Image Up Advertising & Design

| OHCC LIVING | AUGUST 2021 | 17 Yiddish Club "Waiter, I have a question for you!" Frankly, I was very busy serving five tables of ravenous guests and didn't have time for questions. However, understand that as a "staff head waiter" I had to oblige all the band members, entertainers, and even the hotel owners sitting at my serving station. The person addressing me was the comic who would entertain the guests in our "showroom" during the weekend. His appearance was somewhat humorous. He had large, bulging eyes and nervously adjusted his tie as we spoke. Sir, what is your name? "Rodney Dangerfield!" he answered. "Seriously, what's your name?" "Actually kid, that's my stage name. My real name is Jacob Rodney Cohen. I had to change it for professional purposes." I served meals to many Jewish entertainers during the four summers I worked as a waiter in the Catskill Mountains in New York. I served lunch or dinner to Shecky Greene, Joey Bishop, Jan Murray, Buddy Hackett, Jackie Mason, Alan King, Don Rickles, Goldie Hawn, Elaine May, Rita Rudner and Joan Rivers. Why were there so many Jewish comedians and so much Jewish humor? Historically, American Jewish humor has a long tradition. It generally goes back to the verbal and often anecdotal humor of Ashkenazi Jews which took root in the United States over the last 150 years. Modern Jewish humor emerged during the nineteenth century among German speaking Jews, matured in the shtetls (small towns) of Europe and then flourished in twentieth century America, arriving with millions of Jews who emigrated from Eastern Europe between the 1800s and the early 1920s. Beginning with vaudeville, and continuing through radio, stand-up comedy, film and TV, a disproportionately high percentage of American, German, and Russian humorists have been Jewish. It's estimated that in 1978, 80 percent of performing American comics were Jewish. Jewish humor, while diverse, favors word play, irony, and satire. Its' themes are highly authoritarian, mocking both religious and secular life. Sigmund Freud considered Jewish humor unique in "That its humor is primarily derived from mocking the "in group" (Jews) rather than "the other." "However, rather than simply self-deprecating, it also contains an element of self-praise," The American Jewish community has been lamenting about the rate of assimilation and absence of their children from religious services as they grow into adults, but they deal with this disturbing situation with sardonic humor: "Two Rabbis were discussing their problems with squirrels in their synagogue attic. One Rabbi said, "we simply called an exterminator and we never saw the squirrels again." The other Rabbi said, "we just gave the squirrels a bar mitzvah and we never saw them again." The Yiddish Club is coming alive! Be sure to mark your calendars for Mon., Aug. 16 at 7 pm in AB Hall. Everyone is welcome to enjoy a stimulating program with fun, food and camaraderie to boot! ~ Don Kent, Past President

• Cover