Meet Rabbi Simcha Weinstein at Montreal Jewish Public Libary

Up Up and Oy Vey! How Jewish History, Culture, and Values Shaped the Comic Book Superhero
by Rabbi Simcha Weinstein
at the Montreal Jewish Public Library 5151, Côte Ste-Catherine Road
Thursday October 7, 2010 7:30 p.m.

While the Jewish contribution to film, theatre, music and comedy has been well documented, the Jewish role in the creation of the All-American superhero has not been – until now! From the birth of Krypton in Cleveland to Batman, Hulk, Spider-Man, the X-Men and more, Rabbi Weinstein will chronicle the unusual story behind the origins of the planet’s most famous superheroes.

Rabbi Simcha Weinstein is an internationally known best-selling author who is also a popular television and radio guest, having appeared on CNN Showbiz Tonight, NPR and other programs. He has also been profiled in many leading publications, including the New York Times, the Miami Herald, the Seattle Times and the London Guardian.

Books and autographs available.

$5 members/students*
$10 non-members
Advance tickets: (514) 345-6416
Info: (514) 345-2627 ext. 3006

* Tickets at the member rate must be purchased in advance.
Students pay member rate at all times.
Call for details. Doors open 30 minutes prior to the event.
Free parking at the YM-YWHA.

Sponsored by the Helen Bassel Endowment.

Shtick Shift now on iPhone and iPad

Download Shtick Shift on your new iPhone4

With all the excitement around the launch of apples new iPhone4, thought i would remind you that my latest book Shtick Shift: Jewish Humor in the 21st Century is available to download and read on the iPhone and iPad.

Whilst its not currently available via Apples ibooks store, you can purchase it from Amazons Kindle store, which can be read on all iPhones (not just iPhone4) and the iPad using the free Kindle app.

For those of you who dont have an iPhone or an iPad, Shtick Shift is also available on Kindle, Blackberry, PC, Mac and for the less tech savy paperback.

Shtick Shift Excerpt

Growing up Jewish in cold, rainy Manchester, England, I always knew that I was “a little different.”

My parents promised me a post-bar mitzvah growth spurt. (I’m still waiting.) And when the No. 135 bus took me home each day and stopped to pick up the kids from the local Catholic school, I’d shove my yarmulke even deeper into my pocket. Getting picked on by the big kids for being short and shy was bad enough. Getting picked on for being Jewish was much worse. But there was no point provoking the local anti-Semites by exhibiting my religiosity. These bullies weren’t the majority, by any means—but that didn’t make them any less scary.

My fears at the bus stop followed me into Hebrew school, where I learned all about centuries of Jewish suffering and oppression. When I walked back outside, our synagogue had been spray-painted, yet again, with (mis-spelled) obscenities.

Like many Jewish families, the standing joke at our family’s Passover seder table was, “They tried to kill us,
we survived, let’s eat.” But it didn’t seem all that funny to me, not when the tombstones in the local Jewish cemetery were defaced with swastikas. And so, like many underdogs, I sought solace in popular culture and the
world of superheroes. (In case anybody wants to learn more, I’ve divulged my affection for caped crusaders in my book Up, Up and Oy Vey!: How Jewish History, Culture and Values Shaped the Comic Book Superhero.) Within that alternative universe of “Zap! Pow! Bam!,” nebbishy nerds like Clark Kent beat up the bad guys, not the other way around.

Halfway through high school, however, I made a life changing discovery. Beneath my nebbishy exterior, I possessed a hidden “super power” of my own: the power of humor. Suddenly, I became the class clown, cracking up my teachers and classmates. Now that the cool kids liked me more, the mean ones were less prone to beat me up. I learned later that I was in good company—many famous Jewish comedians had been class clowns, too.

At the time, however, I knew almost nothing about the tremendous impact Jews have had on comedic history. Instead, I’d subconsciously tapped into this long, storied tradition. Like countless Jews before and since, I discovered that suffering inspires humor, which in turn can be used to fight oppression.

Only later did I take that yarmulke out of my pocket. I’d studied film at university, and after graduation I began a rewarding career in movie and television production. But something was missing. After all, the entertainment industry revolves around all things superficial and trendy. As I looked for something more serious to which I could dedicate my life, I found myself thinking more and more about my faith.

I started taking classes, and became more observant. My spiritual awakening was nothing dramatic—unless swapping movie sets for “rabbi school” (yeshiva) counts as “dramatic.” During that journey, I met rabbis and
rebbetzins who became my new mentors and “super heroes.” The men were full of wit and wonder, nothing like the stuffy “white shirt/black suit” penguins I’d expected. The women surprised me, too. They were outrageous, confident and free-thinking, not stereotypical, shmatteh-wearing submissive kitchen slaves. Through these holy Hebrew jesters, I finally came to appreciate those dark-humored jokes around the seder table, and the very real role comedy has played in helping Jews survive centuries of persecution.

Indeed, humor—which is all about paradox and a sense of the absurd—plays a significant role in the Jewish faith. As the old joke goes: If you don’t think God has a sense of humor, you haven’t seen a platypus.

Or better yet, consider the festival of Purim, inspired by the biblical Book of Esther. Purim celebrates the time that the Jews of ancient Persia were saved from genocide. Okay, so that may not sound like a recipe for hilarity, but that’s exactly what makes the story a great taproot of Jewish humor. The tale relies on split-second reversals of fortune—called hippuch in Hebrew. The only difference between tragedy and comedy is the way the story ends, and the Purim story certainly wraps up with an amusing punch line. Haman, the chief advisor to the Persian king Achashverosh, secretly plots to kill all the Jews in the kingdom. Disaster seems inevitable. Little does he know that the king’s wife, Queen Esther, is Jewish herself. Ooops! In an ironic twist, Haman ends up executed on the very gallows he built to hang the Jews. To this day, Jews commemorate this victorious reversal of fortune with a purimshpil (which means a “Purim game” in Yiddish), dressing up in costumes inspired by the Bible story, and perpetuating the tradition of linking the bitter with the sweet, and tragedy with comedy.

These lighthearted Purim activities serve a serious purpose: to remind us that persecution still exists and shows no sign of abating. On New Year’s Eve, 1999, the world pinned its hopes on the dawn of the new millennium, when we would finally bid farewell to the bloodiest century in history. Instead, the twenty-first century ushered in the new Intifada, the 9/11 terrorist attacks and other deadly bombings in London and Madrid. And who would have dared imagine that the ancient and barbaric practice of beheading would reenter the modern world with the execution of Jewish “infidels” like Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl? Nations like Iran and North Korea pose threats to world peace, while reports of genocide in Darfur seem to indicate we have failed to learn the lessons of the Holocaust. Closer to home, the evening news presents a nightmare vision of violence, economic meltdown and pointless tragedy, coupled with reports of shallow, shameless celebrity insanity.

Despite these dark turns in the annals of history, the United States generally remains a safe haven for the Jewish people. But, ironically, America’s embrace of the Jewish people has a shadow side: rampant assimilation and secularism that threatens the future of our faith.

Sadly, I witnessed something I never expected: the same hatred I saw as a child in England, here in my adopted home of New York City. In the autumn of 2007, our local synagogue was vandalized, along with another synagogue on our block. The culprits spray-painted and scratched more than twenty swastikas onto cars, and stuffed handwritten flyers reading “Israel: Land of Pigs” and “All Jews Die” on windshields. And this was in Brooklyn Heights, a leafy, gentrified neighborhood. Coincidentally (or not) the vandalism occurred just a few hours after anti-Semitic Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad spewed his rhetoric not far away, at Columbia University.

Thankfully, diligent police work paid off and a few months later, a suspect was indicted on almost one hundred counts of criminal mischief and other charges. An arsenal of weapons, including pipe bombs and firearms, was uncovered in his apartment. Our community was relieved, but also disturbed by the news that the suspect was a local man who claimed to be Jewish. His home was just a short distance from my office; I’ve probably passed him on the sidewalk many times. What a chilling reminder of the very real dangers we face today.

With all the tzurus in the world, we might well ask: What is there for twenty-first-century Jewish comedians to joke about? The surprising answer plenty. Luckily for us all, a veritable army of next-generation Jewish comedians are now on the scene, ready to slay the world’s modern day Hamans with their wit.

But before we meet these new Jewish jokers, let’s pay tribute to the funny men and women who paved their way.

Shtick Shift: Jewish Humor in the 21st century is available to purchase online now and in book stores.

Simcha chats on Air America Radio

Rabbi Simcha on Air America chats with Rev. Dr. C. Welton Gaddy about the changing face of Jewish humor from Sid Caesar’s Show of Shows to Jon Stewart’s Daily Show.

Book Tour

11/14/2010
23rd Annual Bikur Cholim Conference
Topic: Utilizing comics to promote Bikur Cholim

5/28/2010
Suffolk Y JCC in Commack
Topic: Up, Up and Oy Vey!

4/25/2010
Temple Beth Chai,
Long Island
Annual Journal Luncheon and Dance

1/31/2010 3pm
Holocaust Museum and Study Center
17 South Madison Ave
Spring Valley, NY 10977
http://www.holocauststudies.org/
Topic: War Time Motivation: Superheroes & the Holocaust

1/16/2010
Chabad of Port Washington
Topic: Up, Up and Oy Vey!

12/25/2009
Congregation Kehilath Jacob
THE CARLEBACH SHUL
305 West 79th Street New York NY 10024
Topic: Shtick Shift
http://www.carlebachshul.org/

12/19/2009
Emunah of Teaneck
Topic: Shtick Shift: Jewish Humor in the 21st Century

11/9/09
Chabad of the Conejo
30345 Canwood Street
Agoura Hills, CA 91301

11/8/2009 2pm
The Walters Art Museum
Graham Auditorium
600 North Charles Street
Baltimore, MD 21201
Phone: 410-547-9000 ext.236
Fax: 410-837-4886
Topic: Up, Up and Oy Vey: How Jewish History, Culture, and Values Shaped the Comic Book Superhero
Rabbi Weinstein will discuss the relevance of a hero in film and life as created by co-authors Jerome Siegel and Joseph Shuster during the rise of fascism in 1930s Europe. A reception follows the book signing.
Pre-registration recommended
Register by clicking here
www.thewalters.org

11/6/09
Chabad Community Center of Pacific Palisades
15207 W Sunset Blvd
Pacific Plsds, CA 90272-3567
(310) 454-7783
http://www.chabadpalisades.com/

10/19/2009
Oxford College of Emory University,
Atlanta
Topic: Up, Up and Oy Vey
www.oxford.emory.edu
Download the EBrochure here

9/13/2009
register online

2/19/2009
Aliya Institute
525-527 E New York Ave, Brooklyn

5/26/2009
topic: comedy and cocktails
Soho center for jewish life

2/17/2009
Queensborough Community College
Holocaust Resource Center and Archives, Bayside, NY 11364

2/8/2009 12.15-1.15pm
New York Comic Con
Jews and Comics: A Cottage Industry
Rabbi Simcha in discussion with writers Arie Kaplan, Danny Fingeroth and comic book creators Al Jaffee and Jerry Robinson.

2/1/2009
Congregation Beth Israel, Greater Hartford
Topic: Up, Up and Oy Vey! How Jewish History, Culture and Values, Shaped the Comic Book Superhero

1/31/2009
Emunah
Topic: Shtick Shift: Jewish Humor in the 21st Century

1/25/2009
Houston, TX
Topic: Shtick Shift: Jewish Humor in the 21st Century

1/14/2009
Barnes & Noble, 106 Court Street Brooklyn Heights
Topic: Shtick Shift: Jewish Humor in the 21st Century
Start 7pm

12/9/2008
Chabad of Flamingo
Topic: Shtick Shift: Jewish Humor in the 21st Century

12/4/2008
Richmond, VA
Topic: Shtick Shift: Jewish Humor in the 21st Century

12/3/2008
Tenement Museum, NY NY
Topic: Shtick Shift: Jewish Humor in the 21st Century

12/2/08
Chabad of MD
Topic: Up, Up and Oy Vey! How Jewish History, Culture and Values, Shaped the Comic Book Superhero

11/19/2008
Fort Lee, New Jersey
Topic: Shtick Shift: Jewish Humor in the 21st Century

11/18/2008
St. Louis, MO
Topic: Shtick Shift: Jewish Humor in the 21st Century

11/16/2008
Detroit, MI
Topic: Shtick Shift: Jewish Humor in the 21st Century

11/15/2008
Vir. Beach, VA
Topic: Shtick Shift: Jewish Humor in the 21st Century

11/13/2008
San Diego, CA
Topic: Shtick Shift: Jewish Humor in the 21st Century

11/11/2008
Cherry Hill, NJ
Topic: Shtick Shift: Jewish Humor in the 21st Century

11/9/2008
American Jewish University, Los Angeles, CA
Topic: Shtick Shift: Jewish Humor in the 21st Century

11/5/08
Gainesville Chabad
Topic: Up, Up and Oy Vey! How Jewish History, Culture and Values, Shaped the Comic Book Superhero

11/3/2008
Denver, CO
Topic: Shtick Shift: Jewish Humor in the 21st Century

Additional dates to be announced soon.