What are the sources of Jewish laughter? How and why is it funny? How has Jewish comedy responded to the circumstances and relationships of the Jewish people throughout the ages and in contemporary America?

The seminar will discuss traditional Jewish humor from the Bible to the European Diaspora (Genesis, Kafka, Aleichem) as well as contemporary Jewish humor in an assimilated American community (Roth, Englander, Seinfeld, Larry David and Jill Soloway)

No prior knowledge of the subject is required beyond having a sense of humor!

Roberta Rosenberg is an Emerita Professor of English and a Visiting Scholar at the Center for Jewish History. She writes on Jewish identity in popular literature, television and film.