Let There Be Laughter by Michael Krasny

Author:Michael Krasny
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2016-09-27T04:00:00+00:00

In this joke, there is anxiety over loss of Jewish identity. Many Jewish jokes, such as the one about the conversion and the goyishe kop, are about this fear, and about the need to relinquish Jewish identity in order to make it financially. This was especially true in harsher times, like the Depression, when there were actual quotas and formidable barriers standing in the way of Jews making progress. The great German writer Heinrich Heine converted from Judaism to Christianity and called his conversion a passport to acceptance. Many Jews in the United States felt the need to change their Jewish-sounding last names in order to advance or gain acceptance. Even Jews who retained names like Shapiro, Levine, or Katz gave their names more English-sounding pronunciations. Of course there were many permutations of Jewish-sounding names as years went by. Ralph Lifshitz, for example, became Ralph Lauren. Jonathan Leibowitz and Lorne Lipowitz became Jon Stewart and Lorne Michaels. According to my friend Phil Bronstein, his father knew a man named Green who came from Europe and decided he wanted an American-sounding name. He changed his to Greenberg. Now, that’s funny! Jewish jokes are often about some vestige of Jewishness that cannot be covered up, discarded, or lost.

A couple try for years to get entrance into an all-WASP country club that will not accept Jews as members. Finally, Morris and Rose gain membership in the club because Morris, or Moishe, as he is known to his Jewish friends, agrees to donate a couple million to a capital campaign, which will mean a whole new building for the previously restrictive club. Now that they are members, Rose is eager and excited to be there and she dresses up for a grand entrance to the evening’s dinner for all club members. Rose appears with a full-length mink coat and her finest and most expensive, gaudy jewelry. Upon entering, she immediately sees modestly and underdressed women with only the most tasteful and not at all conspicuous or flashy jewelry. She realizes how out of whack her appearance is compared to these WASP women and she cannot suppress the single word that escapes her mouth. Loudly and audible to all around her the word tumbles out. “GEVALT,” the Yiddish word that is an exclamation of shock or alarm. She looks swiftly around at the placid and aloof and modestly dressed WASP women and says, “Vatever dat means.”

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