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Most critics agree that Jewish humour is defined by its capacity to laugh in the face of despair, tragedy, persecution. Humour has been a source of salvation for the Jews, allowing them to survive in a hostile world. Howard Jacobson is an English Jewish writer who has always celebrated the important role that comedy plays in literature. He regrets the false division between comedy and seriousness that critics have created and firmly believes that comedy reaffirms the value of life by offering us a way to transcend our sadness and misfortunes. In The Finkler Question humour indeed fulfils this redeeming function and allows Jacobson to tackle the dark forces of anti-Semitism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What is the essence of Jewish humor and how does this kind humor come into place in movies and in cinematic storytelling? Is there a characteristic of the "laughable" in the Bible and in the traditions of the Jewish community? Or should we consider, as some authors have suggested (Eckardt, 1992), that the notion of ''Jewish humor" should be replaced with the more politically correct phrase "humor amongst Jews", since the first term is too constricting and stereotyping, while other authors, like Patricia Erens, provide arguments for the existence of a "Yiddish narrative" in cinema, attempting to identify general elements of this narrative: pathos, humor and humanity (Erens, 1984). And, if we can use the term Jewish humor, what are the fundamental elements to be found in cinema? Using the Romanian born, French director Radu Mihăileanu as an example, I found one answer he himself has given to the set of questions on what Jewish humor is, with reference to "other" types of humor. "The Jewish tell a lot of jokes about themselves... about their mother, about their rabbi, about their accountant, about God. They are always discussing with God" (Mihăileanu, 2000). The second level of questioning refers to the general mechanism that puts into place the Jewish humor, what is its main resource. On possible answer is to be found with Henri Bergson, who, in his seminal book on laughter, Le rire (Bergson, 1901), suggests that laughter evolved to make social life possible for human beings. If we use his argument in trying to explain Jewish humor in cinema, we can start from the theoretical premise that laughter makes possible social circumstances that are otherwise unbearable for humans beings. This I believe to be explicit with Radu Mihăileanu's cinema - and I will refer in this paper to three of his movies: Train de vie (Train of life, 1998), Va, vis et deviens (Live and become, 2005) and Le Concert (The Concert, 2009), all three having in their center the problems of identity (Jewish and non Jewish) and Jewishness as a social phenomena. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the connecting themes of two comedies including "The Jews," by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, and "Go for Zucker!," by Dani Levy. The author notes that both pieces are critical narratives of German-Jewish relations and presents the "Jewish Question" in a comedic style. "The Jews" was written by Lessing in 1749 while "Go for Zucker," was released as a feature film for television in 2005. Both comedies explore the issues of assimilation by portraying pre-existing notions of the Jew as a foreigner through drama and humor.

Presents an article on being a Jewish humorist. Development of expertise at witticisms as a young student; Commitment to humor and recognition of it as form of art; Several scholarly writings about humor.