Unpack­ing the Book: You’re Laugh­ing at That? A Deep­er Look at Jew­ish Humor with Judy Gold and Jere­my Dauber

Thursday, May 11, 2023
7–8pm

The Jew­ish Museum

Join Judy Gold and Jere­my Dauber for a con­ver­sa­tion about Jew­ish com­e­dy – what makes us laugh, what doesn’t, and how that has changed through­out the years. A look back and a look for­ward at the world of Jew­ish com­e­dy and humor that you don’t want to miss! Mod­er­at­ed by Stephanie But­nick, host of Tablet’s Unortho­dox podcast.

Copies of both books will be avail­able for pur­chase and sign­ing at the event. To pur­chase an advance copy of Judy Gold’s Yes, I Can Say That, and Jere­my Dauber’s Mel Brooks: Dis­obe­di­ent Jew, please click here!

About the Speakers:

Judy Gold is an Emmy award-win­ning come­di­an, actor, writer, pro­duc­er & pod­cast host. Recent projects include com­e­dy spe­cials on HBO, Com­e­dy Cen­tral, and LOGO. See Judy in Yes I Can Say That” based on her book of the same title, this spring in NYC at 59E59 from March 4 – April 16. Tick­ets at judy​gold​.com. Off Broad­way: The Judy Show — My Life as a Sit­com, 25 Ques­tions for a Jew­ish Moth­er, The Tam­ing of The Shrew (Shake­speare in the Park), Clin­ton! The Musi­cal, Dis­as­ter! The Musi­cal. Recent TV cred­its include Bet­ter Things (FX), First Lady & City On A Hill (Show­time), Life and Beth (Hulu), Girls 5 Eva (Pea­cock), Nora From Queens (Com­e­dy Cen­tral) and the pod­cast Kill Me Now.

Jere­my Dauber is the Atran Pro­fes­sor of Yid­dish Lan­guage, Lit­er­a­ture and Cul­ture and, for a decade, direct­ed the Insti­tute of Israel and Jew­ish Stud­ies at Colum­bia Uni­ver­si­ty, where he also teach­es in the Amer­i­can stud­ies pro­gram. His books include Anto­nio’s Dev­ils: Writ­ers of the Jew­ish Enlight­en­ment and the Birth of Mod­ern Hebrew and Yid­dish Lit­er­a­ture (Stan­ford Uni­ver­si­ty Press, 2004); In the Demon’s Bed­room: Yid­dish Lit­er­a­ture and the Ear­ly Mod­ern (Yale Uni­ver­si­ty Press; 2010); The Worlds of Sholem Ale­ichem (Schock­en Books, 2013); and Jew­ish Com­e­dy: A Seri­ous His­to­ry (W.W. Nor­ton, 2017). Both The Worlds of Sholem Ale­ichem and Jew­ish Com­e­dy were final­ists for the Nation­al Jew­ish Book Award. In 2021, Nor­ton pub­lished his Amer­i­can Comics: A His­to­ry, and his Jew­ish Lives biog­ra­phy of Mel Brooks, Mel Brooks: Dis­obe­di­ent Jew, will be released in March 2023 by Yale Uni­ver­si­ty Press.

Stephanie But­nick is deputy edi­tor of Tablet Mag­a­zine and a host of the Unortho­dox pod­cast. She is the author, along with her co-hosts, of The Newish Jew­ish Ency­clo­pe­dia: From Abra­ham to Zabar’s and Every­thing in Between. She has writ­ten for The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal.

This event is in part­ner­ship with Jew­ish Book Coun­cil, The Jew­ish Mse­um, and Tablet Mag­a­zine.