E.J.

Schwartz

Professor Dobe

Intro to Peace and Conflict Studies - PCS 101

Extension: Op-Ed Due 11 November 2019

If You Tickle Us, Do We Not Laugh?

Two hundred years ago, in a small Polish village, a horrific rumor spread around the

Jewish community: A Christian girl had been murdered. Fearing some sort of retaliation, the

Jews planned to gather in the synagogue and plan defensive action. Just as the meeting was about

to begin, a townsman burst through the door and shouted “Great news, everybody! The dead

girl’s Jewish!”

I heard that joke from my grandfather a few years ago. He, Joseph Schwartz, exemplifies

as well as anybody could that humor is a core part of the Jewish identity. It is a facet of my

religion which I try to embrace thoroughly, as I have pursued stand-up comedy for the past three

and a half years. And in a time of growing anti-Semitism, the Jewish community needs to

embrace this same power of words more than ever before.

Anti-Semitism is undeniably on the in the United States. From 2017 to 2018, there was a

one hundred and five percent increase in physical assaults on Jewish people. Just in October of

last year, we saw the deadliest attack on Jews in national history in the form of the Tree of Life

Synagogue shooting (Anti-Defamation League, 2019). The question then becomes, what effect

can jokes have when faced with such violence? Well, it’s not entirely about the jokes, but instead

the communicative abilities behind them. While my grandfather’s joke is certainly worth a

chuckle on its own, there is certainly more to the punchline than the simple intention of getting a

laugh. Upon closer inspection, it plays upon the community which Jews build among themselves,
how Jews have been mistreated throughout history, and the fear of further persecution for false

accusations. This multi-layered, self-reflective speech is vital to the Jewish vernacular. 

The worth of such a well-reasoned conversation — which relies on the same powers

which Jewish humor requires —  cannot be overstated. While some would posit that it would

give dangerous or hateful arguments a platform, I believe that there is no better alternative. It is

impossible to sway someone's opinion without treating them as an equal of sorts. This much is

largely supported by two major voices in the Peace Studies field: Mohandas Gandhi and Srdja

Popovic. Primarily, I find support in Gandhi’s satyagraha, a belief system of principled

nonviolence. One facet of satyagraha which I specifically agree with is that no victory has been

won over an oppressor-opponent until their mindset has changed. Thus, Jewish comedy comes

into play; by successfully joking with somebody, you bridge gaps between yourself and them. By

equalizing yourself accordingly, you open the door to have a conversation in which you can

sway your opponent into an ally. This lies within Popovic’s “Spectrum of Allies”, which puts

forward the notion that anybody can be swayed to join a peaceful protest through the right

communications, actions, and dialogues. In Gandhi’s, Srdja’s, and my own arguments, the act of

conversing with opponents is essential to bringing about change. 

To be fair, conversations will not always work. For hopefully obvious reasons, we Jews

do not tend to love Nazis. This sentiment at least partially emerges from their inability to accept

that they lost back in 1945. Hence, I do not believe that a conversation will succeed every time

— some people truly are too far gone to win over. However, this is only in the most extreme of

cases. Otherwise, I personally can take very little action besides working through comedy, to do

my part for social justice.

 A major facet of Jewish humor is “a bitterer gelekhter”, which is Yiddish for “laughing

through tears”. It refers to the method of Jewish comedy which my grandfather employed in his

joke about distinctly Jewish issues, and which I (among many other Jew-medians such as Jerry

Seinfeld, Larry David, and Sarah Silverman) implement into stand-up comedy about everyday

American issues. By directly intertwining tragedy with comedy, Jewish humor has a unique

ability to critique society through a means which people generally listen to. Should the Jewish

community use this power of words in a productive, social-justice oriented way, then we will

become a more powerful anti-anti-Semitic force than we ever could with a serious tone. To again

reference Srdja Popovic, we can directly play into “laughtivism” — a movement’s tendency to

grow powerful if it does not take itself too seriously, and approaches issues from a more relatable

and approachable standpoint. Now, we just need to start taking issues head on, and curing the

sickness rather than the symptoms.

Extracurricular Works Cited

“Audit of Anti-Semitic Incidents: Year in Review 2018.” Anti-Defamation League,

www.adl.org/audit2018.