Rutgers Jewish Film Festival Arrives in New Jersey November 7 through November 21

The Rutgers Jewish Film Festival’s 25th year is coming to New Jersey next month. The festival will feature fourteen thought-provoking and entertaining films, dynamic discussions with filmmakers and special guests, and numerous New Jersey premieres on dance, music, American Jewish history, and Israeli society. 

Twelve films will be screened at the Regal Cinema Commerce Center, North Brunswick (November 7–17), and five films will be available virtually (November 15–21). In-theater and virtual tickets are $15.

The full schedule is posted on the festival website. Among the films shown will be the 86 minute documentary The Catskills, on Sunday, November 10 and Tuesday, November 12 at the Regal Cinema. 

This charming documentary pays tribute to the summer resorts and bungalow colonies that became Jewish-American vacation destinations during the 20th century when hotels and resorts discriminated against Jews. Lovingly nicknamed the Borscht Belt, this film explores the Catskills not only as a hot spot for lavish meals and hilarious entertainment, but also as a refuge from social antisemitism.

Here's the trailer for The Catskills. If you can't get to the theater, the film will probably be shown at other Jewish Film Festivals around the USA next winter.

Enjoy!

Here Come the Passover Videos: Six 13 Pays a 25th Anniversary Tribute to "The Prince of Egypt"

No collection of Jewish holiday music videos would be complete without an entry from Six13, an a cappella group that has produced videos for Chanukah, Rosh Hashana, Purim, and Passover. In previous years we posted many of their Jewish music videos.

Six13 is a groundbreaking, six-man a cappella vocal band that is bringing an unprecedented style and energy to Jewish music, with nothing but the power of the human voice.

One of the great epic animated films and musicals of all time -- and possibly the greatest retelling of the Passover story -- is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. Six 13 is celebrating the occasion with a medley of songs from the beloved film, including When You Believe.

Enjoy!

A SPECIAL NOTE FOR NEW EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS:  THE VIDEO MAY NOT BE VIEWABLE DIRECTLY FROM THE EMAIL THAT YOU GET EACH DAY ON SOME COMPUTERS AND TABLETS.  YOU MUST CLICK ON THE TITLE AT THE TOP OF THE EMAIL TO REACH THE JEWISH HUMOR CENTRAL WEBSITE, FROM WHICH YOU CLICK ON THE PLAY BUTTON IN THE VIDEO IMAGE TO START THE VIDEO.

 

The Jews Who Built Hollywood: Vaudeville, Immigrants, and the American Dream

Some people say that Jews run Hollywood. Is it true? When you look into the history of the silver screen you’ll learn that, in fact, many Jews were involved in starting major film studios including MGM, Universal and Paramount. 

Today these companies are owned by huge and diverse corporations. The history of why Jews were involved in Hollywood’s humble beginnings starts with Vaudeville and the garment industry.

This video explains the Jewish connection with Hollywood and reveals the Jewish backgrounds (and original names) of the founders of Universal, MGM, and Paramount.

Enjoy!

A SPECIAL NOTE FOR NEW EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS:  THE VIDEO MAY NOT BE VIEWABLE DIRECTLY FROM THE EMAIL THAT YOU GET EACH DAY ON SOME COMPUTERS AND TABLETS.  YOU MUST CLICK ON THE TITLE AT THE TOP OF THE EMAIL TO REACH THE JEWISH HUMOR CENTRAL WEBSITE, FROM WHICH YOU CLICK ON THE PLAY BUTTON IN THE VIDEO IMAGE TO START THE VIDEO. 

The Catskills Come Alive at Boca Raton JCC

If New York's Catskill Mountains were ever a part of your life, you should be spending this month at the Levis Jewish Community Center in Boca Raton, Florida, where the Catskills are coming alive in a month-long series of programs centering on Catskills nostalgia.

With 15 lectures, four live performances, nine feature films, and a museum gallery exhibition, Greetings from the Catskills, now underway through March 1, is a nostalgic trip down memory lane that you will treasure.

You'll find all the details on pages 4 and 5 of the JCC brochure. If you can't be in Boca Raton this month you can join in the fun by watching the featured movies. You can find them on Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, or borrow them from your local library. Here's the list of Catskills movies:

Sweet Lorraine
Welcome to Kutsher's: The Last Catskills Resort
Marjorie Morningstar
When Comedy Went to School
A Walk on the Moon
Dirty Dancing
The Rise and Fall of the Borscht Belt
Four Seasons Lodge
When Jews Were Funny

To get you started, here's the trailer for the 1987 film Sweet Lorraine, starring Freddie Roman, Maureen Stapleton, and Trini Alvarado. 

Enjoy!


A SPECIAL NOTE FOR NEW EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS:  THE VIDEO MAY NOT BE VIEWABLE DIRECTLY FROM THE EMAIL THAT YOU GET EACH DAY ON SOME COMPUTERS AND TABLETS.  YOU MUST CLICK ON THE TITLE AT THE TOP OF THE EMAIL TO REACH THE JEWISH HUMOR CENTRAL WEBSITE, FROM WHICH YOU CLICK ON THE PLAY BUTTON IN THE VIDEO IMAGE TO START THE VIDEO.

Here Come the Chanukah Videos: The Rugrats "Miracle of Chanukah"

Have you checked your calendar lately? We just realized that the first night of Chanukah is next Sunday night. This year the eight-day holiday starts on December 2 so we'd better check our candle supply and start shopping for gifts for the kids.

There are only seven more days until Chanukah begins, and we'll try to fill them with appropriate videos. There'll be a combination of new music videos and flashbacks to old TV shows and movies that had a Chanukah theme.

We'll start with a flashback to a video clip of Miracle of Chanukah from The Rugrats episode A Rugrats Chanukah. This is a special episode of Nickelodeon's animated television series Rugrats. The first episode of the show's fourth season and the sixty-sixth overall, it tells the story of the Jewish holiday Chanukah through the eyes of the Rugrats, who imagine themselves as the main characters. 

Meanwhile, Grandpa Boris and his long-time rival, Shlomo, feud over who will play the lead in the local synagogue's Chanukah play. Since most American children's television programs have Christmas specials, this was the first Chanukah episode of a children's television series.

Enjoy!

A SPECIAL NOTE FOR NEW EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS:  THE VIDEO MAY NOT BE VIEWABLE DIRECTLY FROM THE EMAIL THAT YOU GET EACH DAY ON SOME COMPUTERS AND TABLETS.  YOU MUST CLICK ON THE TITLE AT THE TOP OF THE EMAIL TO REACH THE JEWISH HUMOR CENTRAL WEBSITE, FROM WHICH YOU CLICK ON THE PLAY BUTTON IN THE VIDEO IMAGE TO START THE VIDEO.

Remembering Neil Simon, Master Playwright of Comedy and Middle Class Life

Neil Simon, who died on Sunday at 91, was one of the United States' most prolific and commercially successful playwrights. Whether delivering humor or drama, Simon possessed a rare understanding of the frictions his audience experienced in their most intimate relationships. 

Simon was best known for his many comedies and slices of Jewish middle class life, including The Odd Couple, Brighton Beach Memoirs, Biloxi Blues, and Lost in Yonkers. He was also part of the writing team for Sid Caesar's Your Show of Shows, together with fellow writers Mel Brooks, Carl Reiner,and other famous comedy greats.

Many tributes to Simon have been published and posted over the last few days. Today we're sharing one in which PBS reporter Jeffrey Brown looks back at his career, with insight from Washington Post theater critic Peter Marks.

A SPECIAL NOTE FOR NEW EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS:  THE VIDEO MAY NOT BE VIEWABLE DIRECTLY FROM THE EMAIL THAT YOU GET EACH DAY ON SOME COMPUTERS AND TABLETS.  YOU MUST CLICK ON THE TITLE AT THE TOP OF THE EMAIL TO REACH THE JEWISH HUMOR CENTRAL WEBSITE, FROM WHICH YOU CLICK ON THE PLAY BUTTON IN THE VIDEO IMAGE TO START THE VIDEO.

Oscars, Shmoscars! Here Are Our Purim Picks of the Best Movies of 2017

Happy Purim to all of our Jewish Humor Central readers.  We hope you enjoy this special Purim spoof from the Purim 2018 issue of The Kustanowitz Kronikle.  You can download the PDF by clicking HERE.  Print it and share it at your Purim Seudah.

There are the Golden Globes and the Academy Awards (Oscars).  But who needs them when the best awards of all are the Silver Graggers.  Jewish Humor Central is proud to present the movie awards from our sister publication, The Kustanowitz Kronikle.

The Silver Graggers are different from the Golden Globes and the Oscars in that there are multiple winners for Best Picture, the only award we give.

This year the Kustanowitz kids have been hard at work, deliberating which films released in 2017 merited consideration for this prestigious award.  Today we are announcing the winners of the annual competition.  Here are the best films of 2017, with a brief description of each one.

  THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE NEWARK, NJ:

When a series of bacon-flavored products is accidentally certified kosher, local rabbis put up billboards to alert the locals in the only location they can collectively afford. 

GET OUT: After hosting a three-day yuntif, one brave woman makes the

controversial decision to be honest with her in-laws.

 OY TANYA:  Tana'im and Amoraim square off in an Olympic battle for Talmudic supremacy.

THE SHAPE OF WATER: A fight breaks out when an ultra-Orthodox Shabbat dinner guest learns that his host made the ice cubes after sundown.

DARKEST HOUR: The tense family tale of what happens in that last hour of Shabbat, when all the daylight has faded and before three stars are visible.

WONDER WOMAN: The story of every Jewish woman for the weeks between Purim and Passover (and year-round).

LADY BIRD: A lonely man falls in love while swinging a chicken around his head during

Kapparot.

JEWMANJI: Friday afternoon, four young Orthodox Jews get sucked into a video game and have to figure out how to escape before sundown arrives and they're trapped in the

game over Shabbos.

THE BIG SICK:A community suffers the gassy aftermath of a cholent cook-off.

ALL THE MONEY IN THE WORLD: The son of the community's biggest donor has an idea to fund both his extravagant lifestyle and the new shul building, and enlists the

shul president to help in his own kidnapping and ransom scheme.

CALL ME BY YOUR NAME: While receiving his first-ever Aliyah, a baal t’shuva panics on the bima, putting the gabbai in an awkward position.

BABY DRIVER: After going into labor on Shabbat morning, an observant couple finds a controversial loophole that allows them to drive home from the hospital.

DOWNSIZING: A mohel is barred from performing circumcisions when he takes a bris

one step too far.

PHANTOM THREAD: A shatnez checker looks the other way when a wealthy customer shows up wearing a suit made from both wool and linen.

THE POST: An Orthodox neighborhood is thrown into turmoil when the synagogue website posts a notice that the eruv has been inspected and is up, when in reality there is a gap that renders it in valid for carrying on Shabbat.

THE INSULT: A wealthy congregant storms out of the synagogue when the gabbai bypasses him for an aliyah on the Shabbat after he completes a trip to Israel.

YidLife Crisis Presents Hollywood's Greatest Film Moments (Vol. 2) -- in Yiddish!

Take some of the most famous lines from legendary Hollywood movies and imagine them being uttered in Yiddish? That's exactly what Eli Batalion and Jamie Elman, the creators of YidLife Crisis have done. Not only imagined but actually dubbed for our enjoyment.

Last year we brought you volume one of this series. Now we're sharing some more of these classic videos that Eli and Jamie have dubbed in Yiddish.
So take a break and see what Star Wars, The Exorcist, E. T. and many others would have sounded like with a Yiddish soundtrack.
Enjoy!
A SPECIAL NOTE FOR NEW EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS:  THE VIDEO MAY NOT BE VIEWABLE DIRECTLY FROM THE EMAIL THAT YOU GET EACH DAY ON SOME COMPUTERS AND TABLETS.  YOU MUST CLICK ON THE TITLE AT THE TOP OF THE EMAIL TO REACH THE JEWISH HUMOR CENTRAL WEBSITE, FROM WHICH YOU CLICK ON THE PLAY BUTTON IN THE VIDEO IMAGE TO START THE VIDEO.

Evolution of a Song: From Second Hand Rose (Brice) to Second Hand Rose (Streisand) to Second Hand Nose (Sherman)

In doing research for our upcoming lectures on The Great Jewish Comedians and The Great Jewish Entertainers, we sometimes find interesting and funny variations on popular and classic comedy routines, jokes, and songs. 
 
The song Second Hand Rose, which most people associate with its performance by Barbra Streisand in the 1968 movie Funny Girl, was first performed by comedian Fanny Brice (Fanny Borach) in the 1921 Ziegfeld Follies.

In playing both versions of the song, we noted one difference. In the original Brice version, there's a line that goes "Even Jakie Cohen he's the man I adore, He had the nerve to tell me he's been married before". But the Streisand version changes Jakie Cohen to Jake the Plumber. Why? Was it to make the character more universal in a nationally distributed movie? We can only guess. The song became fodder for Allan Sherman, who recorded so many parodies of popular songs, and turned it into Second Hand Nose.

Here are all three versions. Enjoy!

A SPECIAL NOTE FOR NEW EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS:  THE VIDEO MAY NOT BE VIEWABLE DIRECTLY FROM THE EMAIL THAT YOU GET EACH DAY ON SOME COMPUTERS AND TABLETS.  YOU MUST CLICK ON THE TITLE AT THE TOP OF THE EMAIL TO REACH THE JEWISH HUMOR CENTRAL WEBSITE, FROM WHICH YOU CLICK ON THE PLAY BUTTON IN THE VIDEO IMAGE TO START THE VIDEO.

The Great Jewish Entertainers: Hermione Gingold - "I Remember it Well"

Continuing our series on The Great Jewish Entertainers, we're heading "across the pond" to  reminisce about one of our favorite British character actresses, Hermione Gingold.

Watching the movie musical Gigi, we especially enjoyed I Remember it Well, the spoken/sung repartee between Gingold and Maurice Chevalier.

According to Wikipedia, Gingold was born in London to a prosperous Vienna-born Jewish stockbroker James Gingold and his wife, Kate, who came from a "well-to-do Jewish family". Although she was descended from the celebrated Solomon Sulzer, a famous synagogue cantor and Jewish liturgical composer in Vienna, Gingold grew up with no particular religious beliefs.
 
After a successful career in England as a child actress, Gingold later established herself on the stage as an adult, playing in comedy, drama, radio, and revue.  From the early 1950s Gingold lived and made her career mostly in the U.S. where she played formidable elderly characters in such films and stage musicals as Gigi (1958), Bell, Book and Candle (1958), The Music Man (1962) and A Little Night Music (1973).

Here is the memorable I Remember it Well number with Chevalier. Enjoy!

A SPECIAL NOTE FOR NEW EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS:  THE VIDEO MAY NOT BE VIEWABLE DIRECTLY FROM THE EMAIL THAT YOU GET EACH DAY ON SOME COMPUTERS AND TABLETS.  YOU MUST CLICK ON THE TITLE AT THE TOP OF THE EMAIL TO REACH THE JEWISH HUMOR CENTRAL WEBSITE, FROM WHICH YOU CLICK ON THE PLAY BUTTON IN THE VIDEO IMAGE TO START THE VIDEO.

Throwback Thursday Comedy Special: Jerry Lewis Air Typing Leroy Anderson's "The Typewriter"

The Typewriter is a novelty instrumental piece written by Leroy Anderson in 1950, and first performed by the Boston Pops.

Its name refers to the fact that its performance requires a typewriter, which is used on stage: keystrokes, the typewriter bell, and the carriage return mechanism provide a major component of the piece, although Anderson demonstrated that a musical gourd could be used instead of a carriage return. 

The typewriter is modified so that only two keys work; although many listeners have suspected that stenographers are enlisted to "play" the typewriter, Anderson reported that only professional drummers have sufficient wrist flexibility.

It has been called one of "the wittiest and most clever pieces in the orchestral repertoire".

The piece was featured in the Jerry Lewis film Who's Minding the Store (1963). Lewis didn't have to worry about keys, bell, or carriage return. He typed the whole piece in the air.

Enjoy!

A SPECIAL NOTE FOR NEW EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS:  THE VIDEO MAY NOT BE VIEWABLE DIRECTLY FROM THE EMAIL THAT YOU GET EACH DAY ON SOME COMPUTERS AND TABLETS.  YOU MUST CLICK ON THE TITLE AT THE TOP OF THE EMAIL TO REACH THE JEWISH HUMOR CENTRAL WEBSITE, FROM WHICH YOU CLICK ON THE PLAY BUTTON IN THE VIDEO IMAGE TO START THE VIDEO.




#Throwback Thursday #TBT

Throwback Thursday Comedy Special: Danny Kaye in a Scene from "Up In Arms"

Actor and comedian Danny Kaye made his first movie in 1944 during World War II. Yes, that was 72 years ago. It was called Up in Arms. Danny played a hypochondriac who gets drafted into the army and makes life miserable for his fellow GIs.

There's a funny scene in the film where Danny goes to see a movie with his friends and while waiting in the lobby, acts out a typical movie musical including the opening titles and credits.

Enjoy!

(A SPECIAL NOTE FOR NEW EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS:  THE VIDEO MAY NOT BE VIEWABLE DIRECTLY FROM THE EMAIL THAT YOU GET EACH DAY ON SOME COMPUTERS AND TABLETS.  YOU MUST CLICK ON THE TITLE AT THE TOP OF THE EMAIL TO REACH THE JEWISH HUMOR CENTRAL WEBSITE, FROM WHICH YOU CLICK ON THE PLAY BUTTON IN THE VIDEO IMAGE TO START THE VIDEO.)

The Great Jewish Comedians: Ben Blue - Master of Pantomime

Ben Blue (1901-1975) was a Canadian-American actor and comedian. Born to a Jewish family as Benjamin Bernstein in Montreal, Quebec, Blue emigrated to Baltimore, Maryland at the age of nine, where he won a contest for the best impersonation of Charlie Chaplin. 

At the age of fifteen he was in a touring company and later became a stage manager and assistant general manager. He became a dance instructor and nightclub proprietor. In the 1920s Blue joined a popular orchestra, Jack White and His Montrealers. 

Blue left the band to establish himself as a solo comedian, portraying a bald-headed dumb-bell with a goofy expression. Producer Hal Roach featured him in his "Taxi Boys" comedy shorts, but Blue's dopey character was an acquired taste and he was soon replaced by other comedians. 

In 1951, Blue began concentrating on managing and appearing in nightclubs in Hollywood, San Francisco, and Reno. Blue and Maxie Rosenbloom owned and performed in Hollywood's top nightclub in the 1940s called "Slapsie Maxie's." In the 1960s he opened a nightclub in Santa Monica, California, called "Ben Blue's". It quickly became the "in" place and night after night was packed with top celebrities. Ben closed the club three years later because of health problems. He also made appearances in TV shows such as The Jack Benny Program and The Milton Berle Show.

Blue's film roles included many cameo appearances. In It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963), his role was the pilot of the biplane that flew Sid Caesar and Edie Adams, and he played Luther Grilk, the town drunk, in The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming (1966). His other film appearances included small roles in The Busy Body (1967), A Guide for the Married Man (1967) and Where Were You When the Lights Went Out? (1968). 

Here's Ben Blue in one of his pantomime skits on the Hollywood Palace TV show 50 years ago  (January 1, 1966).

Enjoy!

(A SPECIAL NOTE FOR NEW EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS:  THE VIDEO MAY NOT BE VIEWABLE DIRECTLY FROM THE EMAIL THAT YOU GET EACH DAY ON SOME COMPUTERS AND TABLETS.  YOU MUST CLICK ON THE TITLE AT THE TOP OF THE EMAIL TO REACH THE JEWISH HUMOR CENTRAL WEBSITE, FROM WHICH YOU CLICK ON THE PLAY BUTTON IN THE VIDEO IMAGE TO START THE VIDEO.)