The Young Israel of East Brunswick (YIEB) has established an annual tradition of togetherness and laughter that is a major draw for their members, prospective members and community members in the surrounding areas.
On Saturday night March 8, YIEB held their third annual Comedy Night @ Young Israel of East Brunswick, as the closing event of the Discover East Brunswick Prospective New Members Shabbaton that brought many potential new members to the shul. The audience filled the ballroom of the shul and featured two well-regarded comedians as well as a home-grown jokester.
Shul member Joseph Shmulewitz started off the evening, pointing out that he was not sure he’d be performing until the last minute because his wife is nine months pregnant. He warned the audience that while his usual material can be edgy, that night he was completely unscripted so there was no telling what he could say.
Wali Collins, a comedian from Harlem who has appeared at the Gotham Comedy Club and Comedy Cellar and on comedy specials on Netflix, Hulu and Comedy Central, started his act by remarking, “Yes, this is my demographic. I’m home.” He riffed on his religious Christian upbringing, black churches, motherhood, unusual children’s names, race relations in the workplace, living in NYC and the Citizen’s App, and the challenges of getting older.
Avi Lieberman, a comedian from Los Angeles who has appeared at the Laugh Factory LA, Hollywood Improv, on “The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson” on Comedy Central, and on a Showtime special, started his routine by noting the many unusual anniversaries on the Chabad calendar. He joked about how yeshiva day school basketball teams give their players “a false sense of athletic ability,” because they only compete against other yeshiva teams. He shared that friends from public school asked him if the yeshiva cheerleaders are really pretty, to which he replied that he wasn’t sure, because they perform behind mechitzahs.
Lieberman riffed on how observant Jews explain their holidays to non-Jewish friends, calling Rosh Hashanah “New Year’s Without the Fun” and Purim “Halloween and St. Patrick’s Day mixed together.” He explained that the job of rabbis is to “make observance as hard as possible, for their own personal amusement,” and pointed to the Pesach Seder, where all you really need to do is discuss the Exodus yet the rabbis threw in a bunch of crazy math, a review of the sweep of Jewish history, and a recitation of Hallel for no apparent reason.
Lieberman also touched on the difference between gifts on Chanukah and gifts on Xmas—“They get one day of awesome gifts, we get eight days of scrawny gifts”—and the delights of flying on El Al where the announcements are obnoxious, the Haredim rearrange the seating, and you get woken up to make a minyan, whether you asked to participate or not.
It was apparent from the response of the audience that, while all the comics earned laughs, Lieberman’s remarks resonated most deeply.
Asked at the event why YIEB established an annual comedy night, shul president Jeff Perlman stated: “A truly fun event like this is a great way to close out a successful Discover East Brunswick Shabbaton. People really enjoy it!” Asked why she and her husband, Avi, decided to attend, YIEB shul member Sara Strum of East Brunswick said that they were looking forward to “fun with friends.”
Harry Glazer is the Middlesex County editor of The Jewish Link. He can be reached at [email protected] and he welcomes reader feedback.
