Jewish Penicillin
Jewish Penicillin
Chicken soup, the cure for all ills and ailments, medical, financial, sexual, even sporting – your football team not winning (the one you support, not own)? – have some chicken soup; your wife/husband//lesbian daughter/transsexual son/bisexual priest/celibate girlfriend/frisky neighbour causing you grief? – don’t worry, have some soup. Whatever the problem, a bowl of soup is the answer. Unless you happen to be on a train, whereby the solution in one version of a famous tale from der heim, is a darn sight fishier:
A Jewish and non-Jewish man are sharing a carriage on a rickety old train, “Tell me,” asks the latter, “how is it Jews are so clever?”
“Well,” his travelling companion replies, “it’s down to the herrings we eat”.
At which point he unwraps some paper, takes out a piece of herring and promptly eats it.
“Have you any other pieces there?” the non-Jew enquires. “A few” “How much would you charge for a piece?
“Twenty kopecks,” says the Jew.
“Very well, here’s the money, let me have some” Passed the fish, he eats it quickly.
“You know,” he says, finishing chewing, “I could have bought a piece of herring like that in Moscow for a few kopecks”
“You see,” says the Jew, “it’s working already!”
Jews and humour have been close companions from time immemorial; perhaps due to a history of persecution, years of displacement or having time on their hands as they wandered the globe or dessert, in ancient times. The jokes kept coming – in good times or bad. Think of the contribution made to 20th Century humour by the likes of the Marx Brothers, Jack Benny, Woody Allen, Jerry Seinfeld even Sacha Baron Cohen. Witty scripts by Neil Simon, Mel Brooks and many others also brought tears to our eyes.
Of course there are Catholic comedians (rarely in evidence at The Vatican) and a few Imams who can bend the ear with witty repartee. Judaism does not proscribe alcohol, which must help, it certainly contributes to the joviality of festive occasions, one of which, Purim, encourages adults to imbibe and become merry. Jokes about Jews have not done the community any favours, though, implying stinginess and a propensity for great wealth, which is far from true. Similar barbs, cast in the direction of Scots and far worse things implied about other nationalities relating to sheep, are thankfully an anachronism now. Apart from on a very few remote farms in…..
Far better to laugh with people, rather than at them. The Jewish contribution has been unique, consistent and above all, funny. Sometimes inner truth is more accessible through humour than drama, philosophy or culture. If not, you can always have a bowl of chicken soup.
Jewish people have had to have humour to put up with the ridicule they have faced and still do. Like the joke
“I like chicken soup!”