arts & life

comedy

Confessions Of

Amy Schumer'

Childhood Rabbi

Jeffrey Salkin
NY Jewish Week

hat would be me.
From 1988 to 1995, I
was Amy Schumer's rabbi,
at Central Synagogue of Nassau County
in Rockville Centre, New York.
I remember the Schumer family
very well, and with great fondness.
They were a wonderful family. Her
mother was on the synagogue board
and chaired the education committee.
I liked her father, Gordon. I offici-
ated at the bar mitzvah ceremony
of her older brother, Jason Stein. I
was fond of her younger sister, Kim
(now Kim Caramele, a comedy
writer who produced Amy's new
movie, Trainwreck). I remember
Amy as a sweet, funny kid, who
often asked probing and humorous
questions in religious school.
Amy Schumer has catapulted to
the very top of American popular
consciousness. It is rather remark-
able. She has done so through her
natural, quirky, blisteringly hon-
est way of simply being herself
I enjoyed Trainwreck. It tells
the story of a woman who
avoids true intimacy. And yet,
the most powerful relationship
in the film is Amy's relationship
with her father. It depicts how
she cares for him during his
infirmity, which has its parallels

I

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Amy Schumer
will appear in
Detroit with
Aziz Ansari
in "Funny or
Die Presents
Oddball Comedy
& Curiosity Festival 2015"

in Amy's real life.
Central Synagogue of Nassau County is a
great synagogue. But it is no funnier than any
other American synagogue.
And yet, for some reason, it has produced
four comedians. There are Amy and Kim. And
then, there is Dave Attell, an outrageous standup
comedian who also appears in Trainwreck. Is
it merely a coincidence that his late father was
the synagogue president at the same time that
Amy's mother was on the board?
There also is Rory Albanese, a comedian,
producer and television writer (most notably,
former writer for The Daily Show).
Maybe there's no accident here. Standup
comedy has a long and venerable history in
Jewish life.
It stars with the badchan — the jester — who
had an honored role in traditional Jewish soci-
ety. His job was to make fun of couples at their
weddings — even telling the bride that she was
ugly or disparaging the couple's wedding gifts.
In 1648, the Cossacks went on a killing spree
in Ukraine, devastating Jewish communi-
ties. The rabbis surmised: It must have been
our fault. Things were getting too loose. Too
much levity; too little Leviticus. That almost
put the badchan out of business.
Not so fast, said some rabbis. Maybe the
badchanim are actually not funny. Perhaps
they are really social commentators. They
could stay around.
That is how the Jewish comedic tradition —
social criticism, iconoclasm, anti-authoritari-
anism — was born.
The true alte zaydie ("old grandfather")
of the sardonic Jewish comic tradition was,
of course, the late Lenny Bruce. His social
commentary was trenchant and often
obscene, though nowadays we would con-
sider it quite tame. From Lenny Bruce, there
is a straight line to David Steinberg, Jackie
Mason, Jerry Seinfeld, Larry David, Joan
Rivers, Sarah Silverman and so on.
Jewish comedians have all had a range of
relationships with the Jewish community
(what else is new?). Some have been connect-
ed; others, not so much.

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But, the rabbi connection is particularly
strong. Consider: David Steinberg is the son
of a rabbi, and he once studied theology in
Israel. Jackie Mason is an ordained rabbi. Sarah
Silverman's sister is a rabbi. My friend and col-
league Bob Alper is a comedian. Rabbi Moshe
Waldoks has done standup comedy for years,
and co-authored (with Bill Novak, father of
actor B.J. Novak) The Big Book of Jewish Humor.
And Amy Schumer was a religious school-
cutup. In this, she follows in a noble tradi-
tion. According to ancient legend, Abraham
was a rebellious kid who asked impertinent
questions. We can certainly imagine Baruch
Spinoza, the heretic of Amsterdam, sitting
in the back of his religious school classroom,
cracking jokes.
So, yes — being Jewish can be funny, and
being funny can be Jewish. In particular, stand-
up comedy. It's about being out there alone on
the stage. This is very Jewish. Throughout his-
tory, Jews have gone out onto the stages of his-
tory, often facing hostile crowds, and we have
been able to laugh at ourselves and others.
Purim, the essential Jewish comedy festival,
reminds us: laughter has been our most potent
weapon against our enemies.
So, Amy, this one's for you. It's from the
Talmud, which can often be hysterically funny,
whether or not the ancient sages intended it
that way.
Two rabbis were taking a stroll in the mar-
ketplace, and they ran into Elijah, the prophet
(who, according to lore, never really died, and
apparently kept on coming back to Earth in
various disguises). They asked the prophet:
"Who in this marketplace is most deserving of
reward in the World to Come?"
The prophet pointed to two men. The rab-
bis asked the two men about their professions.
They replied: "We are jesters. When people are
sad, we make them happy:'
That's why we like people who are funny.
They make us happy.
And they remind us of something else.
There is a connection between "humor" and
"human:'
Laughter keeps us human.

❑

Schumer is the creator, star,
writer and executive producer
of the Peabody Award-
winning and Emmy-nominated
Comedy Central show, Inside
Amy Schumer, for which
she won a Critics Choice TV
Award for "Best Actress in

a Comedy Series." She is
the writer and star of the
film Trainwreck, in theaters
now. Schumer also is set
to headline her first HBO
comedy special, to be directed
by Chris Rock and debut later
this year.

JN

August 20 • 2015

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