'?"
 (As a note, this is not strictly
an Israeli joke; the Israeli
can be replaced by other
stereotypically rude or
overbearing people—for
example, New Yorkers—or
those used to being treated
as second-rate citizens, with
little effect on the joke.)

Finally, in a clash of Rabbinical humor

and Israeli humor:

A Rabbi dies and goes up to the

gates of heaven. Before he's let
in, the angel in charge has to
consult with God for a long
period of time if he deserves a
place in heaven. As the Rabbi is
waiting, an Israeli bus driver
approaches the gates of
heaven. Without a second
thought, the angel who was
consulting with God let the bus
driver through. The Rabbi
points at the bus driver and
yells, "Hey! How come he gets
in so quickly? He's a simple bus
driver, while I'm a Rabbi!" The
angel explains, "Dear Rabbi,
you don't understand. When
 you would be giving your
sermon during the prayer
services, your whole
congregation would fall asleep.
When this bus driver drove
towards Tel Aviv, all his
passengers would be at the
edge of their seats praying to
God!"

Véase también
Ethnic joke
List of American Jewish comedians
The Bible and humor
 Humor in Islam

Referencias
Notes

1. Tanny, Jarrod (2015). "The Anti-Gospel

of Lenny, Larry and Sarah: Jewish Humor
and the Desecration of Christendom" .
American Jewish History. 99 (2): 167–
193. doi:10.1353/ajh.2015.0023 .
2. While numbers are inevitably fuzzy, Paul
Chance, reviewing Lawrence Epstein's The
Haunted Smile: The Story Of Jewish
Comedians In America (Psychology Today,
Jan-Feb, 2002) wrote "While Jews make
up only about 3 percent of the U.S.
population, 80 percent of professional
comics are Jewish." Accessed online
Archived 2007-03-14 at the Wayback
Machine 25 March 2007. Comedian Mark
Schiff, reviewing the same book on
Jewlarious.com , writes "Most of the
comedians that made us all laugh in the
1950s, '60s and '70s were Jewish."
Similarly, Drew Friedman (author of Old
Jewish Comedians), in a March 22, 2007
interview on Fridays with Mr. Media
Archived 2007-06-21 at the Wayback
Machine: "Somebody said, 'You could do
an Old Protestant Comedian book,' and I
said, 'Well, that would be a pamphlet,
wouldn't it?'"
3. "Behavior: Analyzing Jewish Comics" .
October 2, 1978. Retrieved January 25,
2017.
4. Salvatore Attardo (25 February 2014).
Encyclopedia of Humor Studies . SAGE
Publications. p. 542. ISBN 978-1-4833-
4617-5.
5. Hershey H. Friedman and Linda Weiser
Friedman, God Laughed: Sources of
Jewish Humor, NJ: Transaction Publishers
2014.
6. Hershey H. Friedman, Ph.D. (2004).
"Talmudic Humor and the Establishment
of Legal Principles: Strange Questions,
Impossible Scenarios, and Legalistic
Brainteasers" . Thalia: Studies in Literary
Humor. 21 (1). fn1. Archived from the
original on May 23, 2016.
7. "Why Jews Laugh at Themselves" , an
essay by Hillel Halkin, Commentary
Magazine, Vol 121, April 2006, No 4, pp.
47–54
8. Jeff Berkwits (Aug 2004). "What's with
Jewish comedy?" . San Diego Jewish
Journal. Archived from the original on
May 11, 2008.
9. "The Myth of Chełm in Jewish
Literature"
10. Itzik Nakhmen Gottesman (2003).
Defining the Yiddish nation: the Jewish
folklorists of Poland . Wayne State
University Press. pp. 13, 49, 64–65.
ISBN 978-0-8143-2669-5. Retrieved
29 September 2011.
11. "Hershele the Storyteller" . Archived
from the original on October 27, 2009.
12. Leo Rosten, The Joys of Yinglish
13. Wex, Michael (August 25, 2005). Born
To Kvetch: Yiddish Language and Culture
in All Its Moods. St. Martin's Press.
ISBN 0-312-30741-1.
14. "Gambling Joke" . Archived from the
original on 2015-04-16.

Bibliography

San Diego Jewish Chronicle on Jewish

Humor
Funny People - A Film About Jewish
Humor
Harry Liechter's Jewish Humor site
Novak, William & Waldoks, Moshe Big
Book of Jewish Humor, originally
published by Harper Perennial (1981)
ISBN 0-06-090917-X.
The Jewish jokes of a word in your
eye
 Jewish Jokes Comedy Comics and
Humor at Oy Vey

Lectura adicional
Jay Allen (1990). 500 Great Jewish
Jokes. Signet. ISBN 0-451-16585-3.
Morey Amsterdam (1959). Keep
Laughing. Citadel.
Elliot Beier (1968). Wit and Wisdon of
Israel. Peter Pauper.
Noah BenShea (1993). Great Jewish
Quotes. Ballantine Books. ISBN 0-345-
38345-1.
Arthur Berger (1997). The Genius of the
Jewish Joke. Jason Aronson. ISBN 1-
56821-997-0.
Milton Berle (1996). More of the Best of
Milton Berle's Private Joke File. Castle
Books. ISBN 0-7858-0719-5.
Milton Berle (1945). Out of my Trunk.
Bantam.
Sam Hoffman (2010). Old Jews Telling
Jokes. Villard.
David Minkoff (2006). Oy! The Ultimate
Book of Jewish Jokes. Thomas Dunne
Books. ISBN 0-312-37434-8.
David Minkoff (2008). Oy! The Great
Jewish Joke Book. JR Books.
ISBN 978-1-906217-62-4.
Elliott Oring (1984). The Jokes of
Sigmund Freud. Univ. of Pennsylvania
Press. ISBN 0-8122-7910-7.
Richard Raskin (1992). Life Is Like a
Glass of Tea. Studies of Classic Jewish
Jokes. Aarhus University Press.
ISBN 87-7288-409-6.
Sandor Schuman (2012). Adirondack
Mendel's Aufruf: Welcome to Chelm's
Pond . ISBN 978-0-9886285-0-2.
Joseph Telushkin (1998). Jewish
Humor: What the Best Jewish Jokes
Say About the Jews. Harper
Paperbacks. ISBN 0-688-16351-3.
Simcha Weinstein (2008). Shtick Shift:
Jewish Humor in the 21st Century.
Barricade Books. ISBN 1-56980-352-8.
Ruth R. Wisse (2013). No Joke: Making
Jewish Humor. Princeton Univ. Press.
 ISBN 978-0-691-14946-2.
Ralph Woods (1969). The Joy of
Jewish Humor. Simon & Schuster.
ISBN 0-671-10355-5.
Avraham Druyanov (1969, Tel Aviv).
"Sefer Habdikhah ve-hakhidud," 3 vols.
("The book of jokes and witticisms." - in
Hebrew).

Enlaces externos
"THE SMILE OF ISAAC" a 52 min.
documentary film directed by Stephan
Rabinovitch (english version)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=jesIaFmFNTQ
 "On Jewish Humor" a discourse in
English by "the Jewish Philosopher", C.
Israel Lutsky. Yiddish Radio Project
(one of their few English-language
recordings). 7-minute RealAudio
recording.
Never Mind, I'll Just Sit Here in the Dark:
A brief history of the Jewish mother. ,
Slate, June 13, 2007
Modern Jewish Humor
Laughter is the best medicine Craig
Nudelman - June 14, 2017, Cape
Jewish Chronicle

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