Bob Mankoff, Departing New Yorker Cartoon Editor, Picks His Favorite Jewish Cartoons
Image by Neilson Barnard/Getty Images
Not everybody reads The New Yorker, but the magazine’s distinctive comic style is widely known and emulated. Bob Mankoff is largely to thank for that. Mankoff, who served as the magazine’s comic editor for 20 years, will depart his post this Sunday. During his tenure, The New Yorker cultivated a comic style marked by a dry, sardonic wit.
Recently, The Jewish Telegraph Agency reached out to Mankoff for a list of his favorite Jewish New Yorker cartoons. According to the article, Mankoff, who is Jewish himself, described the Jewish experience of assimilation as a launching point for great comedy. “Assimilation has a tension to it, to maintain who you are, but to change,” he said. “That’s a great mix for comedy because humor always has a double perspective — on what appearances are and what reality actually is.”
The list is great, though he missed some personal favorites, specifically “A Charlie Brown Bris,” and “We’re raising the children as wolves.” See the cartoons and the full Jewish Telegraph Agency article at the link above.
A message from our editor-in-chief Jodi Rudoren
We're building on 127 years of independent journalism to help you develop deeper connections to what it means to be Jewish today.
With so much at stake for the Jewish people right now — war, rising antisemitism, a high-stakes U.S. presidential election — American Jews depend on the Forward's perspective, integrity and courage.
— Jodi Rudoren, Editor-in-Chief
