Jewish Humor AntiPolish Novak

The Big Book of Jewish Humor, by William Novak (Editor), Moshe Waldoks. 2006

Jewish Wit—Old and New. Not All is Kosher, However: Also Anti-Polish and anti-Christian

This anthology of Jewish humor stresses the self-depreciatory nature of much of it. Sigmund Freud, the famous Jewish father of psychiatry, had suggested that this stemmed from a long history of Jews being persecuted, and striving to deal with this persecution. However, one must ask if it also could have arisen from a spirit of nihilism in Jewish thinking. (My review is based on the 1981 edition.)

The Jewish commentators range from ancient sages to modern American Jewish personages. Examples of the former include those of the Talmud. For instance, there is the license for Jews to get so drunk on Purim that they no longer can tell the difference between “Cursed be Haman” and “Blessed be Mordechai”. (MEGILLA 7b). Examples of the latter include Phillip Roth (notably his PORTNOY’S COMPLAINT) and Woody Allen.

Some of the humor involves spoof. For instance, FIDDLER ON THE ROOF becomes ANTENNA ON THE ROOF.

IRONY IN JEWISH PERSECUTION

Much of the humor is ironic, even macabre. For instance, there is the joke of a child disappearance, and the fear that it will provoke accusations of Jews conducting ritual murder. Upon news that the murdered child turned out to be Jewish, the Jewish community breathes a collective sigh of relief.
There is also the joke of the Jew who preferred to read the Nazi publication, DER STUERMER, in preference to Jewish newspapers. The reason? The content of Jewish newspapers, focusing as it did on the suffering and powerlessness of Jews, made him depressed. In contrast, DER STUERMER made him exhilarated, because it informed him that Jews control the world’s finances, and are about to rule the world.

There is also the joke about a group of Jews plotting the assassination of Adolf Hitler. They are waiting for the Fuhrer to pass a checkpoint at a certain time so that they could shoot him. The clock ticks. Time passes. Hitler does not show. So the would-be assassins comment, “I hope that nothing had happened to him.”

JEWISH POLONOPHOBIA IN ACTION

Lenny Bruce brings up the old 1918-era saw of the Polish premier meeting with President Wilson. The premier warned that, if Poland does not receive what she had petitioned for, Poles will be angry and may express their anger by conducting pogroms against Jews. And if the petitions are granted? Then Poles will be so exhilarated that they will party, and conduct pogroms against Jews as part of their celebration. [Funny, funny, but with no confrontation of the fact that the “massive Polish pogroms” had been a monstrous Polonophobic calumny, until finally debunked by the investigation of Henry Morgenthau.]

POKING FUN AT RELIGION

Some of the jokes make fun of the foibles of religious life, of Catholic priests, Jewish rabbis, Moses and the Ten Commandments, etc. That is one thing. Ridiculing God is quite another. Some readers may find this objectionable. For instance, there is the joke about the rabbi who constantly trembles before God, after which God starts trembling because of the rabbi, and then the rabbi asks why not just one of the two doing all the trembling have. [This kind of levity involving the Supreme Being is notably ironic in view of the fact that many Jews believe that His Name should be so respected that it should not even be spelled out, but instead written as G-d.]

OVERT ANTI-CHRISTIAN JEWISH HUMOR

A number of the jokes I, a Christian, find especially offensive. There is the one on Easter, where Jesus rises from the dead after three days, sees His shadow, and goes back into the tomb. (p. 95). This mockingly conflates the Resurrection with Groundhog Day, and Jesus Christ with the groundhog.

Even more egregious is the satire of the Crucifixion sketched by an S. Gross. (p. 85). It shows two crucified offenders already at the top of Mt. Calvary. On the side of this mount, however, one can see a procession of Roman soldiers escorting a seal that is balancing a Cross on its nose and moving up the hill in order to be crucified on it.

And remember, this was not published in the heat of Jewish-Christian antagonisms in the Middle Ages. It was published in 1981. (I can better understand why Martin Luther thought of Jews as uttering great blasphemies, and why, in another day and age, such Jewish conduct brought hatred, or worse, against Jews.)