Jewish Humor (Jewish Studies)

Introduction
Jewish humor is a vast field of Jewish studies that includes many aspects, including different periods, different types, different contents, and a variety of languages in different geographical locations. Research on Jewish humor began at the end of the 19th century. Since then, scholars have endeavored to answer several key questions: (1) is there a distinctive Jewish humor? Some argue that there is no compelling evidence that a unique Jewish humor does, in fact, exist. (2) How can one define Jewish humor? Some scholars suggest that Jewish humor was created by Jews, relates to Jewish culture, and is meant for Jews. (3) What are the origins of the modern Jewish humor? Accounts differ: some find its origins in the Enlightenment that began at the end of the 18th century and the emancipation of Jews that followed in western Europe. Others find the sources of Jewish humor in the Talmud and midrash literature and others who find them in the Bible. (4) Where was modern Jewish humor created? Most scholars argue that it started and first flourished in eastern Europe, the domicile of the majority of Jews until the Holocaust in the 20th century. (5) What are the reasons for the formation of Jewish humor? The broad answer shared by most researchers is that the unique Jewish experience based on two core components, Jewish history and literacy, serves as the foundation of modern Jewish humor. Jewish history is rife with particularly difficult experiences—expulsion of the Jews from their homeland, wandering from place to place for over two thousand years, humiliation by the host populations in Europe, life in ghettos, anti-Semitism, persecution, expulsion, and pogroms culminating in the Holocaust. In addition, the existence of a unique Jewish literacy, including Bible studies, the Midrash, and oral quibbling (“Pilpul”) were integral parts of Jewish culture and education. The conjunction of the two resulted in the creation of a unique Jewish humor. However, some researchers argue that there is no categorical evidence to support the fact that it is the Jewish experience that gave birth to Jewish humor. (6) When was Jewish humor defined as a cultural concept? Some scholars argue that it was so defined at the end of the 19th century. The majority of the Jewish people lived in three socio-geographic centers where the core of Jewish humor was created, developed, and flourished: eastern Europe from the 19th century until the Holocaust in the middle of the 20th century, the United States of America from the end of the 19th century to the present, and Israel from the 20th century to the present. The different shades of Jewish humor can be detected from each of the three areas. This study focuses on these three locations, although it is important to point out that Jewish humor flourished also in other Jewish centers, such as central Europe, western Europe, Russia, Latin America, and the Middle East. This article focuses on the important bibliographic sources that examine Jewish humor in all its variety, including the Bible, the Talmud, midrash, literature, jokes, caricatures, cinema, and theater, in an attempt to answer the aforementioned questions and many others. The works cited in the article are scholarly sources, except for a few books and anthologies of Jewish humor. In these cases they will be indicated as such.

General Overviews
Jewish humor has been studied from many aspects, including sociological, cultural, psychological, linguistic, and historical. Freud 2014 (originally published in 1905) examines the psychological aspect and structure of jokes. Even though Freud’s writing is not necessarily related to Jews, most of the jokes in the book are from the treasury of Jewish jokes. Freud was the first who ascribed to Jews the quality of self-deprecating humor; humor in which Jews laugh at their own attributes and shortcomings. After Freud, self-deprecating humor became an accepted concept published in many later studies. Davies 2010 disagrees with Freud’s argument that there are none who can laugh at themselves like the Jews by drawing to attention to the Scots, in particular, as well as other minorities, who also use self-deprecating humor. However, Davies adds that none of these groups display in their self-deprecating humor the depth, richness and scope of the self-deprecating humor of the Jews. Ben-Amos 1973 raises the idea that a unique “Jewish humor” is a myth, which was started by Freud and continued by many other researchers, but is without any scientific foundation. Following from Ben-Amos 1973, Oring 1983 is a challenging article, seeks to test whether scientific proof exists for the widely held belief among many researchers that there is such a thing as “Jewish humor.” (For more on this subject, see Oring 2010, cited under the Jewish Joke). Friedman and Friedman 2014 identifies the source of the birth of Jewish humor in the Jewish canon, namely, the Bible, Talmud, and midrash. According to the authors, these texts contain an abundance of wit and humor, such as irony, sarcasm, word play, funny characters, and humorous stories and situations. Stora-Sandor 1984 investigates the development of Jewish humor from the Bible to the 1980s. The volume focuses on an analysis of humorous literary texts written by some of the greatest Jewish writers, including Kafka and Woody Allen. Wisse 2013 examines different aspects of Jewish humor throughout history. The author identifies three central locations where Jewish humor flourished: eastern Europe, the United States, and Israel. The book includes examples from Jewish literature and popular culture. Wisse contends that the blossoming of Jewish humor in eastern Europe at the end of the 18th century and in the 19th century stemmed from the tensions that arose between three Jewish groups: Maskilim (the Enlightenment movement), Hassidim, and Mitnagdim (traditionalists).

Ben-Amos, Dan. “The ‘Myth’ of Jewish Humor.” Western Folklore 32.2 (1973): 112–131.

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Ben-Amos attempts to prove, contrary to the opinions of Freud and many others, that Jewish humor is a myth. He claims that scholars who have claimed the existence of a unique Jewish humor have not based their arguments on reliable sources. Ben-Amos negates the notion that Jewish humor passes from one generation to the next. He believes that Jewish humor is the result of specific socioeconomic factors.

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Davies, Christie. The Mirth of Nations. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction, 2010.

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A comparative analysis of jokes of several nations from an historical point of view and in the context in which they are told. With regard to Jewish humor (pp. 51–108), Davies denies arguments that Jewish self-deprecating humor is a result of oppression and anti-Semitism experienced by Jews. He maintains that other types of Jewish humor, not solely self-deprecating humor, are uniquely Jewish and are not found among other peoples.

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Freud, Sigmund. Jokes and Their Relation to the Unconscious. New York: Routledge, 2014.

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The first research of its type, Freud engages in the psychological motivation for the use of humor through an analysis of various types of jokes. Most of the jokes are taken from Jewish folklore. Freud states that Jewish jokes are stories created by Jews and aimed at Jewish characteristics. Freud was the first who ascribed to Jews the quality of self-deprecating humor. Originally published in German as Der Witz und seine Beziehung zum Unbewussten (Vienna: F. Deuticke, 1905).

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Friedman, Hershey H., and Linda Weiser Friedman. God Laughed: Sources of Jewish Humor. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction, 2014.

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The book focuses on the origins of Jewish humor, finding its sources in the Bible, Talmud, and (Midrash) midrash. The authors argue that satire irony and self-deprecating humor can be found in this canon in witty texts that reflect the way in which the Jews viewed the world. The authors suggest that the humor served as a means to cope with the adversities in life that Jews experienced throughout their history.

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Oring, Elliott. “The People of the Joke: On the Conceptualization of a Jewish Humor.” Western Folklore 42.4 (1983): 261–271.

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In this article, Oring argues that many scholars attribute to the “People of the Book” the title of “People of the Joke” as well. He claims that this view is not based on scientific evidence. Therefore, in this study, he searches for proof to support the concept of “Jewish humor.” The main questions raised in the article concern the concept, the characteristics, and the sociological aspects of Jewish humor.

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Stora-Sandor, Judith. L’humour juif dans la littérature: De Job à Woody Allen. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1984.

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The author examines the development of Jewish humor from its biblical and Talmudic origins to the ghettos and shtetls of the 19th century and on to the 1980s. Her work focuses on an analysis of humorous literary texts written by some of the greatest Jewish writers, including Franz Kafka and Woody Allen. Stora-Sandor weaves a leitmotif that runs through the Jewish experience in treating the creative influences on Jewish humor.

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Wisse, Ruth R. No Joke: Making Jewish Humor. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2013.

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The author contends that the blossoming of Jewish humor in eastern Europe at the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century was due to the tensions that arose between three Jewish groups: Maskilim, Hassidim, and Mitnagdim. The research identifies three central locations where Jewish humor has flourished: eastern Europe, the United States, and Israel. The book includes examples from Jewish literature and popular culture.

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The Uniqueness of Jewish Humor
Does a uniquely Jewish humor exist? Many scholars confirm that, indeed, such Jewish humor does exist. Freud 2014 (originally published in 1905) argues that Jewish humor stems from the unique history of the Jews, among other reasons. Moreover, Freud claims that self-deprecating humor is unique to Jews. Since then and to the present, many scholars have concurred with this finding (see Ziv 1991 and Novak and Waldoks 2006). They have reaffirmed the idea that a uniquely Jewish humor does exist, but owing to its richness and variety, it is not possible to conceptualize it under a single all-encompassing definition. Ausubel 1989 confirms the idea of a unique Jewish humor on the basis of the wit and irony that are, in the opinion of the author, integral components of the humor. On the contrary, Ben-Amos 1973 attempts to prove, contrary to the opinions of Freud and many others, that Jewish humor is a myth. The author believes that Jewish humor is the result of specific socioeconomic factors. Oring 1983 follows Ben-Amos 1973 in setting out to examine broad concepts regarding Jewish humor. The author concludes that there is no categorical proof that a uniquely Jewish humor exists.

Ausubel, Nathan, ed. A Treasury of Jewish Folklore: Stories, Traditions, Legends, Humor, Wisdom and Folk Songs of the Jewish People. New York: Crown, 1989.

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The author confirms the idea of a uniquely Jewish humor on the basis of the wit and irony that are integral components of the humor. Ausubel states that these comic types are the outcome of Jewish life in the ghetto, which entailed a mixture of amusement and tragedy. Originally published in 1948.

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Ben-Amos, Dan. “The ‘Myth’ of Jewish Humor.” Western Folklore 32.2 (1973): 112–131.

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Ben-Amos attempts to prove, contrary to the opinions of Freud and many others, that Jewish humor is a myth. He claims that scholars who have claimed the existence of a unique Jewish humor have not based their arguments on reliable sources. Ben-Amos negates the notion that Jewish humor passes from one generation to the next. He believes that Jewish humor is the result of specific socioeconomic factors.

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Freud, Sigmund. Jokes and Their Relation to the Unconscious. New York: W. W. Norton, 1960.

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Freud argues that Jewish humor stems from the unique history of the Jews, among other factors. He undertook the first research into a psychological approach to humor, including Jewish humor, through an analysis of various types of jokes. Freud was the first who ascribed to Jews the quality of self-deprecating humor, namely, humor in which Jews laugh at their own attributes and shortcomings. Originally published in German as Der Witz und seine Beziehung zum Unbewussten (Vienna: F. Deuticke, 1905).

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Novak, William, and Moshe Waldoks, eds. The Big Book of Jewish Humor. New York: HarperCollins, 2006.

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A nonscholarly book. A rich anthology of Jewish stories, anecdotes, and jokes. According to the editors Jewish humor is too rich and varied to be conceptualized under a single all-encompassing definition. They maintain that it would be wrong to say that Jewish humor is a reaction to the bleak life of Jews among Gentiles because Jewish humor also treats subject matter relating to Jewish folklore and culture. Originally published in 1981.

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Oring, Elliott. “The People of the Joke: On the Conceptualization of a Jewish Humor.” Western Folklore 42.4 (1983): 261–271.

DOI: 10.2307/1499501Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »

The study searches for proof to support the claim of a unique Jewish humor. The questions raised in the article are: Who created the concept of Jewish humor? When and where was this concept born, both chronologically and sociologically? What are the characteristics of content that fall under this category? What are the characteristics of the concept itself?

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Ziv, Avner. “Introduction.” Humor: International Journal of Humor Research 4.2 (1991): 145–148.

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In the introduction to the issue, Ziv echoes Freud’s argument that Jewish humor is unique. He maintains that Jewish humor is created by Jews and reflects aspects of Jewish life. This definition includes a wide range of genres, such as verbal humor, jokes, literary works, plays, and screenplays.

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The Origins of Jewish Humor
Different, and even conflicting, opinions exist with regard to the roots of Jewish humor. Friedman and Friedman 2014 contends that the foundation of modern Jewish humor can be found in biblical roots and particularly in the Talmud and Midrash (see support for this argument in chapter 3 [“Is Jewish Humor Unique?”] of Ausubel 1989, cited under the Uniqueness of Jewish Humor). The authors try to answer the question “Does God have a sense of humor?” Wisse 2013 affirms that modern Jewish humor began at the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century and stemmed from Jewish emancipation in several European countries when Jews left the ghettos and began to be integrated into the general society. Chotzner 1905 puts forward a similar argument and notes that Jewish humor and humorists existed in the 13th and 14th centuries. Berger 1997 contends that studying in a Yeshiva using a form of study known as Pilpul, which is a high level of interpretation and sophisticated analysis of Torah wisdom as a learning method, served as an important foundation for the creation of Jewish humor. The author argues that this study method produced not only scholars, rabbis, lawyers, and professors, but also comic creators and comedians. Halkin 2006 maintains that the roots of written Jewish jokes of the 19th century can be found in oral jokes, for example, those told by “badchens,” individuals who appeared at Jewish weddings in the 18th century. Krasney 1998 supports this argument and finds that badchens were social critics who originated in medieval Jewish society and became increasingly popular from the 16th century onward. Some researchers argue that the “Purim spiel” influenced the development of Jewish humor in the 19th century. Regarding the Purim spiel, see Belkin 2002, which describes Purim festivities as a source of witty parody and satire about Jewish sources and authority, the Jewish establishment, and Jewish society.

Belkin, Ahuva. Ha-purim Shpil: Iunim Bateatron Haamami Hayehudi. Jerusalem: Mossad Bialik, 2002.

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This book is a detailed study of the “Purim spiel,” which began in the Middle Ages in Europe and whose language was Yiddish. These performances served as a means of social criticism against social phenomena, community leaders, and the wealthy in Jewish society. An important source of witty, humorous literary texts that formed part of the Jewish culture in Europe.

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Berger, Arthur Asa. The Genius of the Jewish Joke. Northvale, NJ: Jason Aronson, 1997.

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Berger contends that studying in a Yeshiva using a form of study known as Pilpul, which is a high level of interpretation and sophisticated analysis of Torah wisdom as a learning method, served as an important foundation for the creation of Jewish humor. He argues that this study method produced not only scholars, rabbis, lawyers, and professors, but also comic creators and comedians.

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Chotzner, Joseph. Hebrew Humor and Other Essays. London: Luzac, 1905.

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The book includes examples of Jewish humor during the biblical, Talmudic, and Midrashic periods. The author notes a number of humorist writers in the 13th century, among them Immanuel di Roma, a friend of Dante’s; Clonius Ben Clonimus, a 13th-century satirist; Yedaya Bedaresi, a writer in the 14th century; and more modern humorists from the 18th century, such as Isaac Erter and Samuel David Luzzato.

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Friedman, Hershey H., and Linda Weiser Friedman. God Laughed: Sources of Jewish Humor. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction, 2014.

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The book concentrates on the origins of Jewish humor: the Bible, Talmud, and Midrash. The authors even ask if God has a sense of humor. The authors argue that satire, irony, and self-deprecating humor are an integral part of the canon texts. The research suggests that the humor served as a means to withstand the adversities in life that Jews have experienced throughout their history.

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Halkin, Hillel. “Why Jews Laugh at Themselves?” Commentary 121.4 (2006): 47–54.

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This article focuses on Jewish self-deprecating humor and its roots. It is noteworthy because the author affirms that one of the roots of modern Jewish humor is found in medieval Spanish Jewish texts. Jewish humor was influenced by Arabic literature known as Iqtibas, a humorous interpretation of the Koran. Jewish humor spread from the Iberian Peninsula to Europe.

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Isbell, Charles David. “Humor in the Bible.” In Jews and Humor. Proceedings of the Twenty-Second Annual Symposium of the Klutznick Chair in Jewish Civilization, Harris Center for Judaic Studies, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, 25–26 October 2009. Edited by Leonard J. Greenspoon, 1–12. West Lafayette, IN: Purdue University Press, 2011.

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This article identifies humoristic components in central biblical characters and events such as Aaron and the golden calf, the Bil’am episode, King Saul, and Elijah the prophet.

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Krasney, Ariela. Ha Badchan. Ramat-Gan, Israel: Bar Ilan University, 1998.

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This volume traces the history of the figure of the Jewish badchan, a comedian, from its roots in medieval Europe through the 16th century to its crystallization in the 19th century. This volume analyzes the many faces of the badchan and his special art form as reflected in the written badchan texts as well as in modern Hebrew and Yiddish literature.

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Wisse, Ruth R. No Joke: Making Jewish Humor. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2013.

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Wisse argues that modern Jewish humor began at the end of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th centuries and stems from Jewish emancipation in several European countries and the subsequent departure of Jews from the ghettos and their integration into the general society. The research examines Jewish literature texts and expressions of popular culture. The author contends that Jewish humor has blossomed in three central locations: eastern Europe, the United States, and Israel.

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Jewish Self-Deprecating Humor
Following Freud, many sociologists, psychologists, folklore researchers and others have attempted to answer the question: what is the background to the development of self-deprecating humor, humor in which Jewish laugh at their shortcomings? The prevalent finding is that it emerged as a collective answer to the difficult situation of the Jews in Europe. Bergler 1980 argues that Jewish reaction to the persecution they faced led directly to the creation of self-deprecating humor (see Ausubel 1989 and Grotjahn 1957). Reik 1962 takes a psychoanalytical approach to Jewish humor. Reik contends that the self-deprecating humor of the Jews is a type of masochism, a psychopathological reaction to their situation. Ben-Amos 1973 maintains that the Jewish self-deprecating humor reflects inner tensions within Jewish society, regardless of the external environment. Sadan 1951 argues that the origin of Jewish humor stems from the experience of Jews in transitioning from an old world to a new world. The departure of Jews from the ghettos and their emancipation and integration into the general society led to the creation of Jewish self-deprecating humor in which the Jews exclaimed: “see the world we came from and where we are now!” (Sadan’s views are supported in Landmann 2006 (cited under the Blossoming of Modern Jewish Humor in Eastern Europe). Juni, et al. 1996 assembles the main, broad theories of Jewish self-deprecating humor and aims to examine them through an analysis of collections of Jewish jokes.

Adler, Hermann. “Jewish Wit and Humor.” The Nineteenth Century 33 (1983): 457–469.

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This article examines the development of modern Jewish humor in the 19th century. Adler opposes those who maintain that Jews lack humor. He argues that Jewish humor throughout history has reflected the Jewish spirit, which refused to surrender despite the hostile environment in which Jews lived.

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Ausubel, Nathan, ed. A Treasury of Jewish Folklore: Stories, Traditions, Legends, Humor, Wisdom and Folk Songs of the Jewish People. New York: Crown, 1989.

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A non scholarly book. A rich collection of different styles and types of Jewish humor. Ausubel states that these comic types are the outcome of Jewish life in the ghetto. All the individuals and institutions, including community leaders, were the butt of humorists and jokes, including rabbis, matchmakers, teachers, and the wealthy. All are represented by stereotypes that generate criticism, on the one hand, and inspire unity in a common destiny, on the other. Originally published in 1948.

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Ben-Amos, Dan. “The ‘Myth’ of Jewish Humor.” Western Folklore 32.2 (1973): 112–131.

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Ben-Amos is the first scholar who denies, contrary to the arguments made by Freud and many others, that self-deprecating humor is a unique Jewish phenomenon. He claims that scholars who have adopted the existence of a unique Jewish humor have not based their arguments on reliable sources. Ben-Amos negates the idea that Jewish humor passes from one generation to the next.

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Bergler, Edmund. Laugher and the Sense of Humor. New York: Intercontinental Medical Book, 1980.

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This books deals with psychological aspects of humor. Edmund Bergler, a psychoanalyst, argues that the stressful lives led by Jews in ghettos and villages and the poverty, persecution, and humiliation they suffered served as the foundations for their self-deprecating humor. Originally published in 1956.

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Grotjahn, Martin. Beyond Laughter: Humor and Subconscious. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1957.

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The author examines the psychological aspects that are the foundations of Jewish humor. Grotjahn, a psychoanalyst, accepts Freud’s argument that self-directed aggression is a central characteristic of Jewish humor. “It’s as if a Jew says to his enemy, you don’t have to attack us; we know how to do it better.” (Jokes and their relations New York: Transaction, 2010, p. 131)

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Juni, Samuel, Bernard Katz, and Martin Hamburger. “Identification with Aggression vs. Turning against the Self: An Empirical Study of Turn-of the-Century European Jewish Humor.” Current Psychology 14.4 (1996): 313–328.

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The importance of this article is that it presents the common theories of Jewish self-deprecating humor from a sociological and psychological perspective. Some of the theories were written by researchers mentioned in this section. The author examines these theories through an analysis of a collection of Jewish jokes dated from 1895 to 1935, originating from four different geographical locations: London, Latvia, Vilna, and Warsaw.

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Reik, Theodor. Jewish Wit. New York: Gamut, 1962.

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Reik contends that the Jews’ self-deprecating humor is a psychopathological reaction to their situation. Reik tries to understand the subconscious psychological motivations for Jewish humor. He analyzes jokes, such as the matchmaker and Jewish scrounger. He argues that Jewish wit is an expression of mixed feelings of superiority and inferiority, one of the outcomes of being Jewish, of living on the periphery of society and in a state of anxiety.

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Sadan, Dov. “Rishumei Levai.” In Tzehok Pinu, Anthologia shel Humor ve Satira Basifrut Ha’Ivrit shel haet Haatika ve Hamodernit. Edited by Davidson Ephraim, 513–515. Israel: Biblos, 1951.

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A collection of humorous quotations from the Bible, Talmud, and Midrash that date up to the 20th century. Sadan contends that self-deprecating humor is an outcome of Jews leaving ghettos and their integration into a new social sphere. The gap between the new world they had entered and the old world from which they had come serves as the source of self-deprecating humor.

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The Jewish Joke
The Jewish joke has become an important source for research into Jewish humor. Freud 1960 was the first to test the psychological and social aspects of the Jewish joke. Freud found a difference between jokes told by Jews about Jewish characteristics and those composed about Jews by non-Jews, which he saw as brutally comic stories based on the broad view that Jews are strange and comic figures. Raskin 1992 corroborates Freud’s opinion and argues that jokes told by Jews about Jews contain affection, whereas those told by outsiders generally include evil anti-Semitic overtones. Finkin 2009 contends that there is a link between jokes and Yiddish literature. According to the author, Jewish jokes influenced written Jewish literature in Yiddish. Raskin 1985 maintains that the material used by other ethnic groups in anti-Jewish jokes was the same used by Jews in jokes about themselves. Davies 1986 argues that in Europe and North America Jews tend to joke more than any other ethnic group. Davies 2011 contends that Jewish jokes in America that deal with Jewish men and women are unique to Jews. Non-Jews do not succeed in creating such jokes. Oring 2010 deals with humor research in focusing on examining jokes. A substantial part of the book is dedicated to the study of Jewish humor and jokes.

Davies, Christie. “Bedichot Yeudiot ve Bedichot Antishemiot.” In Humor Yehudi. Edited by Avner Ziv, 7–13. Tel Aviv: Papirus, 1986.

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The article deals with the study of Jewish jokes whether composed by Jews or non-Jews. Davies divides Jewish jokes into three categories: supportive, neutral, and critical. He maintains that Jewish jokes popular in Europe and North America have three sources; the rich tradition of Jewish jokes based on Jewish culture, anti-Semitic jokes, and neutral jokes, which show no hostility toward Jews in particular. (English version, Jewish Humor [New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction, 1988]).

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Davies, Christie. Jokes and Targets. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2011.

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In this additional important study, Davies deals with an examination of jokes from a sociological and historical perspective. The aim of the book is to examine which social groups tell jokes, what is their content, and who are the target groups for these jokes. Chapter 3 deals with Jewish jokes about Jewish men and women.

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Finkin, Jordan. “Jewish Jokes, Yiddish Storytelling and Sholem Aleichem: A Discursive Approach.” Jewish Social Studies 16.1 (2009): 85–110.

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The author suggests a different approach to jokes, although not a new one. He finds a link between telling jokes and Yiddish storytelling. This link, he argues, influenced the development of Yiddish literature. To prove his claim, he chooses to examine the story “Der Dayts” (The German), written in 1902 by Sholem Aleichem.

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Freud, Sigmund. Jokes and Their Relation to the Unconscious. New York: Routledge, 2014.

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Freud was the first to test the psychological and social aspects of the Jewish joke. Freud found a difference between jokes told by Jews about Jewish characteristics and those composed about Jews by non-Jews, which he saw as brutally comic stories based on the broad view that Jews are strange and comic figures. Originally published in German as Der Witz und seine Beziehung zum Unbewussten (Vienna: F. Deuticke, 1905).

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Oring, Elliott. Jokes and Their Relations. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction, 2010.

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This book deals with humor research by focusing on one of its branches, jokes. An analysis of jokes is carried out from a theoretical, sociological, cultural, and structural point of view. A substantial portion of the book is dedicated to the examination of Jewish humor and jokes. Originally published in 1992 by the University Press of Kentucky.

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Raskin, Victor. Semantic Mechanism of Humor. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: D. Reidel, 1985.

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The research deals with a structural analysis of jokes in an attempt to construct a linguistic theory as a basis for analyzing and understanding jokes. The book starts by presenting a central theory for studying humor. It includes, among others, Jewish jokes and references to Jewish humor.

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Raskin, Richard. Life Is Like a Glass of Tea: Studies of Classic Jewish Jokes. Aarhus, Denmark: Aarhus University Press, 1992.

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The author corroborates Freud’s opinion and argues that jokes told by Jews about Jews are related with affection, whereas those told by outsiders, generally include evil anti-Semitic overtones. The author examines six well-known jokes and their development through the centuries. He also discusses what jokes about Jews have meant to Jews themselves, who, as a minority, try to find their identity.

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Primary Sources: Jokes and Short Stories
The great richness and variety of Jewish humor makes any attempt to define it as a single entity very difficult. Sometimes it is easier to use different examples of Jewish humor to explain what it means. Thus, compilations of Jewish humor, which preserve what is so difficult to define, are important. Ausubel 1989 is an edited collection of Jewish jokes, myths, stories, and even Jewish songs. Isaacs 1972 compiles rabbinical stories, fables, myths, and medieval anecdotes, which include many expressions of humor. Novak and Waldoks 2006 assembles a rich array of Jewish stories, anecdotes, and jokes. Olsvanger 1947 and Olsvanger 1949 are two collections whose importance stems from the fact that they are written in Yiddish, the language of what is referred to as “Jewish humor” and thus contain a treasure of Jewish humor. Telushkin 1992 is a rich collection of jokes that Jews tell about Jews. Druyanov 1939 is a three-volume work packed with jokes. It includes translations of Jewish jokes into Hebrew and, as such, brings Jewish humor closer to Hebrew speakers in Israel. Rosten 2003 constitutes a lexicon of humorous expressions, some of which are known to the general American public, that has been so much influenced by eastern European Jewish humor.

Ausubel, Nathan, ed. A Treasury of Jewish Folklore: Stories, Traditions, Legends, Humor, Wisdom and Folk Songs of the Jewish People. New York: Crown, 1989.

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A nonscholarly book. The book contains a rich collection of different styles of Jewish humor and comic characters that epitomize Jewish humor. Ausubel states that these comic types are the outcome of Jewish life in the ghetto, a mixture of amusement and tragedy. Every member of the community, including its leaders, served as the butt of humorists and jokes. Rabbis, matchmakers, teachers, and the wealthy are all represented by stereotypes, who generate criticism, on the one hand, and yet also inspire unity in a common destiny, on the other. Originally published in 1948.

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Druyanov, Alter. Sefer habedicha ve hachidud. 3 vols. Tel Aviv: Dvir, 1939.

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Volume 1 was published in 1935, Volume 2 in 1936, and Volume 3 in 1938. A nonscholarly book. A collection of short Jewish jokes and anecdotes. The material is arranged according to subject matter. In the author’s introduction, he states his perception of Jewish humor. Revised editions of the books are published from time to time.

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Isaacs, Abram Samuel, ed. Stories from the Rabbis. New York: B. Bloom, 1972.

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A nonscholarly book. The book includes rabbinical stories, fables, myths, and medieval anecdotes, which include many expressions of humor. Originally published in 1893.

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Novak, William, and Moshe Waldoks, eds. The Big Book of Jewish Humor. New York: HarperCollins, 2006.

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A nonscholarly book. Rich anthology of stories, anecdotes, and Jewish jokes. Covers a broad variety of Jewish humor from literary works to stand-up comedy. Originally published in 1981.

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Olsvanger, Immanuel, ed. Royte Pomerantsen: Jewish Folk Humor. New York: Schocken, 1947.

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A non scholarly book. An excellent collection of Yiddish humor. English introduction; text in Yiddish transcribed into roman characters.

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Olsvanger, Immanuel, ed. L’Chayim. New York: Schocken, 1949.

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A nonscholarly book. A second excellent collection of Yiddish humor of the same editor. Text in Yiddish transcribed into roman characters. The editor distinguishes regional differences in pronunciation.

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Rosten, Leo. The New Joys of Yiddish. New York: Three Rivers, 2003.

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A nonscholarly book. A comprehensive and entertaining lexicon of the colorful and deeply expressive language of Yiddish. The book is up to date. It retains the spirit of the original, with its wonderful jokes, tidbits of cultural history, and Talmudic and biblical references, and it features hundreds of new entries and thoughtful commentaries on how Yiddish has evolved over the years. Originally published as The Joys of Yiddish (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1968).

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Telushkin, Joseph. Jewish Humor: What the Best Jewish Jokes Say about the Jews. New York: William Morrow, 1992.

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A nonscholarly book. A collection of more than one hundred Jewish jokes, interspersed with an insight into what they can tell us about how Jews see themselves, their families, and their friends and what they think about money, sex, and success. The book offers a classic portrait of the Jewish collective culture.

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The Blossoming of Modern Jewish Humor in Eastern Europe
The end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century were characterized by Jewish emancipation, their exit from ghettos and shtetls into the new culture of the outside world. This transition created tension between the new Jewish world and the old, traditional one. Wisse 2013 argues that the background to the appearance of Jewish humor in the 18th and 19th centuries in eastern Europe lay in the Enlightenment movement, which emerged after emancipation just as did the Hasidic movement. Consequently, three opposing groups of Jews were formed in eastern Europe: (1) Hasidism, whose members rebelled against traditional rabbis; (2) the Maskilim, who left the Jewish ghetto and sought to assimilate into the general society and culture; and (3) the Mitnagdim, which consisted of traditional Jews who opposed both other groups. Landmann 2006 claims that the transition of Jews from the old world to the new world served as the central stimulus for the creation of Jewish humor. The author presents an unusual argument (which differs from Wisse 2013) that prior to emancipation, Jews were humorless, and that Jewish humor developed and ended between the 18th and 19th centuries. Friedlender 1986 contends that the Hebrew literature that appeared after the Enlightenment, from the end of the 18th century onward, waged cultural war against Orthodox Judaism in Europe. The new authors saw Orthodox Judaism as a barrier to their integration into the general society and into European culture. The satirical, literary output was their weapon against the world of the Talmud. Brodsky 2011 argues that the appearance of Jewish humor in the 19th and 20th centuries was the result of Talmudic commentary maturing into the creation of modern humor in eastern Europe. Patka and Stalzer 2013 argues that Jewish humor originated in eastern Europe. The book includes a wide range of articles relating to Jewish artists of all types from Europe, the United States, and Israel. Chase 2000 traces the roots of satirical Jewish humor in Germany. The author refers to the greatest Jewish satirists and their German opponents in the 19th century. As a result, the concepts of Judenwitz and Judenwitzler were born and were used as insults by Germans toward Jews and their style of writing. Sover 2010 demonstrates that the blossoming of Jewish humor in the 19th century led to the beginning of Jewish research into humor and laughter.

Brodsky, David. “Why Did the Widow Have a Goat in Her Bed? Jewish Humor and Its Roots in the Talmud and Midrash.” In Jews and Humor. Proceedings of the Twenty-Second Annual Symposium of the Klutznick Chair in Jewish Civilization, Harris Center for Judaic Studies, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, 25–26 October 2009. Edited by Leonard J. Greenspoon, 13–32. West Lafayette, IN: Purdue University Press, 2011.

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The author argues that the appearance of Jewish humor in the 19th and 20th centuries was the result of Talmudic rabbinic commentaries maturing into the creation of modern humor in eastern Europe. The article concentrates on Midrashic and Talmudic interpretations and links them to modern humor, such as Groucho Marx’s verbal humor. The author uncovers a link between the many interpretations of the Midrash and interpreting Jewish jokes.

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Chase, Jefferson S. Inciting Laughter: The Development of “Jewish Humor” in 19th Century German Culture. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2000.

DOI: 10.1515/9783110813838Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »

The book deals with Jewish humor that developed in Germany and that influenced Jewish humor in eastern Europe and elsewhere. The research traces the concept of “Jewish humor” (Judenwitz) in Germany through an analysis of the satirical works of three of the greatest critics and Jewish writers: Moritz Saphir, Ludwig Boerne, and Heinrich Heine.

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Friedlender, Yehuda. “Satira bein Yeudim: Haskala, Talmud ve Halacha.” In Humor Yehudi. Edited by Avner Ziv, 107–117. Tel Aviv: Papirus, 1986.

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An overview of a number of Hebrew writers of the 19th century; examines reform advocates and their satirical writing, which expresses opposition to the Halacha, rabbis, and religious arbiters.

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Landmann, Salcia. Der Jüdische Witz: Soziologie und Sammlung. Düsseldorf: Patmos, 2006.

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Landmann argues that the transition of the Jews from the old world of the ghettos to a new world as part of the general society is not the only reason for the creation of Jewish humor albeit the main one. The author presents an unusual argument that prior to emancipation, Jews were humorless and that Jewish humor developed and ended between the 18th and 19th centuries. Originally published in 1960 (Olten, Switzerland: Walter Verlag).

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Patka, Marcus G., and Alfred Stalzer, eds. Alle Meschugge? Jüdischer Witz und Humor. Vienna: Jüdisches Museum, 2013.

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The editors argue that Jewish humor originated in eastern Europe. The book includes a wide range of articles relating to Jewish artists of all types, such as Ephraim Kishon in Israel as well as Billy Wilder, Mel Brooks, and Woody Allen in Hollywood, and including Karl Farkas, Fritz Grünbaum, Hermann Leopold, Friedrich Hollaender, Kurt Tucholsky, and Ernst Lubitsch and others in various locations from Vienna to Berlin. Appeared in conjunction with an exhibit on Jewish humor at the Jewish Museum in Vienna.

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Sover, Arie. “Trumatam shel Hayehudim le Heker ha Humor.” Kaveret 18 (2010): 1–9.

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The article focuses on the contribution of four famous Jewish philosophers, scientists, and researchers, who, by their insights, influenced humor research in general and Jewish humor research in particular; namely, Baruch Spinoza, Henri Bergson, Sigmund Freud, and Viktor Frankl.

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Wisse, Ruth R. No Joke: Making Jewish Humor. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2013.

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Wisse argues that the background to the appearance of Jewish humor in the late 18th and early 19th centuries in eastern Europe was provided by the Enlightenment movement, which, like the Hasidic movement, emerged after emancipation. Subsequently, three opposing groups of Jews were formed in eastern Europe: Hasidism, who rebelled against traditional Rabbis; Maskilim, who left the ghetto and sought to assimilate into the general society; and Mitnagdim, who opposed both of these groups.

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Humor in Literature: The Beginning
The end of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th centuries witnessed the beginning of modern Jewish humoristic literature. At first it was written in Yiddish, the language of the shtetl, but later the spoken language of the authors’ countries of residence was used. Stora-Sandor 1984 analyzes Jewish humor of the earliest Jewish authors, who wrote humorous stories about the shtetl and about comic types from Jewish folklore. Wisse 2013 argues that Heinrich Heine’s influence on Jewish humor was the greatest until the appearance of Sholem Aleichem, who wrote in Yiddish and who, more than anyone else, revolutionized Jewish culture. Weiner 1986 maintains that Sholem Aleichem’s humor is unique and groundbreaking in comic literature. Pinsker 1971 traces the development of the “schlemiel” through a study of the authors who used this character from the 19th century to the end of the 1960s. Cohen 1987 is a collection of essays in which the author analyzes the roots of Jewish humor in the 19th century and its Jewish authors’ transition from eastern Europe to the United States of America. Szeintuch 1990 includes the literary humoresques and parodies of Yosef Tunkel (Der Tunkeler) as well as biographical details of his life and works. Burakova 2012 argues that components of humor that are found in contemporary American Jewish literature are based on known properties of long-lasting Jewish humor from past traditions and culture.

Burakova, Zuzana. “Humor and Identity in Selected Contemporary Jewish American Literature.” PhD diss., Pavol Jozef Safarik University, 2012.

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Burakova argues that components of humor that are found in contemporary American-Jewish literature are based on known properties of long-lasting Jewish humor from past traditions and culture. In the first chapter (pp. 27–30), the author offers a list of scholars who affirm that the origins of Jewish humor in literature are found at the start of the 19th century in eastern and western Europe.

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Cohen, Sarah Blacher. Jewish Wry: Essays on Jewish Humor. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1987.

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The author examines the development of Jewish humor in a series of essays on topics that range from Sholem Aleichem’s humor to Jewish comediennes to the humor of Philip Roth.

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Pinsker, Sanford. The Schlemiel as Metaphor: Studies in the Yiddish and American Jewish Novel. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1971.

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To trace the origins of the schlemiel, the author focuses on three Jewish Americans authors: Isaac Bashevis Singer, Saul Bellow, and Bernard Malamud, whose humor was influenced by this comic type that was integrated into Jewish literature of the 19th century in eastern Europe.

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Stora-Sandor, Judith. L’humour juif dans la littérature: De Job à Woody Allen. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1984.

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Stora-Sandor analyzes the humor of the earliest Jewish authors from the 19th to the beginning of the 20th centuries who wrote humorous stories about the shtetl and about comic types from Jewish folklore. These authors were the first to establish Jewish humor within the Jewish literary tradition.

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Szeintuch, Yechiel. Der Tunkeler (Yosef Tunkel). Der Sefer fun Humoreskes un Litererishe Parodies. Jerusalem: Magnes, 1990.

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This book is important in that it treats a little-examined topic, namely, the works of Yosef Tunkel (Der Tunkeler, b. 1881–d. 1949), one of the most important Yiddish humorists between the two world wars. An edited work, it includes humoresques and parodies as well as an introduction by the editor, which contains biographical details of Der Tunkeler’s life and works as well as an analysis of his work. With Hebrew scientific introduction, pp. 13–68.

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Weiner, Meyer. “On Sholem Aleichem’s Humor.” Prooftexts 1 (1986): 41–55.

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The article focuses on the humor in the stories of Sholem Aleichem. The researcher compares him to Aristophanes, Heine, Dickens, and Gogol, individuals who each created his own unique humor, satire, and irony. He believes that Sholem Aleichem broke new ground in comic literature, which he coins “the humor of Sholem Aleichem.”

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Wisse, Ruth R. No Joke: Making Jewish Humor. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2013.

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Wisse states that the Yiddish humor of the East European Jew is different from the humor of the German Jew (Judenwitz). Yiddish humorists peered out from inside Jewish life rather than, like that of Heine, from outside in. Wisse argues that Heinrich Heine’s influence on Jewish humor was the greatest until the appearance of Sholem Aleichem, who wrote in Yiddish and who, more than anyone else, revolutionized Jewish culture.

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Yiddish Humor
Yiddish is the language of the eastern European Jews. Its origins are in medieval German together with contributions from Hebrew and from Slavic languages. In fact, the Jews of eastern Europe spoke three languages: Hebrew, which was revered as the holy tongue and thus used only in synagogues rather than in daily life; Yiddish, the spoken language of the Jewish communities in ghettos or shtetls; and Polish or Russian, the language of communication with the outside world. Weinreich 1973 analyzes, among other things, the relationship between humor and sociocultural stratification and between humor and the bilingual nature of traditional Jewish culture anchored in the Hebrew and Yiddish languages. Wisse 2013 contends that humor in Yiddish was different from Jewish humor in German in that Jewish authors who wrote in Yiddish did so from within the community and wrote about Jewish culture, whereas Jewish humor in German, such as that of Heine, looked upon Jewish culture from the outside in. Yiddish humor was based on the daily lives of the Jews and reflected their criticism of themselves as well as the outside world where they lived. Finkin 2009 investigates the influences of Jewish jokes on the development of Jewish literature in Yiddish at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries. Szeintuch 2014 reviews the state of research of humorous literature, mainly in Yiddish, using poetry, prose, and plays. The article summarizes preliminary findings in following a review of a broad corpus of the Yiddish press from the first half of the 20th century. Stora-Sandor 1984 argues that humor written in Yiddish in the 19th century marked the first stage in the development of modern Jewish humor. Stora-Sandor weaves a leitmotif that runs through the Jewish opus and finds a link between the elements that together create or influence the existence of Jewish humor. Bialostotzki 1963 analyzes Yiddish humor based on a wide range of humorous Yiddish sources. The author deals with well-known Yiddish leitzim (jesters) such as Hershel Ostropoler and Efraim Graidinger. Roskies 2004 contends that Yiddish as a language and its humorous expressions, from badchens and Purim spiels to the jokes in the different branches of Judaism in the 18th and 19th centuries, serve as the inspiration for modern Yiddish literature that began to flourish from the 19th century onward. Efron 2012 treats the impact of Yiddish on the political satires of Shimen Dzigan and Yisroel Shumacher and notes the influence of the works of Shalom Aleichem on their work.

Bialostotzki, B. Yaakov. Yidisher humor un Yidishe leitzim. New York: Tsiko Bikher Farlag, 1963.

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A nonscholarly book. The author analyzes Yiddish humor based on a wide range of humorous Yiddish sources. He deals with well-known Yiddish leitzim (jesters), such as Hershel Ostropoler and Efraim Graidinger. Bialostotzki’s book is divided into two sections, one section contains his research paper on Yiddish humor and the other one is an anthology of texts related to the stories of the Yiddish leitzim.

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Efron, John M. “From Łódź to Tel Aviv: The Yiddish Political Satire of Shimen Dzigan and Yisroel Shumacher.” Jewish Quarterly Review 102.1 (2012): 50–79.

DOI: 10.1353/jqr.2012.0010Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »

The article focuses on Shimen Dzigan. The essay illuminates four areas: the meaning of Yiddish and the way Dzigan (and Shumacher) used it, the nature of his humor, his artistic inspiration, and his work as a political satirist.

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Finkin, Jordan. “Jewish Jokes, Yiddish Storytelling and Sholem Aleichem: A Discursive Approach.” Jewish Social Studies 16.1 (2009): 85–110.

DOI: 10.2979/JSS.2009.16.1.85Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »

This article examines the relationship between Jewish jokes and the development of modern Yiddish literature. The author begins by exploring the central role of humor within the environment of Yiddish-speaking Ashkenazi culture. The article then goes on to outline how jokes, especially their orality, have come to be understood as representative elements of that humor.

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Roskies, David G. “Major Trends in Yiddish Parody.” Jewish Quarterly Review 94.1 (2004): 109–122.

DOI: 10.1353/jqr.2004.0077Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »

The article examines the origins of humor in Yiddish. Roskies refers to the Purim spiel, badchan, and the cultural conflict between the different branches of Judaism in the 18th and 19th centuries. Finally he focuses on humoristic Jewish literature of the 19th and 20th centuries that was influenced by Yiddish as a language of humor.

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Stora-Sandor, Judith. L’humour juif dans la littérature: De Job à Woody Allen. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1984.

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Stora-Sandor argues that humor written in Yiddish in the 19th century marked the first stage in the development of modern Jewish humor. The book reflects on Jewish humor from its biblical and Talmudic origins to modern days. The research focuses on the literary texts of some of the greatest Jewish humorist writers.

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Szeintuch, Yechiel. “Ha humor be Yidish ve ivrit bekerev yehudey mizrach eiropa umekorotav.” Humor Mekuvan 4 (2014): 45–59.

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The article reviews the state of research into humorous literature, mainly in Yiddish, using poetry, prose, and plays. The article summarizes the preliminary findings, after reviewing a broad corpus of the Yiddish press from the first half of the 20th century, the books published on the subject, and the theoretical writings on humor in general and Jewish humor in particular.

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Weinreich, Max. Di geshichte fun der Yidisher shprach. New York: Yivo, 1973.

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The author analyzes, among other things, the relationship between humor and sociocultural stratification and between humor and the bilingual nature of traditional Jewish culture anchored in the Hebrew and Yiddish languages. See Volume 1 (pp. 231–245) and Volume 3 (pp. 237–249).

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Wisse, Ruth R. No Joke: Making Jewish Humor. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2013.

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Wisse contends that humor in Yiddish was different from Jewish humor in German in that Jewish authors who wrote in Yiddish did so from within their society and about Jewish culture, whereas Jewish humor in German, such as that of Heine, looked upon Jewish culture from the outside in. Yiddish humor reflected Jewish self-criticism as well as criticism about the outside world within which they lived.

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The Comic Characters of Jewish Humor
Humoristic stories and Jewish jokes have recurring subjects and characters. Ausubel 1989 presents a variety of Jewish humor types. These types, as the author claims, are the product of Jewish life in ghettos. Using comic characters was a means both to criticize institutions and members of the community and to strengthen community values. Friedman and Friedman 2014 argues that in Talmudic stories, certain comical figures and core subjects appear repeatedly and are very similar to those that exist in modern Jewish humor. Berger 1997 affirms the argument made in Ausubel 1989 and raises the possibility that comic characters in Jewish jokes serve an egalitarian society that seeks commonality and criticizes the unusual. Wisse 1971 refers to comic characters from Jewish tradition in focusing on the “schlimazel” taken from Yiddish literature into American culture as an attenuated hero and democratic personality. Pinsker 1971 differentiates between two character types—the schlimazel and the schlemiel. The first is hurt by unexpected circumstances and the second creates the circumstances that hurt him. The author traces these two comic types through the literary works of Isaac Bashevis Singer, Saul Bellow, and Bernard Malamud. Stora-Sandor 1984 focuses on the schlemiel, the comic type in different literary works and also in comedy films. The author draws a comparison between Job in the Bible and Woody Allen. She argues that both are schlemiels, individuals who cannot comprehend or cope with the world around them.

Ausubel, Nathan, ed. A Treasury of Jewish Folklore: Stories, Traditions, Legends, Humor, Wisdom and Folk Songs of the Jewish People. New York: Crown, 1989.

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A non scholarly book. The book presents a variety of Jewish humor types. These types, as Ausubel claims, are the product of Jewish life in ghettos. Using comic characters was a means both to criticize institutions and members of the community and to strengthen community values. Originally published in 1948.

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Berger, Arthur Asa. The Genius of the Jewish Joke. Northvale, NJ: Jason Aronson, 1997.

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Berger raises the possibility that comic characters in Jewish jokes serve an egalitarian society that seeks commonality and criticizes the unusual. In chapter 4 he focuses on Jewish types in jokes and folklore, such as the schlemiel, the schlimazel, and others.

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Friedman, Hershey H., and Linda Weiser Friedman. God Laughed: Sources of Jewish Humor. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction, 2014.

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The book focuses on the origins of Jewish humor in the Bible, Talmud, and Midrash. The authors argue that satire, irony, and self-deprecating humor can be found in the canon in witty texts that reflect the way in which the Jews viewed the world. The authors suggest that the humor served as a means to withstand the adversities in life that Jews experienced throughout history.

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Pinsker, Sanford. The Schlemiel as Metaphor: Studies in the Yiddish and American Jewish Novel. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1971.

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The author differentiates between two character types: the schlimazel and the schlemiel. The first is hurt by unexpected circumstances and the second creates the circumstances that hurt him. He traces these two comic types threw the literary works of Isaac Bashevis Singer, Saul Bellow, and Bernard Malamud.

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Stora-Sandor, Judith. L’humour juif dans la littérature: De Job à Woody Allen. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1984.

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The author focusing on the comic type of the schlemiel in different literary works and also in comedy films. She describes the schlemiel Jewish comic type by drawing a comparison between Job in the Bible and Woody Allen. She argues that both are schlemiels, individuals who cannot comprehend or cope with the world around them.

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Wisse, Ruth R. The Schlemiel as Modern Hero. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1971.

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Originally presented as the author’s dissertation at McGill University under the title “The Schlemiel as Hero in Yiddish and American Fiction.” Defines the origins of the German Jewish word “schlemiel,” which generally means an unlucky person, a stranger, a clown, a potential victim, and traces his appearance in German and Yiddish literature from 1813 to his post–World War II transfer to the United States, where his most characteristic embodiment is found in the protagonist in Saul Bellow’s Herzog.

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Jewish Humor in Europe under Nazi Occupation
Prior to the outbreak of World War II, Jewish humor flourished in eastern Europe. Wisse 2013 and Vedenyapin 2008 trace the works of Shimen Dzigan, one of the most popular Yiddish humorists in eastern Europe in the 1920s and 1930s. Under Nazi rule in Europe and suffering from hellish conditions, Jews searched for any sign of optimism and they found it in the humor that those among them created. Wisse 2013 describes the rich repertoire of Jewish folk humor, both in local languages and in Yiddish, appearing in Poland prior to the war about the rise of Hitler and the Nazis in Germany and compares it to the humor in Russia during the Stalin regime. Wisse devotes a central portion of chapter 4 of her book to two of the most important Jewish comedians in Poland, Shimen Dzigan and Yisroel Shumacher, who, along with others, included in their repertoire political humor about Hitler and the Nazi regime. Frankl 1963 describes the humor that existed in the concentration camps. The author writes: “the attempt to develop a sense of humor and see things in a humorous light is some kind of a trick learned while mastering the art of living” (p. 68). Levin 2004 is the first to publish in Hebrew documentation that substantiates the existence of humor under the Nazis in Europe before and during the Holocaust. The book relies mainly on documents found in archives, museums, and Holocaust research institutes. Ostrover 2009 focuses on firsthand testimonies of Holocaust survivors that humor was created in the ghettos and in the concentration and extermination camps. Blumental 1981, an edited volume, assembles a treasury of words and sayings from the ghettos and camps, which confirms their wide use in these places. Emanuel Ringelblum, a historian and a resident of the Warsaw ghetto, provides important evidence of the existence of humor in his diary (Ringelblum 1992), which describes Jewish daily life in the ghetto. He collected and recorded many bits of humor that thrived in the ghetto, such as jokes containing self-deprecating humor and jokes about Poles, Hitler, the Nazi regime, and Stalin. Reik 1962, proceeding from an exceptional point of view, explains the existence of humor in the most horrific places in the Holocaust.

Blumental, Nachman. Verter und un Vertlach fun der Hurban tkufe. Tel Aviv: I. L. Peretz, 1981.

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A historian and Holocaust researcher, Nachman Blumental was an avid Yiddishist. He studied the language and culture all his life. His last work was this book, which includes a treasury of words and sayings from the ghettos and camps. Among other insights, this book tells us how common the use of humor was at that time among the Jews.

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Frankl, Emile Victor. Man’s Search for Meaning. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1963.

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This book, written by the psychoanalyst Victor Frankl, will prove meaningful to anyone who has experienced life’s hardships and is seeking a means by which to cope. It is the story of a Holocaust survivor who spent three years as a prisoner in concentration and extermination camps and was one of the only survivors of his family. Frankl maintains that humor helped to alleviate his suffering. New edition published by Beacon (2014).

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Levin, Itamar, ed. Mibaad la dmaot. Tel Aviv: Yediot Achronot, 2004.

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The importance of this book is that it presents, for the first time in Hebrew, written and oral testimony of Jewish humor during the Nazi regime and Holocaust in Europe. Levin describes the humor that was rife in the 1930s prior to the outbreak of the war. Levin then describes the Jewish humor in the ghettos and in the concentration and extermination camps.

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Ostrover, Chaya. Lelo humor hayinu mitabdim. Jerusalem: Yad Vashem, 2009.

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This book stems from Ostrover’s PhD dissertation. It includes a general background regarding the theories and functions of humor and laughter. Its importance is that it is based on the testimonies of Holocaust survivors, who describe firsthand the humor that Jews created in the ghettos and in the concentration and extermination camps. According to the testimonies, humor was expressed in satirical songs, humoristic plays, shows performed by badchans, jokes, and caricatures.

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Reik, Theodor. Jewish Wit. New York: Gamut, 1962.

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From an exceptional point of view Reik explains the existence of humor in the most horrific places in the Holocaust. He argues that Jewish humor stemmed from the fact that Jews lived in a state of anxiety. He maintains that this constituted a psychopathological reaction to their situation.

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Ringelblum, Emanuel. Yoman ve reshimot mitkufat hamilchama. Jerusalem: Yad Va Shem and Beit Lochamei Hagetaot, 1992.

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An underground archive, known as “Oneg Shabbat,” documents the life of Jews in the Warsaw ghetto and other cities. The archive contained tens of thousands documents, many of which were found after the war. This is a very rare, firsthand documentation of the life of Jews in the ghetto and includes, among other topics, the humoristic perspective Jews took of their situation.

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Vedenyapin, Yuri. “Doctors Prescribe Laughter: The Yiddish Stand-Up Comedy of Shimen Dzigan.” PhD diss., Harvard University, 2008.

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A work of research into the humor of Shimen Dzigan and its influence on Yiddish and Jewish culture. The dissertation includes analysis of many comic excerpts from the work of Dzigan and others.

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Wisse, Ruth R. No Joke: Making Jewish Humor. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2013.

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Wisse describes the rich repertoire of Jewish folk humor, in local languages and in Yiddish, in Poland prior to the war, with regard to the rise of Hitler and the Nazis in Germany. She devotes a central portion of chapter 4 to two of the most important Jewish comedians in Poland, Shimen Dzigan and Yisroel Shumacher, who included in their repertoire political humor against Hitler and the Nazi regime.

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Jewish Humor in the United States
Approximately two million Jews, mainly from eastern Europe, immigrated to the United States at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries. After the Holocaust, the United States became home to the largest number of Jews in the world. They brought their rich culture with them, including eastern European Jewish humor. Rovit 1967 notes the early concentration of Jews in the United States, notably in New York City’s Lower East Side, in places that served as an incubator for eastern European Jewish humor and from where it began to assimilate into American culture. Dorinson 1981 traces the variety of wit in American Jewish humor, whose roots are in European Jewish humor. Janus 1975 investigates top American comedians and discovers that 80 percent of them are Jewish. Cohen 2001, written by a philosopher, maintains that the link between Old Testament and Talmudic humor and that of the Marx brothers is situated in the absurd verbal content in the texts. Libo 2007 argues that the Jewish humor of the Borscht Belt has spread and become part of American language and culture. Federman-Silberman 1995 examines the sociological development of Jewish society in America through an analysis of Hannukah humor cards. Johnson 1994 sees a direct link between the image of a schlemiel and the characters in the television series Seinfeld. Epstein 2001 portrays the history of Jewish comedians from the beginning of the immigration of eastern European Jews to the United States until the 2000s.

Cohen, Ted. Jokes: Philosophical Thoughts of Joking Matters. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2001

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This book analyzes different types of jokes. The author tries to understand how and why jokes are funny. In chapter 5, Cohen analyzes Jewish jokes and the absurd verbal content that creates them. Originally published in 1999.

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Dorinson, Joseph. “Jewish Humor: Mechanism for Defense, Weapon for Cultural Affirmation.” Journal of Psychohistory 8.4 (1981): 447–464.

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Dorinson traces the variety of wit in American Jewish humor, whose roots are in European Jewish humor. The article describes several varieties of Jewish humor from their European origins to the present day in America. Among other topics, the author emphasizes the influence of Jewish humor on American culture.

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Epstein, Lawrence J. The Haunted Smile: The Story of Jewish Comedians in America. New York: Public Affairs, 2001.

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The book focuses on the blossoming of Jewish comedy and comedians in America from the start of Jewish emigration from eastern Europe to the United States at the end of the 19th century until the 2000s. It includes stand-up acts and a variety of performances in the Borscht Belt and in radio, cinema, and television.

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Federman-Silberman, Jo Nancy. “Jewish Humor, Self-Hatred or Anti-Semitism: The Sociology of Hanukkah Cards in America.” Journal of Popular Culture 28.4 (1995): 211–229.

DOI: 10.1111/j.0022-3840.1995.00211.xSave Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »

The author provides a sociological analysis of the humor in Hanukkah cards and offers an attempt to understand the internal and external community social processes that the Jewish community experiences in the United States.

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Janus, Samuel S. “The Great Comedians: Personality and Other Factors.” American Journal of Psychoanalysis 35.2 (1975): 169–174.

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This article includes in-depth interviews and psychological tests carried out with many of the top comedians in the United States and finds that 80 percent of them are Jewish.

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Johnson, Carla. “Luckless in New York: The Schlemiel and the Schlimazel in Seinfeld. Journal of Popular Film & Television 22.3 (1994): 116–125.

DOI: 10.1080/01956051.1994.9943676Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »

The article deals with an analysis of the comic characters in the TV series Seinfeld and finds a similarity between the image of the schlemiel and the characters in the series. Johnson uncovers two stereotypes characteristic of Jewish humor, the schlimazel and the schlemiel. The first is thwarted by external causes while the second is responsible for his own failures.

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Libo, Kenneth. “From Yiddish to English: The Humor of It All.” Midstream 53.4 (2007): 9–11.

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The article describes the effect Yiddish humoristic expressions have had on the English language in the United States. The researcher notes many words that have become a part of American culture, such as pupik, kvetch, knish, kishkes, grob, greps, drishke, and bupkes.

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Rovit, Earl. “Jewish Humor and American Life.” American Scholar 36.2 (1967): 237–245.

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The article deals with the roots of Jewish humor in America. It started with the immigration of Jews and their concentration in ghettos such as the Lower East Side in New York City, which served as incubators for eastern European Jewish humor in the United States. From these locations, Jewish humor began the process of assimilation into American culture.

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Jewish Humor in American Show Business and the “Borscht Belt”
When radio began to transmit entertainment programs in the 1920s, comedians were needed for funny programs and they were found in theater and in variety shows. Many Jewish comedians were appearing in the Borscht Belt and elsewhere across the United States and they naturally appeared in these programs, followed by talking cinema, which began in 1929, and television, which began broadcasting in the 1940s. Whitfield 2005 argues that American Jewish humor is an international phenomenon. He identifies, amongst others, Jackie Mason and the Marx brothers, who were beloved in England; Jerry Lewis, who was admired in France, and Philip Roth, whose book Portnoy’s Complaint was the first book to be translated into Czech after the fall of communism. Antler 2011 detects an unusual phenomenon in Jewish society, namely, that Jewish comediennes have secured an important place in the American comedy industry. Brodsky 2011 finds a connection between Midrash study, which started in the Talmudic age, and Groucho Marx’s texts. Kalman 2011 maintains that the work of Woody Allen derives from the Jewish culture he absorbed at home and from the environment in which he grew up coupled with the image of Job in the Bible and the Holocaust. Gillota 2010 contends that the image of the schlemiel drawn from Yiddish culture continues to exist today, in an updated format, in American television series. The author argues that the schlemiel’s existence testifies to the discomfort that many Jews feel with respect to their place in American multiculturalism. Dorinson 1981 argues that eastern European Jewish humor as it settled in the United States exemplified the same basic rationale in serving both as a mechanism of defense against humiliation of Jews and as a means to strengthen Jewish communal unity. The most important location for the development of professional Jewish humor in the United States was the chain of Jewish-owned hotels and restaurants in the Catskill Mountains in New York State, which was known as the Borscht Belt, named after beetroot soup, a typical dish of eastern European Jews who often stayed in these resorts. Richman 1998 describes the Borscht Belt and the reasons for its establishment, the Jewish holiday makers, and the social life and culture, including the performance of early Jewish comedians in America. Wisse 2013 argues that the hotels provided comedy as one of their core attractions. During the peak era, most Jewish American comedians were employed at these establishments.

Antler, Joyce. “One Clove away from a Pomander Ball: The Subversive Tradition of Jewish Female Comediennes.” In Jews and Humor. Proceedings of the Twenty-Second Annual Symposium of the Klutznick Chair in Jewish Civilization, Harris Center for Judaic Studies, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, 25–26 October 2009. Edited by Leonard J. Greenspoon, 155–174. West Lafayette, IN: Purdue University Press, 2011.

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The article identifies an interesting and uniquely Jewish phenomenon in the United States: Jewish women as major performers in the comedy industry, including women such as Gilda Radner, Joan Rivers, Fanny Brice, Sara Silverman, Barbra Streisand, and Sophie Tucker. The status of Jewish women changed in America, a change that included, among others, the emergence of Jewish comediennes. They have not only influenced the Jewish community, but have also become part of American comic culture.

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Brodsky, David. “Why Did the Widow Have a Goat in Her Bed? Jewish Humor and Its Roots in the Talmud and Midrash.” In Jews and Humor. Proceedings of the Twenty-Second Annual Symposium of the Klutznick Chair in Jewish Civilization, Harris Center for Judaic Studies, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, 25–26 October 2009. Edited by Leonard J. Greenspoon, 13–32. West Lafayette, IN: Purdue University Press, 2011.

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The author argues that the language play in which Groucho engages in his movies is associated largely with Jewish humor. Also many of his humorous verbal structures can be found in the Talmudic and Midrashic literature.

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Dorinson, Joseph. “Jewish Humor: Mechanism for Defense, Weapon for Cultural Affirmation.” Journal of Psychohistory 8.4 (1981): 447–464.

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Dorinson argues that eastern European Jewish humor was transplanted to the United States and that it operates here according to the same basic principles, including as a defense against humiliation of Jews and as a means to strengthens Jewish communal unity. The most important location for the development of professional Jewish humor in the United States was the Borscht Belt, named after beetroot soup, a typical dish of eastern European Jews who often stayed in resorts there.

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Gillota, David. “Negotiating Jewishness: Curb Your Enthusiasm and the Schlemiel Tradition.” Journal of Popular Film & Television 38.4 (2010): 152–161.

DOI: 10.1080/01956051003725244Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »

The article analyzes the image of the schlemiel in Yiddish culture and its place in 21st-century America. He uses the character of Larry David in the series Curb Your Enthusiasm as an example. The existence of the schlemiel, in the author’s opinion, teaches us about the discomfort that many Jews feel with respect to their place in American multiculturalism.

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Kalman, Jason. “Heckling the Divine: Woody Allen, the Book of Job and Jewish Theology after the Holocaust.” In Jews and Humor. Proceedings of the Twenty-Second Annual Symposium of the Klutznick Chair in Jewish Civilization, Harris Center for Judaic Studies, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, 25–26 October 2009. Edited by Leonard J. Greenspoon, 175–194. West Lafayette, IN: Purdue University Press, 2011.

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The article examines the roots of Woody Allen’s works in light of his experiences as a Jewish youth. The author argues that Allen is critical of the Jewish faith and some of it characteristics, but this includes fears that stem from post-Holocaust Jewish history.

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Richman, Irwin. Borscht Belt Bungalows: Memoirs of Catskill Summers. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1998.

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A wide-ranging book that describes in great detail the social background for the establishment of the Borscht Belt, the string of resorts in the Catskill Mountains that drew many Jews in New York City from the 1920s to the 1970s. Every year about one million holiday makers would stay there. They included many immigrants from eastern Europe and their offspring. Among other topics, the author describes the sparkling social life and the exceptional breadth of the unique humor that developed there.

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Whitfield, Stephen J. “Towards an Appreciation of American Jewish Humor.” Journal of Modern Jewish Studies 4.1 (2005): 33–48.

DOI: 10.1080/14725880500052709Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »

The article deals with the influences of Jewish humor on American culture. The author examines the comic Jewish image of the loser that contrasts to the widely held perception in American society that glorifies the strong and victorious. As such, American culture has become more diverse.

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Wisse, Ruth R. No Joke: Making Jewish Humor. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2013.

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This wide-ranging book examines different aspects of Jewish humor through history. The book concentrates on the important locales where Jewish humor has flourished and where it still does so. The book includes examples from Jewish literature and popular culture. Three central locations are identified: eastern Europe, the United States, and Israel.

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The Jewish Dialect
One of the ways in which a comic story is conveyed is using the eastern European Jewish dialect. Dorson 1948 argues that the waves of immigrants of different nationalities to the United States brought with them dialects from Europe. This non-American dialect became a part of local humor. Jewish writers and comedians were aware of this. Brandes 1983 notes, based on research carried out in the 1950s, that more than a third of Jewish jokes told at that time made use of dialect in one form or another. Ausubel 1989 (originally published in 1948) contends that jokes told at that time in a Jewish dialect served as a tool for anti-Semites, who mocked and slandered Jews. Popkin 1952 confirms the argument in Ausubel 1989 in maintaining that Jewish comedians who spoke with Jewish dialects were compelled to stop because of the anti-Semitic connotations that they awakened. Ben-Amos 1973 claims that when second-generation storytellers use accents in their stories and jokes, they are not laughing at themselves but ridiculing a social group in the Jewish community from whom they wish to disassociate. Berger 1997 argues that use of a Jewish accent in the 1990s remained only as a memory from the past rather than serving as a contemporary illustration of Jewish American dialect. Berger contends that the spread of education among the second and third generations of Jewish migrants to America and the desire to integrate into American society have weakened the use of dialect in Jewish jokes.

Ausubel, Nathan, ed. A Treasury of Jewish Folklore: Stories, Traditions, Legends, Humor, Wisdom and Folk Songs of the Jewish People. New York: Crown, 1989.

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A non scholarly book. Ausubel refers to the dark side of the Jewish dialect. He contends that at the time of writing in the 1940s the dialect served as a tool for anti-Semites, who enjoyed mocking and slandering Jews. Originally published in 1948.

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Ben-Amos, Dan. “The ‘Myth’ of Jewish Humor.” Western Folklore 32.2 (1973): 112–131.

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Ben-Amos claims that when second generation story tellers use accents in their stories and jokes, they are not laughing at themselves, but ridiculing a social group in the Jewish community from whom they wish to disassociate.

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Berger, Arthur Asa. The Genius of the Jewish Joke. Northvale, NJ: Jason Aronson, 1997.

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The author argues that the Jewish accent in the 1990s remains only a memory from the past rather than serving as a contemporary illustration of Jewish American dialect. Berger contends that the spread of education among the second and third generations of Jewish migrants to America and the desire to integrate into American society have weakened the use of dialect in Jewish jokes.

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Brandes, Stanley. “Jewish-American Dialect Jokes and Jewish American Identity.” Jewish Social Studies 45.3–4 (1983): 233–240.

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The article focuses on dialect in Jewish humor in the United States. Brandes notes that American Jewish jokes are not told by immigrants, but by second- and third-generation Jews, whose link with Judaism and Jewish institutions are weak. These individuals are fully assimilated into American culture.

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Dorson, Richard M. “Dialect Stories of the Upper Peninsula: A New Form of American Folklore.” Journal of American Folklore 61.240 (1948): 113–150.

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The article includes examples of humoristic texts by different groups of immigrants that are based not only on the comic story but also on the humoristic dialect and the way in which it was accepted in American society.

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Popkin, Henry. “The Dialect Comedian Should Vanish.” Commentary 14 (1952): 46–55.

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The essay deals with Jewish comedians in the United States after World War II. Popkin argues that jokes based on dialect aroused anti-Semitic connotations to the extent that Jewish comedians were forced either to resign from radio programs owing to community pressure or to exercise self-censorship.

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Humor and Jewish American Authors
Chase 2001 compares two major works of Philip Roth and Rafael Seligman and finds common denominators that link them to the roots of Jewish humor of the 19th century. Wisse 2013 gives a general overview of the transfer of eastern European Jewish literary humor to America. Nilsen 1996 presents a long list of summaries of critical research written about the works of Jewish writers who have influenced, each in his or her own way, American culture. Shiffman 2000 describes the major impact that the work of Leo Rosen has had on American culture and how, because of him, many Yiddish words have become part of the oral lexicon of American citizens. Howe 1976 treats the social and cultural history of about two million eastern European Jews who immigrated to the United States from the end of the 19th century to the beginning of the 20th century and the enormous influence they have had on American culture. They include first-generation Jewish writers, such as “Mendele Mocher Sforim,” Sholem Aleichem, and Bashevis Singer, as well as second-generation writers, such as Saul Bellow, Philip Roth, and many others in every cultural area. Pinsker 1971 focuses on three Jewish authors who utilize the character of the schlemiel—Bashevis Singer, Saul Bellow, and Bernard Malamud. Burakova 2012 examines the characteristics of Jewish humorists in analyzing the characters and the content of the works of three American authors: Jonathan Safran Foer, Gary Shteyngart, and Lara Vapnyar.

Burakova, Zuzana. “Humor and Identity in Selected Contemporary Jewish American Literature.” PhD diss., Pavol Jozef Safarik University, 2012.

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Burokova in this dissertation that focuses on Jewish American literature investigates the characteristics of Jewish humorists in analyzing the characters and the content of works by three American authors: Jonathan Safran Foer, Gary Shteyngart, and Lara Vapnyar.

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Chase, Jefferson. “Two Sons of ‘Jewish Wit’: Philip Roth and Rafael Seligman.” Comparative Literature 53.1 (2001): 42–57.

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Chase compares Portnoy’s Complaint by Philip Roth and Rubinstein’s Versteigerung by Rafael Seligman in the context of the social dynamics of Jewish humor, or Judenwitz, that the authors used in the books. The protagonists in both books wish to escape maternal domination and are obsessed with sex and with their difficulties in achieving sexual fulfillment. A comparison is drawn of the styles in which the books are written.

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Howe, Irving. World of Our Fathers. New York: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, 1976.

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Historical overview of four generations of two million Jewish immigrants who came to America beginning in the 1880s. World of Our Fathers offers a rich portrayal of the east European Jewish experience in New York and shows how the immigrant generation tried to maintain their Yiddish culture while at the same time they strove to become American.

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Nilsen, Don L. F. “Humorous Contemporary Jewish-American Authors: An Overview of the Criticism.” Melus 21.4 (1996): 71–102.

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Literary scholarship examining the use of ethnic humor in contemporary Jewish American literature is summarized. Critical treatment of the works of Woody Allen, Saul Bellow, Stanley Elkin, Jules Feiffer, Bruce Jay Friedman, Allen Ginsberg, Erica Jong, Paul Krassner, Fran Lebowitz, Bernard Malamud, Leonard Calvin Rosten, Philip Roth, J. D. Salinger, and Mort Sahl is given. Scholarly critiques comparing these and other Jewish American authors are also examined.

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Pinsker, Sanford. The Schlemiel as Metaphor: Studies in the Yiddish and American Jewish Novel. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1971.

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Pinsker traces the image of the schlemiel as a metaphor of Jewish self-perception in Jewish writing. He focuses on three authors: Isaac Bashevis Singer, Saul Bellow, and Bernard Malamud. Every schlemiel has its own characterization, which is appropriate given the position of the Jews in the environment in which they live.

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Shiffman, Dan. “The Comedy of Assimilation in Leo Rosten’s Hyman Kaplan Stories.” Studies in American Humor 3.7 (2000): 49–58.

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Shiffman discusses Jewish writer Leo Rosten (b. 1908–d. 1997) and how his comic stories expose social tensions that are resolved through humor. Rosten is best known for the Hyman Kaplan stories of the mid-1930s. A reprint of Rosten’s “Mr. K and the Magi” is included.

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Wisse, Ruth R. No Joke: Making Jewish Humor. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2013.

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The research includes broad reference to the transfer of eastern European Jewish literary humor to America and its subsequent influence. It starts with the influence of Heinrich Heine, who set the tone for Yiddish humor magazines on the Lower East Side of New York in the first decades of the 20th century, and continues with many others who followed him.

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Israeli Humor
Research into Israeli humor is sparse compared to research into Jewish humor. This fact is research worthy in itself. Thus, study of Israeli humor offers future researchers abundant opportunities. Landmann 2006 argues that Jewish humor has no purpose since the establishment of the State of Israel. Telushkin 1992 reinforces Landmann’s argument and maintains that Jewish humor has no place in the Jewish state; it is neither very clever nor very funny. In contrast to Landmann 2006 and Telushkin 1992, Ziv 1986 argues that Israeli humor is Jewish humor and exhibits the same unique characteristics. In the author’s opinion, Israeli humor has not been sufficiently examined. Stora-Sandor 1984 describes Israeli humor through the works of a number of major Israeli authors. Goldberg 2012 analyzes a production of one of Israel’s great comic writers, the satirist and author Ephraim Kishon. In the article, the author maintains that it is possible, through humor, to learn about a society and the relationships created therein. Oring 1981 describes a type of unique Jewish humor that was born in Israel before the establishment of the state that the author calls “chizbat.” Dachs 2014 is an anthology that examines from various perspectives Israeli and German humor written by Israeli and German scholars. It offers an interesting academic meeting between two cultures whose humor, at the time, opposed each other.

Dachs, Gisela, ed. Jüdischer Almanach. Humor. Leo Baeck Instituts. Frankfurt: Jüdischer Verlag, 2014.

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An anthology that investigates from various perspectives Israeli and German humor written by Israeli and German scholars. Provides an interesting study of an academic meeting between two cultures whose humor stood in opposition to each other.

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Goldberg, Yaniv. “Ephraim Kishon’s ‘Lefi Ratzon’: ‘As Much as You Like’: The Metamorphosis of a Skit across Languages and Cultures.” Israeli Journal of Humor Research 1.2 (2012): 52–62.

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The article analyzes the double metamorphosis of Ephraim Kishon’s skit “As Much as You Like.” The textual metamorphosis of the skit sheds light on various social and cultural structures in the transition across languages and cultures.

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Landmann, Salcia. Der Judische Witz. Düsseldorf: Patmos, 2006.

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Landmann argues that Jewish humor has no purpose since the establishment of the State of Israel. In addition, she contends that since the establishment of the modern nation, Jewish humor as a weapon has become obsolete and useless. Originally published in 1960 (Olten, Switzerland: Walter Verlag).

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Oring, Elliot. Israeli Humor: The Content and Structure of the Chizbat of the Palmach. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1981.

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A research work on the tradition of the “chizbat,” a unique type of Jewish humor that was born in Israel before the establishment of the state. It is a sociocultural work that attempts to identify the milieu in which the chizbat developed and to decode the meaning of the humor to the people identified with it.

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Stora-Sandor, Judith. L’humour juif dans la littérature: De Job à Woody Allen. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1984.

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The book includes a study of Jewish humor from its biblical and Talmudic origins to the ghettos and shtetls. The author analyzes literary texts from some of the greatest Jewish humorist writers, including Franz Kafka and Woody Allen. Stora-Sandor weaves a leitmotif that runs through the Jewish opus and finds a link between the elements that together create or influence the existence of Jewish humor.

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Telushkin, Joseph. Jewish Humor: What the Best Jewish Jokes Say about the Jews. New York: William Morrow, 1992.

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A nonscholarly book. A collection of more than one hundred Jewish jokes, interspersed with insight into what they can tell us about how Jews see themselves, their families, and their friends as well as what they think about money, sex, and success. The book offers a classic portrait of the Jewish collective culture.

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Ziv, Avner. “Hebetim psychologiim: Hevratiim shel humor batfutzot ve be Israel.” In Humor Yehudi. Edited by Avner Ziv, 15–36. Tel Aviv: Papirus, 1986.

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Ziv examines the characteristics of Jewish humor in exile in eastern Europe and the United States. He also examines Israeli humor as a genre of Jewish humor, which he calls “Jewish humor in Israel.” An English version is available: Avner Ziv, ed., Jewish Humor (New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction, 1997).

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Popular Comedy in Cinema: The “Borekas” Movies
Innovative research has been undertaken since the 1990s into Israeli “Borekas” (Bourekas) movies, popular films from the second half of the 1960s to the end of the 1970s. Munk 2014 includes a chapter on Israeli popular cinema and the Borekas movies. Gros 1991 describes the development of the cinema in Israel before and after the establishment of the state and also includes a chapter on the history of Borekas movies. Kimchi 2012 argues that Borekas movies find their roots in stories of the shtetls in eastern Europe and the colorful characters that were part of the folklore of the same culture. Kronish 1996 examines the development of Israeli cinema before and after the establishment of the State of Israel. The author regards Borekas movies as an expression of the social tensions in Israeli society. Shohat 2010 does not regard Borekas movies as naive comedy, but rather as the racist views of the Ashkenazi elite in Israeli society regarding Jews who immigrated to Israel from Arab countries. Nevo 2005 regards the satirical films of Ephraim Kishon, the founding father of Borekas movies, as having a capitalist ideology that opposes any socialist organization or society. Chapter 5 of Talmon 2001 deals with Borekas movies. Contrary to Shohat and others, the author regards the oriental character as an admired figure, who is, she argues, an anarchist, filled with humor who flouts conventions. Despite the fact that, in reality, the oriental Jew is downtrodden, in Borekas movies, he is portrayed as a comic hero who makes his way into Israeli collective society.

Gros, Natan. Haseret Ha Ivri: Prakim betoldot ha reinoa ve akolnoa be Israel. Jerusalem: Natan Gros, 1991.

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This book was written by one of the pioneers of Israeli cinema and deals with the direction and production of many films. Gros is the first Israeli cinematic historian. He deals with a study and description of the cinema during the period of the Yishuv before and after the establishment of the State of Israel. One of the chapters is about popular cinema and Borekas movies.

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Kimchi, Rami. Sirtei ha borkeas ve mekoroteiem be sifrut Yidish klasit. Tel Aviv: Resling, 2012.

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Kimchi’s book adds another dimension to the innovative, critical observation of Borekas movies. The author finds a clear association between Borekas movies and classic Yiddish literature. He identifies similarities between the oriental neighborhoods that characterize Borekas movies and the Jewish villages in Yiddish literature.

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Kronish, Amy. World Cinema: Israel. Madison, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1996.

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A survey of the history of Israeli film from early pioneering newsreels and documentaries to productions undertaken following the establishment of the State of Israel, including the period when Borekas films were produced. Asserts that films were produced as a reflection of social issues in the context of cultural development. The book contains a large filmography as well.

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Munk, Yael. Haseret Ha Ivri: Prakim betoldot hareinoa ve ha kolnoa be Israel. Tel Aviv: Open University, 2014.

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The book reviews the history of Israeli cinema from its origins prior to the establishment of the state, during the period of the establishment of the State of Israel, and after 1948. The book traces the different genres of Israeli cinema and includes a chapter dedicated to popular cinema and the Borekas movies.

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Nevo, Gidi. “Arbinka, Shtucks and Co.: The Making of Kishon’s Social Satires.” Israel Studies 10.2 (2005): 129–146.

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This article deals exclusively with Ephraim Kishon’s socioeconomic satires, which constitute the heart of his satirical project. The hostility exuding from Kishon’s satire toward the economic regime, that is to say, the economic organization of the state, is fundamental and thorough and finds expression in a multitude of skits and sketches. According to Kishon, organized workers are the plague of the country.

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Shohat, Ella. “The Borekas Films and the Eastern Representation.” In Israeli Cinema: East/West and the Politics of Representation. By Ella Shohat, 113–125. New York: Tauris, 2010.

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This book provides the first critical analysis of Israeli cinema. It reviews the development of Israeli cinema before and after the establishment of the State of Israel until the 1980s. In the chapter dealing with Borekas movies, the author offers an innovative interpretation whereby she views them as a reflection of the Ashkenazi elite’s racist ideology of Jews who immigrated to Israel from Arab countries. First published in 1989 (Austin: University of Texas Press).

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Talmon, Miri. Bluz la tsabar ha avud: Ha havurat: Nostalgia ba kolnoa ha Israeli. Tel Aviv: Open University, 2001.

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The book examines Israeli cinema within the motif of the “group”—groups of children, adults, pioneers, and fighters and the functioning of nostalgia in Israeli cinema. It deals, among other topics, with Israeli popular cinema, which finds its most important expression in Borekas movies. Contrary to Shohat and others, the author views the oriental character as an admired figure. The character is seen as an anarchist, full of humor and flouting conventions.

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Israeli Humor in Wartime
Research into Israeli humor in wartime is as sparse as research into Israeli humor. Nevertheless, because war is an integral part of Jewish life in Israel, it has exerted an important influence on Israeli culture. Several relevant studies are cited with the hope that additional studies will be forthcoming. Nevo and Levine 1994 deals with the psychological aspects of producing humor at the time of the Gulf War. The authors describe the humor that developed during the Gulf War, humor that restored the well-known stereotype of the Jewish people as the “people of the joke” and that was typical of Jewish humor in eastern Europe. Oring 1973 and Oring 1981 analyze the chizbat, a unique, humoristic genre that developed in the Palmach, a Jewish fighting unit that operated before the establishment of the State of Israel. Shifman 2008 includes a chapter dedicated to the Israeli television comedy series on the Gulf War that aired in 1991. In Raviv 2012, the author describes the technique he used as a medical doctor and special therapist during wartime in treating children and adults. The article discusses the experiences of a “medical clown” in the Barzilai Medical Center, a hospital in Ashkelon, Israel.

Nevo, Ofra, and Jacob Levine. “Jewish Humor Strikes Again: The Outburst of Humor in Israel during the Gulf War.” Western Folklore 53.2 (1994): 125–145.

DOI: 10.2307/1500100Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »

The article analyzes the humor that developed during the Gulf War when Iraqi missiles were fired at Israel and against which the country did not retaliate. The authors conclude that under attack and not retaliating, Israelis began to use Jewish humor as they had when in exile, that is, as a means of response in the face of an inability to act in any other way.

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Oring, Elliot. “Hey, You’ve Got No Character: Chizbat Humor and the Boundaries of Israeli Identity.” Journal of American Folklore 86.342 (1973): 358–366.

DOI: 10.2307/539359Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »

In this article, which preceded Oring 1981, the author analyzes the unique genre that developed orally and was called chizbat, a type of humor that developed in the Palmach, a Jewish fighting unit in Israel, before the establishment of the State of Israel.

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Oring, Elliot. Israeli Humor: The Content and Structure of the Chizbat of the Palmach. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1981.

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The author analyzes the chizbat, a unique, humoristic genre that developed in the Palmach, a Jewish fighting unit, before the establishment of the State of Israel. Most of the examples are taken from the collection of chizbats recorded in a book titled Yalkut Hakzavim (A pack of lies) by Dan Ben-Amotz and Haim Chefer.

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Raviv, Amnon. “Still the Best Medicine, Even in a War Zone: My Work as a Medical Clown.” TDR: The Drama Review 56.2 (2012): 169–177.

DOI: 10.1162/DRAM_a_00183Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »

The author describes the technique he used as a medical doctor and special therapist during wartime in treating children and adults. The article discusses the experiences of a “medical clown” in the Barzilai Medical Center, a hospital in Ashkelon, Israel.

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Shifman, Limor. Ha Ars, Ha Frecha ve Ha Ima ha polania. Jerusalem: Magnes, 2008.

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The book includes a chapter dedicated to the Israeli television comedy series in 1991 on the Gulf War. The author endeavors to decode the social rifts and feelings that emerged through the styles and contents of the series (see chapter 4, pp. 111–133).

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Israeli Satire
Exploring innovative commemorations of the Holocaust in Israel, Steir-Livni 2014 includes a chapter dedicated to innovative humoristic presentation of the Holocaust, especially on television, and focusing on a particular television program, Hahamishiya Hakamerit (The chamber quintet). Alexander 1985 describes the historical development of satirical humor in Israeli theater from the establishment of the state until the mid-1980s. Afek and Caanman 1986 focuses on the multilayered language of the “Gashash” as a unifying factor in Israel’s multicultural society. Shifman 2008 reflects on the link between humoristic and satirical television programs and the rifts—national, political, and gender- and ethnic-based—in Israeli society. Gardosh 1986 describes the historical development of caricature in Israel from before World War II until the 1980s. Nagid 2013 focuses on three Israeli theater directors and playwrights who have greatly influenced the development of Israeli comedy, satire, and absurd theater: Nissim Aloni, Hanoch Levine, and Michael Gurevitch. Nevo 2010 examines the development of Israeli satire in focusing on five works, two of which are written in Yiddish and three in Hebrew.

Afek, Edna, and Ira Caanman. “Ha humor kemechane meshutaf be hevrat meagrim.” Bikoret ve Parshanut 21 (1986): 69–85.

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In this article, the texts of the “Ha Gashash ha Hiver” are examined from the perspective of Israeli multicultural society and the relationships between different social groups and the language used by the trio Ha Gashash ha Hiver as a framework for bridging the gaps.

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Alexander, David. Leitzan ha hatzer ve shalit, 1948–1984. Tel Aviv: Sifriat Poalim, 1985.

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The book reviews the development of Israeli satire in theater from the establishment of the State of Israel until 1984 in light of social and political developments in the country.

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Gardosh, Kriel. “Ha caricatura ha politit ha meshakefet et hitpathuta shel Israel.” In Humor Yehudi. Edited by Avner Ziv, 179–189. Tel Aviv: Papirus, 1986.

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The article provides a brief review of the development of political caricatures in the world and focuses on the history of political caricature in Israel before and after the establishment of the state.

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Nagid, Haim. Ha leitzan ben dmut ha yagon. Safra, Israel: Tel Aviv University, 2013.

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The book focuses on three important playwrights and directors in Israeli theatrical comedy: Nissim Aloni, Hanoch Levine, and Mickey Gurevitch. Nagid examines different genres of humor, including the absurd, fantasy, and satire, which together reflect a local social mood and pose existential questions that go beyond the boundaries of time and space.

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Nevo, Gidi. Moshav letsim: ha retorikah shel ha-satirah ha-Ivrit, hamesh keri’ot. Be’er Sheba, Israel: University of the Negev Press, 2010.

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Nevo examines the satirical work of five writers, including two Yiddish writers, Yoseph Perl and Sholem Aleichem, and three Israelis, Ephraim Kishon, Hanoch Levin, and Doron Rosenblum. He explores the evolution of Israeli satire as part of a broader attack on Jewish tradition.

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Shifman, Limor. Ha Ars, Ha Frecha ve Ha Ima ha polania. Jerusalem: Magnes, 2008.

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The book deals with cultural, social, national, and political rifts as expressed in comical and satirical television programs from 1968 until 2000 in Israel.

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Steir-Livni, Liat. Har Hazikaron izkor bimkomi. Tel Aviv: Resling, 2014.

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The importance of this book is that it incorporates innovative representations of Holocaust commemoration in popular Israeli culture. The first chapter is dedicated to humoristic, satiric representations of the Holocaust, particularly on television, a subject that for many years had been taboo for innovative representations.

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Zandberg, Eyal. “Critical Laughter: Humor, Popular Culture and Israeli Holocaust Commemoration.” Media, Culture & Society 28.40 (2006): 561–580.

DOI: 10.1177/0163443706065029Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »

The article examines the satirical television show Hahamishiya Hakamerit (The chamber quintet), which criticizes established Israeli discourse surrounding the memory of the Holocaust; it testifies to a major change in Israeli collective memory and champions a new voice in Israeli Holocaust commemoration. The author reveals the constantly changing character of collective memory and illuminates the multilayered dialogue that characterizes the show.

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The Destiny of Jewish Humor
Wisse 2013 argues that for the Jews, Jewish humor has served as one of the responses to the reality of their lives and as long as it continues to fulfill this role, changing reality will provide materials for its continued existence. Myers 2012 links the survival of Yiddish with Jewish humor. The author is optimistic that the language, which has served as a central vehicle for Jewish humor, will endure. Oring 1983 maintains that the concept of Jewish humor will continue to exist as long as Jewish history and experience as distinct from that of other nations remains. Stora-Sandor 1984 argues that Jews will continue to draw the attention of the world as long as they preserve their unique humor. Friedman and Friedman 2014 contends that Jewish history teaches that the Jewish people will always find a need for wit, whose roots can be traced to the Old Testament, Talmud, and Midrash.

Friedman, Hershey H., and Linda Weiser Friedman. God Laughed: Sources of Jewish Humor. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction, 2014.

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The author argues that humor is the lingua franca of the Jewish people. He contends that Jewish history teaches that the “people of the book” will always need wit, whose roots can be traced to the Old Testament, Talmud, and Midrash.

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Myers, David N. “New Last Words of Yiddish.” Jewish Quarterly Review 102.1 (2012): 1–3.

DOI: 10.1353/jqr.2012.0004Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »

An introductory article in which the editor discusses topics related to Yiddish studies and the relationship of Yiddish with Jewish humor; treats letters written in old Yiddish, Yiddish poet Moyshe Kulbak, and Yiddish comedians Shimen Dzigan and Yisroel Shumacher.

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Oring, Elliott. “The People of the Joke: On the Conceptualization of a Jewish Humor.” Western Folklore 42.4 (1983): 261–271.

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Oring argues that many scholars attribute to the Jews the title of “people of the joke.” In his study, he searches for proof to support the concept of the existence of a unique Jewish humor. The author maintains that the characteristics that mark Jewish humor will continue to exist as long as the basic differences between Jewish history and experience and those of other nations continue.

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Stora-Sandor, Judith. L’humour juif dans la littérature: De Job à Woody Allen. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1984.

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Stora-Sandor connects Jewish humor to the Jewish experience. She affirms that the relationship will continue in future and that, therefore, Jews will garner attention as long as they preserve their unique humor.

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Wisse, Ruth R. No Joke: Making Jewish Humor. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2013.

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The author argues that for the Jews, Jewish humor has served as one of the responses to their experiences of reality and as long as it continues to fulfill this role, the changing reality will provide materials for its continued existence.

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