What is so funny about being Black and Jewish?

Rabbi Sholomo B. Levy

Comedian Jon Stewart, host of the popular television program The Daily Show, attempted to make fun of America’s  struggles with diversity by satirizing media reaction to the nomination of Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court by President Barack Obama.  We believe that his comedy routine went terribly awry when he began to mock the existence of Black Jews as an example of absurd identities. He started by referencing organizations that represent different ethnic groups like La Raza for Latinos, B’nai Brith for Jews, and the NAACP for African Americans. At this point in the routine he attempted to make a joke by referring to the fictional “B’NAACP” for people who are Black and Jewish. He then flashed a symbol of this non-existent organization consisting of a menorah with the scales of justice over it. Stewart than gestured as if whispering to the audience and said, “I’m looking at you, former Charleston Sheriff Reuben Greenberg.” A picture of the real Reuben Greenberg wearing a baseball cap then appeared on screen. Pointing to the picture of this African American, Stewart said, “That’s a real guy. We didn’t make him up…Black Jew sheriff…Very lonely at holidays.” The audience laughed repeatedly at every phase of this skit.

There are those who might wish to excuse Stewart’s caricature of Black Jews as an isolated expression of bad taste. However, we realize how frequently Black Jews are the butt of jokes that rely for their humor on simply linking black people with Jewishness, as if the mere association is hilarious. It can be found frequently in the routines of Jewish comedians going back to the days of Yiddish theater and Vaudeville to constitute an identifiable shtick or linguistic trope. The Jewish writer Bernard Malamud wrote a parody in his collection of short stories called The Magic Barrel (1958) about Black Jews and particularly a Black angel who is sent by God to help a White Jewish family in New York. The white family can’t believe that there are Jewish angels who are Black. One of the most infamous examples appeared in Mel Brook’s farcical film History of the World (1981). In one scene, the black actor Gregory Hines plays a slave in a Roman auction. When they order Hines to be fed to the lions he is made to say, “Lions only eat Christians, I am a Jew.” Pointing to himself he says, “Jewish person.” After incredulous laughter Hines says that he can prove it and then proceeds to sing a Hebrew song called “Havanagilah” and perform several steps of Jewish folkdance. Again Hines is not believed and as the guards begin to drag him away he pleads, “I’m Jewish I’m telling you. Call the temple. Call the rabbi. Call Sammy Davis, Jr.” At this point a guard looks into Hine’s pants—as if to exam his penis for evidence of circumcision. The guard looks up and says, “Jewish, huh?” Even in the above scene the contrasting references do not end. Hines, after dropping his allusion to being Jewish, breaks into a more traditional tap dance that he calls the “Ethiopian Shemsham.” When asked what part of Ethiopia he is from, Hines replies with a smile, “125th Street.” Throughout the rest of the film the Hines character, who has the name Josephus (the eminent Jewish historian of the period) is the subject of numerous other jokes, many of a phallic nature. Almost all the stereotypes are present but those that are exploited to greatest affect and effect play on the perceived absurdity of Black people being Jewish.

Occasionally, Black comedians traffic in hackneyed jokes about the relationship between Blacks and Jews—particularly involving interracial couples or when the comedian is biracial, as in the case of Rain Pryor, who makes this subject part of her act. Often their routines take a more self-deprecating or sardonic take on their dual identity. Yet, by repeating and sometimes exaggerating the tension or incompatibility of being Black and Jewish these comedians reinforce some of the stereotypes that they wish to dismantle.

Jokes about Black Jews are numerous, often told casually, and circulate widely on the internet. Recently a friend was anxious to tell me a joke that had as its setup the Pope challenging Jews to a game of golf. The punch line was “Rabbi Tiger Woods.” He thought I would be amused by the joke precisely because I am Black and Jewish; but I thought to myself, “What’s so funny about that? Why is it innately comical to think that Tiger Woods could be Jewish or that a Black person could be a rabbi?” Taken together with the plethora of jokes that fall into the “Funny, you don’t look Jewish” category and a very serious point emerges. This type of humor suggests that in the Jewish psyche and popular imagination generally, Black people can be Christian or Muslim or any other faith except Jewish. To be so evokes the same jocularity that one would have at the sight of a dancing bear. Even many serious writers and scholars cannot resist the temptation to mock elements of our devotion. By so closely associating Jewishness with whiteness, at least on a subconscious level, Judaism becomes even whiter than Christianity. This, too, is profoundly ironic because Jews in Europe had historically been marginalized from the mainstream of White society because they were not Christian. In this context Jews have always understood that being White is not merely dependent on the complexion of one’s skin but also on accepting Christianity. Hence, jokes about Black Jews are a particularly curious expression of our racial thinking in which Black people are “other” than Jewish and Jews are supposedly even more White than Christians.

Regardless of whether the context is funny or the innocuous motive of the satirist, the underlying messages about Blackness and Jewishness are no laughing matter.

Link to the offensive clip, June 1, 2009

http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=228052&title=PR-Move

Link offensive clip Black Jews in Mel Brooks, History of the World

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gcAU_fNrb1s