Jews are Funny People?

Let’s face it: the story about the time the Jews of ancient Persia were saved from genocide doesn’t sound like a recipe for hilarity. Yet every year, we celebrate the festival of Purim to commemorate that important victory. In doing so, we also acknowledge the significant role humor plays in the Jewish faith.

The lasting appeal of the Purim story, or megilah, owes a great deal to its split-second reversals of fortune, called hippuch in Hebrew. A potential tragedy turns triumphant just in time, when, in an ironic twist, the evil villain Haman ends up being executed on the very gallows he’d built to hang the Jews. The Purim story, with its upside down punchline of an ending, is the taproot of all Jewish humor, which traditionally links the tragic with the comic, and the bitter with the sweet. Read more

Simcha joins Blog Talk Radio Networks as “resident rabbi”

Rabbi Simcha has joined the Blog Talk Radio Network as the “resident rabbi”.

His first show “The Jewish Superhero Show” will be on Monday 20th July at 11:00 PM

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Is Bruno good for the Jews?

“Vassup?” you ask. For one thing, the new movie, Brüno.

The swishy, semi-fascist fashionista Brüno is the imaginary Austrian TV personality created by the very real British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen. In 2006, Baron Cohen broke box office records (and probably a couple of laws) with his movie Borat, about another foreign fictional reporter’s adventures in America.

In 2006, Barron Cohen broke box office records (and probably a couple of laws) with his movie Borat, about another foreign fictional reporter’s adventures in America.

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Rabbi Simcha interviewed on 98.1FM Morning Show

Rabbi Simcha was a guest on the Morning Show “The Rude Awakening: With Bulldog and the Dude” IRIE 98.1FM

Simcha discusses the changing face of Jewish humor from Sacha Baron Cohens and Bruno, to Jon Stewart and Meet the Fockers.

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