Jewish Comedy: A Serious History

by Jeremy Dauber,
The Jerusalem Post, December 8, 2017

Explaining his perennial predilection for satire, Sholem Aleichem once wrote, “What shall I do when laughing is a kind of illness for me, God save us, from childhood on?” For centuries, stretching back to the Bible, humor has been a distinctive characteristic of Jews. As recently as 2013, a Pew Research Center found that 42% of respondents declared that “having a good sense of humor” was “part of being Jewish in America today,” far more than those who singled out “being part of a Jewish community” or “observing Jewish law.”

Read the full article