In 2021, the Pew Research Center released a study about American Jewish identity. Among its findings: more than twice as many respondents cited “having a sense of humor” as central to their Jewish identities than mentioned following traditional Jewish law or halacha. In Wit Happens: Global Jewish Humor (Wayne State Univ., Feb.), editors Jennifer Caplan, Jarrod Tanny, and Avinoam Patt— scholars of Judaic studies, history, and Holocaust studies, respectively—curate a collection of ways Jewish humor is a defining cultural touchstone in America and beyond.
Acquisitions editor Sandra Korn describes the team as “brilliant scholars” whose book shows how Jewish people worldwide have "leaned into humor and satire as tools for coping with and making sense of difficult social and political times.”
What do you hope to accomplish with Wit Happens?
Avinoam Patt: We want humor to be taken seriously as a framework of academic analysis to study Jewish identity, religion, and culture. We’re making the argument that humor is a “light” subject—it’s supposed to be entertaining, and we’re supposed to laugh. But at the same time, it is an essential part of what Jews consider to be essential to their identity.
What did you discover from looking globally?
Jennifer Caplan: You can see the influence of American Jewish comedy around the world. When Mumbai-born Samson Koletkar bills himself as “the world’s only Indian Jewish stand-up comedian,” he’s modeling himself on an American style of Jewish comedy because that has become so globally dominant.
Are there exceptions to the American-influenced style?
JC: Among North African Jews who had been under French colonial rule and living with their Islamic neighbors and their French colonial neighbors, their sense of identity was different from the Jews writing about being a minority in the U.S. It’s a very different context, and that did actually create some differences in the humor.
Why is being an “outsider” a hallmark of Jewish comedy?
Jarrod Tanny: Jews are globally a minority, so it makes sense that this is a dominant trend in Jewish humor. To a certain extent, all minorities use some humor to cope with their situation. But the Jewish status in modernity is really kind of the ultimate outsider. So humor becomes more obvious in that sense.
What stands out about humor in Israel?
JT: One chapter looks at Holocaust humor in Israel, where you see dynamics similar to the Seinfeld episode when Jerry is caught making out during Schindler’s List. That kind of humor exposes how we’ve deified the Holocaust in some ways. I'd be very reluctant to call that an Ashkenazi (Jews of Eastern European heritage) phenomenon, though, given that 60% of the Israeli population is non-Ashkenazi.
Is there a joke that captures the message of Wit Happens?
JT: A group of American Jews discovers that a remote community in China is Jewish. The Americans are shocked and in awe of this possibility, so a delegation travels to the far-flung region to meet them. When the Americans arrive, one of the Chinese Jews looks up and says, in Mandarin, “Funny, you don’t look Jewish.”
