Jewish humor

Mel Brooks and Carl Reiner: The Duo Who Helped Bring the Jewish Comic Sensibility to America

The almost-one-hundred-year-old men.

Hadley Freeman

March 5 2020 12:01AM

Making Sense of Mel Brooks and His Very Jewish Antics

“I am a Jew. What about it?”

Jesse Tisch

Dec. 17 2019 12:01AM

How the Books of Exodus and Esther Use Humor to Underscore a Message of Hope

Ironic inversions unite two narratives of redemption.

Joel Kaminsky

April 17 2019 12:01AM

The 700-Year History of the Purim Parody

The Tractate of Drunkards.

Michelle Chesner

March 20 2019 12:01AM

The Bible’s Sense of Humor

And its theology of laughter.

Robin Gallaher Branch

Feb. 15 2018 12:01AM

From King David to Larry David: A New Look at Jewish Humor

For better, and for worse, Jeremy Dauber’s Jewish Comedy: A Serious History tells the story of Jewish comedy as the story of Jewish civilization.

Michael Weingrad

Nov. 1 2017 12:01AM

The Very Un-American Jewish Humor of S.Y. Abramovitsh

Trapped in a cycle of naïveté and doom.

Dara Horn

Oct. 17 2017 12:01AM

How Jack Benny Turned Himself into WASP America’s Preposterous and Lovable Jewish Uncle

A comedian who embodied a Jewish stereotype from which the sting of prejudice had been leached.

Terry Teachout

Sept. 15 2017 12:01AM

How Jerry Lewis’s Comedy Captures the American Jewish Experience

The nutty professor’s inner Gentile.

Jeremy Dauber

Aug. 23 2017 12:01AM

For Jews, Laughter Should Be a Religious Experience

No joke.

Meir Soloveichik

Aug. 18 2017 12:01AM

Do Jewish Jokes Have to Be about Jews to Be Funny?

Reflections on Jewish humor.

Joseph Epstein

Jan. 11 2017 12:01AM

A Two-Century-Old Yiddish Humor Collection

Surprisingly unfunny.

YIVO Institute

Sept. 9 2016 12:01AM

How Jewish Was Groucho Marx?

A new biography, reviewed.

Joseph Epstein

April 4 2016 12:01AM

The Catskills: From James Fenimore Cooper to Milton Berle

A new history.

Jay Weiser

Feb. 1 2016 12:01AM

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