Tagged Jewish humor

Israel’s Beit Hatfutsot museum gets serious about Jewish humor

An approximation of the Jerry Seinfeld character's apartment from his eponymous sitcom at Beit Hatfutsot: The Museum of the Jewish People in Tel Aviv. (Courtesy of Beit Hatfusot)
April 4, 2018 / Ben Sales, JTA

NEW YORK (JTA) — Like Holocaust museums the world over, the Amud Aish Memorial Museum in Brooklyn focuses on European Jewish communities that thrived before the Nazis came to power, the killing machine that led to millions of deaths, and the resilience of survivors both during the war and in rebuilding… Read more »

From under police protection, Europe’s Jewish gems try to shine
September 7, 2012 / Cnaan Liphshiz, JTA
Martin Schultz, president of the European Parliament, speaking at the Great Synagogue of Europe in Brussels, March 2012. (Courtesy European Parliament)

BRUSSELS (JTA) — Under the gaze of a dozen police officers, a single file of Belgians forms outside the Great Synagogue of Europe. Waiting to enter the shul on its annual “open day” — when the synagogue throws open its doors to the public — many on this Sunday… Read more »

Licensed to kvell: The return of Oy-Oy
December 9, 2011 / Edmon J. Rodman, JTA

LOS ANGELES (JTA) — Have I got a secret agent for you! When Hamas is smuggling missiles, and Iranians are building A-bombs deep underground, to whom can Israel turn? 007? No way. He’s busy playing baccarat or keeping the world from being fried by space lasers. He hasn’t time for the… Read more »

Purim feature: Badkhn Belt? Jewish humor was born in 1661, prof says
February 7, 2011 / Sue Fishkoff, JTA

BERKELEY, Calif. (JTA) — The Chmielnicki massacres weren’t particularly funny. From 1648 to 1651, nearly 100,000 Jews were slaughtered throughout Ukraine by Bohdan Chmielnicki and his roving bands of Cossacks. It was arguably the worst pogrom in history, leaving hundreds of Jewish communities in ruins. Yet according to Mel… Read more »