A01=Michel Wieviorka
alliance
American Jews
antisemitism
Ashkenazi
Author_Michel Wieviorka
Brand Israel
Category=JBSR
cultural identity
difference
dissent among Jews towards Israel
emigration
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European Jews
family
Gaza
Hasidism
Holocaust
how does humour strengthen community ties?
in the know
in-jokes
Israel
Jewish diaspora
Jewish discourse
Jewish history
Jewish humor
Jewish humour
Jewish identity
Jewish joke
Judaism
Louis de Funes
memory of the Holocaust
Michel Wieviorka's new book
Mizrahi
multiculturalism
non-Jews
occupied territories
oppression
Orthodox Jews
Palestine
political identity
rabbi
Rabbi Jacob
racism
religion
rivalry
Second World War guilt
Sephardic
Shoah
shtetl
sociology
tolerance
victimhood
West Bank
What is a Jewish joke? Are Jewish jokes antisemitic?
What is Jewish humor?
what is Jewish humour?
what is the value of humour
what makes someone Jewish?
Yiddish
Yiddishland
Yishuv
Product details
- ISBN 9781509564651
- Weight: 318g
- Dimensions: 142 x 218mm
- Publication Date: 20 Jun 2025
- Publisher: John Wiley and Sons Ltd
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Hardback
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The golden age of Jewish humour flourished in the second half of the twentieth century, enjoyed by Jews and non-Jews alike, but its twilight years are now in sight.
Telling jokes has the potential to reaffirm community once religion, political loyalties and victimhood are stripped away: from the 1960s on, a unique cultural dynamism bound up in these jokes reminded Jews around the world of what it means to be Jewish. Often, jokes pit one group against another, but Jewish jokes opted for self-deprecation instead, and in this case, laughing at the group reinforced it. They enabled Jews to live in harmony with others in full conscience of their differences and they safeguarded a desire for survival at the heart of Jewish identity. Moreover, absurd, larger-than-life characters such as Rabbi Jacob generated tolerance, empathy and tenderness among non-Jews after the horror and guilt of the Shoah. From the early 2000s, however, the space that allowed Jewish jokes to flourish began to shrink, due to a decline in the understanding of the Shoah, a less positive image of Israel and a waning of the importance of Jewish culture in American intellectual and cultural life.
This playful and personal book by Michel Wieviorka includes Jewish jokes but also laments the disappearance of the Jewish joke and eulogises its ability to allow the thriving of community alongside difference. It is an original and wide-ranging analysis of the evolution of the diaspora and its relationship with the State of Israel, its history and dramas as well as its cultural creativity.
Telling jokes has the potential to reaffirm community once religion, political loyalties and victimhood are stripped away: from the 1960s on, a unique cultural dynamism bound up in these jokes reminded Jews around the world of what it means to be Jewish. Often, jokes pit one group against another, but Jewish jokes opted for self-deprecation instead, and in this case, laughing at the group reinforced it. They enabled Jews to live in harmony with others in full conscience of their differences and they safeguarded a desire for survival at the heart of Jewish identity. Moreover, absurd, larger-than-life characters such as Rabbi Jacob generated tolerance, empathy and tenderness among non-Jews after the horror and guilt of the Shoah. From the early 2000s, however, the space that allowed Jewish jokes to flourish began to shrink, due to a decline in the understanding of the Shoah, a less positive image of Israel and a waning of the importance of Jewish culture in American intellectual and cultural life.
This playful and personal book by Michel Wieviorka includes Jewish jokes but also laments the disappearance of the Jewish joke and eulogises its ability to allow the thriving of community alongside difference. It is an original and wide-ranging analysis of the evolution of the diaspora and its relationship with the State of Israel, its history and dramas as well as its cultural creativity.
Michel Wieviorka is Professor of Sociology at EHESS, Paris.
