Volume 43- No. 37
by Daniel D’Amelio
What do all of the following comedians have in common?
Milton Berle, Jerry Seinfeld, Woody Allen, Joan Rivers, Jack Benny, Marx Brothers, Mel Brooks, Danny Kaye, Jerry Lewis, Three Stooges, Eddie Cantor, Fanny Brice, George Burns, Henny Youngman, Red Buttons, Lenny Bruce, Buddy Hackett, Sid Caesar. They are all Jewish—and this is only a partial list of Jewish comedians. I could write a much longer article on the subject, if space allowed.
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September 12, 2013
A Gallery of World Famous Comedians of Yesteryear with their professional names and their original birth names. From left to right: Jack Benny (Benjamin Kubelsky), Henny Youngman, Red Buttons (Aaron Chwatt), Jerry Lewis (Joseph Levitch), Isaac Sydney Caeser, Buddy Hackett (Leonard Hacker), George Burns (Nathan Birnbaum).
Incredibly, in 1979, Jews made up only 3% of our national population; yet 80% of professional comedians were Jewish. Many of the Jewish comedians were sons and daughters of immigrants, including Jack Benny, Sophie Tucker, George Burns and Henny Youngman. The Jewish immigrants came here beginning in the 1880s, and they were welcomed to our
nation for two reasons: in large part, because our economy was doing well and companies were looking for workers; and because 600,000 men had been killed in our civil war, leaving a huge shortage of workers.
For the Jews who arrived here, America was a God-send. In other countries, particularly in Russia, they had lived in poverty and in the fear of
pogroms, of being driven from their villages or fleeing for their lives from the thundering hoofs of Cossacks. But in their isolation and desperation, they developed a crucial way to cope and that was through humor; and in time, the humor was often expressed during holidays and at weddings with jesters and merrymakers, who told jokes, satirized others, and in every way they could think of, entertaining the guests.
And it was this coping skill of humor which the Jews brought to this country. When Eddie Cantor was in his early teens, growing up in a
“They Made Us Laugh . . .” Continued on Page 2