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Smith Mediation Center

Divorce Mediation

No
Joke!

Humor class
helps define what
makes Jews tick.

Class members share a laugh in
the Jewish humor class through
Federation’s Adult Jewish
Learning program.

Linda Laderman | Special to the Jewish News

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ediation is an alternative that can help you retain more
time, money, and privacy during your legal battle.
Barbara Smith, J.D., former district court magistrate
and administrative law judge with more than 25 years of legal
experience, lends her unique blend of reason, calmness and
tenacity to the process, helping guide opposing parties to mutually
agreeable solutions. She has successfully mediated hundreds of
cases over the past decade.

Bloomfi eld Hills | 248.646.8000

www.michigan-divorce-mediation.com

2043970

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FRIDAY, JUNE 24, 2016

P Please
l e ase j join
o i n us for
f an even
evening
ni ng of f
traditio
tradition n & excellence as we
honor & celebrate Rabbi Daniel B. Syme
for his 20 years of dedicated service,
retirement, and transition
to Rabbi Emeritus.

Thi spec
This
special
i l evening
ial
i will
ill f feature
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6:00
6
00 PM
M Sh
Shabbat
bb t Di
Dinner

Adults, $36 / Children 12 & Under, $15
(Children under 3, not ordering a meal, are free)

followed by

Shabbat Services at 7:30 PM

Community leaders and guests will honor
Rabbi Syme’s twenty years of dedicated service and
spiritual guidance at Temple Beth El.

REGISTER ONLINE at tbeonline.org/event-registration or
contact Laura Lucassian at 248.851.1100 or llucassian@tbeonline.org.

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2102900

22 May 19 • 2016

s it turns out, Jewish humor is
not always a laughing matter.
Jewish humor has inspired
legions of websites, books and academic
discussions. Even Sigmund Freud got
into the act with his book Jokes and Their
Relation to the Unconscious, in which he
asserted that many Jewish jokes speak to
the willingness of Jews to take an intro-
spective, and often self-critical, look at
themselves through a satirical lens.
And now, the Jewish Federation of
Metropolitan Detroit, as
part of its Florence Melton
School of Adult Jewish
Learning graduate curricu-
lum, is holding a 12-week
session on the topic, “From
Sinai to Seinfeld.”
Judy Loebl, Federation’s
director of Adult Jewish
Learning, says reaction to
Teacher Ruth
the recently introduced
Bergman
course has been positive.
“We’re not surprised by
the response, in large part because Ruth
Bergman, who teaches the class, can
be very funny,” Loebl says. “Her vast
knowledge of popular culture helps to
define the nuances and rhythms of Jewish
humor from its origins to modern times.”
Although the current class ends next
week, Loebl says it would be offered again
on Thursday mornings this fall. Call
FedEd for information at (248) 205-2557.
The class is not an exercise in Jewish
jokes or a course in comedy, according
to Loebl. “It is not about telling jokes; it
is about cultural anthropology, sociology
and what makes us tick as Jewish people.
Humor is a brilliant way to understand
our culture, not just from a current look,
but also from an historical perspective.”
Adult learners like Linda Katzman
Spigelman agree with Loebl’s assessment.
“I’ve enjoyed the examples of Jewish
humor from different historical periods
and especially from more recent times.
The Mel Brooks’ clips, Woody Allen’s
writings and the Israeli comedy series
The Jews Are Coming, make it a fun way
to explore topics such as our relationship
with God, how we’ve survived in the dias-
pora and our sense of Jewish identity,”
says Spigelman, who is taking the class
with her mother, Janice Katzman.

Spigelman is not alone in her appre-
ciation of Jewish humor. In a 2013 Pew
Research Center survey of American Jews
who were asked, “What does it mean
to be Jewish?” more than 40 percent
replied, “Having a good sense of humor.”
That exceeded the number of those who
answered being part of a Jewish commu-
nity and observing Jewish law.
Why is humor that important to Jews?
“When humor comes out of difficulty
there is more to be funny about — we
can make fun of the oppres-
sor, but never the oppressed,”
Bergman says. “Humor is the
door to understanding Jewish
values, concerns, coping mecha-
nisms. It helps us to see what’s
important.”
Don’t expect this class to
make you roll on the floor with
laughter, she says. “This is not
a class on comedy; with com-
edy nothing is really at stake.
With humor, we still laugh at
ourselves but there is something under-
neath it all, maybe we are dealing with an
underlying issue.”
Issues that are acceptable targets for
humorists are always evolving and don’t
necessarily adhere to Woody Allen’s claim
that “tragedy plus time equals comedy.”
“I don’t think there is a set clock that
needs to run out before something can
be poked fun at. Different people react
differently. Some Holocaust survivors,
for example, can laugh at Mel Brooks’
“Springtime for Hitler” and for others it is
too painful. More than the timing is the
content,” says Bergman, whose parents
survived the Holocaust.
The evolution of Jewish humor follows
the same trajectory as all comedy, she
says.
“Once the envelope is pushed, some-
one will come and try to push it some
more. Previously taboo subjects now
become posts on Facebook. If Saul Bellow
is correct and ‘oppressed people tend to
be witty,’ then as we have become more
comfortable, successful and accepted,
maybe we become less funny?
“I don’t know. Or maybe it’s just that
the humor is not less funny, but differ-
ently funny. But basically, if it makes you
laugh, it’s funny.”

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