Best Jewish jokes and what they say about Jews

Best Jewish jokes and what they say about Jews

Jewish jokes together with analysis of them and what they tell us about the Jewish people and Judaism from a Jewish perspective. Very worth reading. ( )

This was the most serious book of humor I've ever read. The subtitle is accurate: This is a book about the Jews. not as much a book of humor, or a book about Judaism. Because jokes usually poke fun at the people who are the subject of the joke, the Jews on these pages are frequently cast in a less than ideal light. There are also plenty of jokes which Jews could tell to ridicule others.

To get the majority of these jokes, one must have an understanding of the background, not only of Jewish beliefs and rituals, but also of the country of origin of the joke and the time period in which it was told. Telushkin gives us all of the necessary preamble to each joke, but this often makes the joke less funny by the time one has read it.

As a sociological work, it was very interesting reading. However, I did not end up with a great arsenal of new jokes to share with my friends. ( )

I read this several years ago and what I remember is that there were interesting ideas and lots of good examples. ( )