Schumacher, Yisroel, 144–46, 155, 185–86, 201
Schwartzkopf, Norman, 210
Scottish humor, 2, 13, 250n10
Second Intifada, 218
Seinfeld, 212, 231, 236
Seinfeld, Jerry, 130, 231
self-deprecation, 7, 11, 13, 34, 152
self-mockery, 106, 126, 147, 166, 195, 232
Sephardim. See Mizrahim
Serkele (Ettinger), 254n6
sex, 47, 83, 133–34, 136, 138, 141, 233
sexual humor, 72, 83, 85, 230, 233. See also vulgarity
Sforim, Mendele Mocher, 17, 263n5; Dos kleyne mentshele (The little man), 263n5
shabbos, 131. See also sabbath
shadkhen (marriage broker), 32–33. See also matchmakers
Shakespeare, William, 45, 107, 145, 211, 240
Shalev, Meir, 217
Shmeruk, Khone, 83
Shoah. See Holocaust
Sholem Aleichem (Rabinovich), 14, 16–17, 25, 28, 59–67, 74, 85, 87, 89–92, 100–103, 140, 162, 168, 171, 177–78, 182, 206, 237–38, 241; “The Haunted Tailor” (“The Chelm Goat Mystery”), 100–102; The Letters of Menahem Mendl and Sheyne-Sheyndl, 87–88; “Two Anti-Semites,” 59–62, 74, 90
shperl, 171–72
shpil, 67
shpritz, 41, 132
shtetl, 68, 87, 159
Shylock, 107–8
Silverman, Sarah, 234
Sinatra, Frank, 124
Singer, I. J., 97
Singer, Isaac Bashevis (Yitzhok Bashevis), 2, 79–80, 93, 97–99, 237, 256n29; “Gimpel the Fool,” 98–99, 237
Singin’ in the Rain, 230–31
Six-Day War, 166
Skibell, Joseph, 238
slapstick, 202, 205, 229–31, 233
socialism, 22, 36, 124, 147
Soviet Union, 93, 147–49, 155–72, 175–77, 186. See also Russia
Spinoza, Baruch, 24
“Springtime for Hitler” (Brooks), 180–81
Srulik, 196
Stalin, Joseph, 17, 93, 127, 147–48, 151, 156, 160, 162–63, 165, 168, 172, 175–76, 178, 226, 238
stand-up comedy. See professional comedy
stereotypes: as feature of joking, 2, 227; goyish, 130, 137, 232; Jewish, 8, 16, 59, 97, 107, 112, 130, 135; national, 2
storytellers, 76, 189
storytelling, 77, 194
Strashun, Matthew, 159
sublimation, 57
Sukkoth, 151
survival: Jewish, 3, 17, 81, 154, 167, 204, 213, 215–16, 236, 243; humor as a strategy for, 141, 154, 178
Survivor, 236
synagogues, 1, 79, 104, 109, 112, 125, 156, 212, 221–22
Syrkin, Marie, 135, 138, 220
Syrkin, Nahman, 253n29
taboos, 61, 136–37, 140, 219
Talmud, 13, 22–23, 76, 81, 88, 97, 145, 190, 224, 238
Talmudic study, 80–82, 86, 156, 195, 235
taste: good vs. bad, 50, 179, 234
taufjuden, 57
Tel Aviv, 11, 19, 59, 75, 207, 218
telegrams, 162–63, 225–26
television, 124, 197, 199, 209–12, 232, 239–40; American, 139, 211–12, 230–31, 234–36, 238; Israeli, 211
Telushkin, Joseph, 182
Tevye the Dairyman, 65–66, 103, 168, 171, 182–83. See also Fiddler on the Roof
Three Stooges, 130, 230
Till Eulenspiegel, 78
timing, 124, 181, 220
To Be or Not to Be (Lubitsch), 179–80
Todlachen, 25
Tom Jones (Henry Fielding), 72
Torah, 86, 88, 234–35. See also Bible
tragicomedy, 9, 15, 58, 238
tricksters, 20, 77–80, 98
Trotsky, Leon, 149, 156–57, 162–63
Tucholsky, Kurt, 242
tukhes, 145
tummlers, 122, 147
“Two Anti-Semites” (Sholem Aleichem), 59–62, 74, 90
Tzeciak, Stanislaw, 145
understanding jokes, 3–4, 9, 14, 26, 67, 125, 149, 218, 243
Uris, Leon: Exodus, 117
vaudeville, 120, 231
Velvet Revolution, 225
verbal wit, 39, 77, 80, 86, 230–31 Vienna, 8, 10–11, 30–32, 53, 96, 145, 238
Vilna, 69, 93, 153, 159, 167–68
Vilozhny, Shmuel, 212–16; Abaleh, kah oti l’luna park (Daddy, take me to the fair), 212–15
visual humor, 82, 140, 162, 230
Voltaire, 70
von Platen, August, 41, 46–49, 137; The Romantic Oedipus, 47
vulgarity, 79, 141, 233–34. See also profanity; sexual humor
Wagenstein, Angel, 238
Wandering Ahasuerus, 16
War of Independence, 204–5
Warsaw, 17, 92–94, 143–44, 146, 152–55, 225
Warsaw Ghetto, 17, 152, 154, 242
Warshawski, Mark, 62; “Afn Pripetchik,” 61–62
Weg ins Freie, Der (Schnitzler), 8–10, 35
Weinreich, Max, 88, 150
“Who’s on First?” (Abbott and Costello), 192
Wodehouse, P. G., 111
women’s humor, 85–88
wordplay, 16, 32, 45, 152, 187, 214, 229, 263n5. See also punning
World War I, 58, 65, 97, 113, 124, 161
World War II, 92, 118, 148–49, 183, 222, 226–27
Yad Vashem, 215
yehudi beloy (Jew, beware), 150
Yekhi’el Mikhl of Zlotshev, 72
yeridah (emigration from Israel), 184
yeshivas, 68, 80, 82, 167, 234–35
Yiddish cursing, 64, 85–86. See also curses
Yiddish Enlightenment. See Haskalah
Yiddish humor, 3, 16, 26, 58–103, 185–87, 195, 206, 217, 229, 231–33, 237
Yiddish humor magazines, 14, 57, 96
Yiddish language, 67, 88, 157–58, 137, 214, 232–33: dialects of, 69–70, 144, 152–53; disintegration of, 67, 233; expressions in, 16–17, 21, 27, 34, 50, 62, 85, 96, 122, 156, 162, 184, 208; vs. Hebrew, 16–17, 68–69, 150, 158, 185, 215; hybridity of, 16, 99; as inherently funny, 5, 103, 121, 132; in Israel, 198; jokes in, 26, 59, 79, 83, 126, 159, 163, 231–32. See also accents; proverbs; Yiddish cursing
Yiddish literature, 12, 17, 57–103, 124, 156, 158, 167–72, 190, 234
Yiddish theater, 51, 73, 86, 125–26, 144–47, 230, 254n6
Yinglish, 103, 121, 125
Yom Kippur, 8, 77, 84, 151, 155, 190, 205
Yom Kippur War, 205, 211
yortsayt, 103
Youngman, Henny (Henry Junggman), 104, 139
Your Show of Shows, 130
Zangwill, Israel, 106–13, 118–21; King of the Schnorrers, 107–13, 251n3; The Melting Pot, 113
Zerrissenheit, 39, 45
Zionism, 26, 28, 30–31, 53, 65, 67, 107, 135, 137, 156, 166, 183, 186–92, 204, 219–20; labor, 253n29; Revisionist, 199; vilification of, 240
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