Jewish Humor Speaks Volumes, Says Visiting Author

November 1, 2016 Alan Feiler, Editor-in-Chief

Perhaps more than most people, Rabbi Joseph Telushkin knows a good Jewish joke when he hears one.

One of his favorites: A bubbie pushes a stroller down a street containing her sleeping grandson. A passer-by glances inside and marvels, “Oh, what a beautiful baby!”

The beaming grandmother replies, “Oh, that’s nothing — you should see his pictures!”

A best-selling author and popular lecturer based in New York, Rabbi Telushkin was the keynote speaker at a recent Israeli-style breakfast event hosted by the Jewish National Fund. More than 400 JNF supporters recently packed Temple Oheb Shalom for the event, which was co-chaired by Erika Pardes Schon and Dr. Ellen L. Taylor.

Another favorite joke of Rabbi Telushkin: It’s the late ’30s, and a Jew in Manhattan gets on the subway. After cracking open his Yiddish newspaper, he notices a Jewish buddy sitting nearby, reading a Nazi propaganda publication.

He goes over and asks his pal why he’s reading such a filthy rag. The friend explains he avoids reading the Jewish press because it reports only news of global anti-Semitism and the Great Depression. “I read the Nazi papers because at least there, the Jews run all the banks and control all of the governments!”

Such jokes are more than simply amusing, said Rabbi Telushkin, author of the 1998 book, “Jewish Humor: What The Best Jewish Jokes Say About the Jews” (William Morrow). They speak volumes, he said, about the Jewish gift of employing humor to persevere in the face of tremendous odds and the propensity for self-deprecation.

“People who oppose ethnic humor would have us believe all groups are basically the same,” said Rabbi Telushkin. “But groups do develop over time pronounced characteristics. Jews tend to be a nervous people, and that’s what Jewish humor is all about.”

More than 20 students from Beth Tfiloh Dahan Community School welcomed guests to the gathering, and Oheb Shalom’s Rabbi Steven M. Fink delivered the invocation.

Among the program’s highlights were a video about JNF’s efforts in Israel and the singing of “Hatikvah” and “The Star-Spangled Banner” by HaZamir Baltimore choral members Tamara Rubin, Molly Silverman and Hannah Wahlberg.

“JNF is the conduit to Israel for our local community,” said Taylor, alluding to the organization’s myriad programs and missions to the Jewish state, including the “Culinary, Wine and Music Tour” planned for next June.

Introduced by former Krieger Schechter Day School headmaster Rabbi Paul D. Schneider, Rabbi Telushkin had the audience rolling with a relentless barrage of Jewish jokes. He explained that when writing his book about Jewish humor, he steered away from jokes that were gratuitous or mean-spirited.

But Rabbi Telushkin noted that ethnic humor tends to be inherently controversial. “Punchlines are usually about stereotypes,” he said. “With Jews, it’s usually about being cheap. However, I don’t believe Jews, as a rule, are cheap but tend to be a generous people.”

Other Jewish jokes, he said, focus on family members. “The good news is the family has always been central to Judaism,” Rabbi Telushkin said. “The bad news is the punchline is always about how [family members] go overboard.”

Being at the forefront of psychotherapy, Rabbi Telushkin said, many Jewish jokes center on psychiatry. An example: a psychiatrist tells an overbearing Jewish mother her son has an Oedipus complex. She responds, “Oedipus, Schmedipus, just as long as he loves his mother!”

Even jokes about Jews who convert out of the faith are not beyond the pale, said Rabbi Telushkin. For instance, when a Jewish-born convert is grilled by a country club officer about his religion, he responds, “My religion? Why, I’m a goy!”

All of these jokes, Rabbi Telushkin said, speak to the unique Jewish sensibility, something that even impacts the American political landscape. He noted he once heard Hadassah Lieberman, wife of former Sen. Joe Lieberman, say she comforted her husband when he lost his vice presidential bid in 2000 by saying, “Don’t worry, in this house you’ll always be vice president.”

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