“Excuse me mister, but are you Jewish?”
“No madam, I am not a Jew.”
Not sure, she asked him again. He became irritable and once more denied it.
But she persisted, asking a third time. Frustrated, he gave up.
“Yes I am Jewish!”
“Funny, but you really don’t look Jewish,” she replied.
What is Jewish Humor?
It’s probably best to start with another question. Who is a Jew?
According to the Encyclopedia of Jewish Humor Jews can be described as follows:
‘Jews are members of an ethnic group who, to a greater or lesser extent, share a common religion, a community of ideals embodied in their spiritual and traditional teaching with a fierce dedication to the principles of democracy and who enjoy a secondary, but important, relationship to each other in their personal and collective outlook.’
Having accepted this interpretation, it is clear that Jewish values dominate the understanding and appreciation of Jewish humor.
The true Jewish joke mirrors the history of the Jewish people. A reflection of their joy and anguish, their aspirations and all too brief periods of social and economic well-being.
Jewish humor goes back a long way. Right back to Biblical times, but this essay deals with more modern times, from around the end of the 19th century.
German philosopher Sigmund Freud claimed the typical old-time Jewish joke is based on the self-hatred of the Jews’s own Jewishness.
Though not all commentators agree with this negative perception. A more plausible explanation is that the Jewish joke is built around the intellectual courage of any Jew who recognizes their weakness and the ability to laugh at themselves.
The Shlimazle
We’ve all come across the shlemiel who claims he or she knows everything about everything, but when the crunch comes, they really know nothing about everything.
The shlemiel is a self-appointed expert in ignorance. We just brush them off as fools. But the shlimazle is something else. They can laugh at their inability to succeed in anything they undertake.
Izzy went to his brother-in-law to borrow some money, but his brother-in-law refused because he knew Izzy had failed in every venture he had undertaken.
Izzy was distraught. “If you don’t lend me some money I’ll just go into the hat business,” he replied.
“So what?” was the reply.
“If a man with my bad luck goes into the hat business every baby in the country will be born without a head.”
Charlie Chaplin
The Hollywood megastar who portrayed the typical shlimazle in all his films.
His shabby, ill-fitting clothes, the bowler hat.
Who fell on his back and broke his nose.
He wasn’t even Jewish, but he knew how to make Jewish people laugh until they split their sides.
If I Were a Rich Man
Since the middle of the 20th century, a totally new approach to Jewish humor evolved.
No longer did slapstick Jewish humor appeal to patrons at the movies, but a more sophisticated approach succeeded, probably beyond all expectations.
The Jewish struggle for survival resounded right around the world, but a struggle that touched the heart and brought a smile to so many faces, wherever they lived. Not only in the Jewish world.
In 1967, Fiddler of the Roof opened in Tokyo, sung in Japanese. The Japanese actor who played the role of Tevye declared:
“We know why the Fiddler is such a big success here, but how is it they liked it in America?”
Josepf Stein, who write the book on which the Fiddler was adapted, attended a performance in Tokyo and related a similar story:
“The Japanese say they can’t understand how people in America can relate to a story and to characters that are so rooted in Japanese culture.”
Farewell Anatevka
As Tevye and the family begin their departure from Anatevka in Russia, he laments life will not be the same in his new land. The words of his final song aptly sum up his feelings. But we can smile. They have survived the progroms and although life will be different, Jewish freedom is the key to survival.
“A little bit of this, a little bit of that.
A pot, a pan, a bench, a tree.
So what’s a stove, or a house?A stick of wood. A piece of cloth.
What do we leave, nothing much.
Only Anatevka.Anatevka, Anatevka.
Underfed, overworked.
Where else could life be so sweet?
Where I knew everyone I meet.”
We have suffered such a lot since the beginning of time. Yet our struggle for survival, coupled with our ability to raise a laugh from time to time has enabled us to weather any storm.
Fiddler on the Roof is no different from the jokes of Shalom Aleichem. Only the time and the content are different. Nothing else has changed. We love to laugh. It has helped us to survive.
Lloyd Masel made aliyah from Perth, Australia in 1999. He had been active in Zionist Federation programs in Australia, and was the Conductor and soloist of the Perth Hebrew Congregation male choir for 30 years.
