Go ahead, laugh at ourselves a little

American Jewry is past the point where it needs to worry about jokes fueling anti-Semitic sentiments, asserts a scholar of Jewish humor from the U.S. visiting Israel this week. Jack Kugelmass, however, cautions that it's important to bear in mind that the very same jokes can be told by anti-Semites and by philo-Semites. "The meaning of the joke is very much dependent on who's telling it."

It may sound unintuitive, but when Jews self-deprecate, the last laugh is in fact often on anti-Semites, Kugelmass asserts. A recent case in point, he notes, was a controversial televised spoof from last month by Jewish American comedian Jon Stewart. Showing highlights from the AIPAC conference, the comedian explains how presidential candidates "win over these Elders of Zion." He also says, "You can't say anything remotely critical about Israel and get elected."

The director of Jewish studies at the University of Florida takes issue with Stewarts' critics, who complained in Haaretz and elsewhere that the spoof was encouraging anti-Semitic conspiracy theories, pointing out that the video had popped up in countless neo-Nazi websites.

"You don't need Jon Stewart's self-deprecating Jewish humor to encourage anti-Semitism," he says. "It has always existed in some way, and has nothing to do with what the Jews say." The Jewish humor expert explains that "the nice thing about these spoofs is that ultimately they help undermine the legitimacy of such attacks on Jews." That is because "it's very hard to take people who are anti-Semitic seriously in the United States. There aren't that many."

Sitting beside Kugelmass at the Prima Kings Hotel lobby in Jerusalem was another scholar who came on the trip, which the Jewish Agency organized for senior lecturers from the university to set up a lecturer exchange program. "Hopefully, most viewers are wary of interpreting foreign policy relationships based on The Daily Show," said Russian studies professor, Dragan Kujundzic. "This is precisely why it's a joke in a late night talk show."

In contrast, Kugelmass says, Holocaust jokes "would have no resonance in the U.S." But he is not surprised to learn that they are a popular and elaborate genre for many young Israelis. "There's reason why it would [be popular] in Israel," he says. "It's the element of playing on holy turf. It's one of the jobs of humor to disrobe what's seen as taboo." Kujundzic says he sees "a form of triumphalism" in Holocaust humor, explaining that only in Israel can Jews can tell these jokes with the certainty that such a tragedy will not happen here.

Also on Haaretz.com:

Shande for the goyim

More Jewish World news and features

	Jon Stewart during a taping of Comedy Central's "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" in New York. (AP)