Jackie Mason in New York City recording his album “I Want To Leave You With The Words Of A Great Comedian,” Feb. 20, 1963. (Popsie Randolph/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)

(JTA) — Jackie Mason, who died Saturday at 93, didn’t always set out to be a comedian. In fact, it wasn’t until he was 30 that he left behind the Orthodox rabbinate for irreverent open-mic nights.

Mason, born Yacov Moshe Maza to Orthodox parents, was one of the last survivors of the Borscht Belt comedy circuit that propelled a host of Jewish funnymen, including Jerry Stiller and Rodney Dangerfield, from the Catskills resorts that catered to Jewish vacationers into the American popular imagination.

His comedy, delivered in a distinctive cadence inflected with the Yiddish of his childhood on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, offered a window into the American Jewish psyche for non-Jews and, for Jews, held up a mirror that reflected their complicated relationship with their Americanness.

Forwarding the News

Thoughtful, balanced reporting from the Forward and around the web, bringing you updated news and analysis each day.

Terms(Required)

I agree to the Forward's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Email(Required)

“The only persecution that I ever suffered from in my career was from Jews that are embarrassed that I am so Jewish,” he said in one routine in which he lamented that American Jews say they are proud to be Jewish but also change their names and noses to obscure their Jewishness.

Mason was a complicated figure. Many of his jokes treated women crudely, and he characterized himself as a womanizer; he refused to acknowledge a child born from one of his relationships. He also spoke derogatorily on multiple occasions over the years about Black politicians, including by using a Yiddish epithet to describe President Barack Obama in 2009. “I’m an old Jew. I was raised in a Jewish family” where that epithet was used, he said in his defense at the time. For many years, he supported Meir Kahane, who as the founder of the Jewish Defense League organized violent efforts to combat antisemitism and lobbied to expel Arabs from Israel.

Mason also supported Donald Trump during his first presidential run.

Here are four videos that showcase Mason’s wit turned on his own people.

Mocking American Jews to an Israeli audience

In this clip from a performance in Israel, Mason makes fun of American Jews who he says desperately seek to assimilate despite proclaiming pride in their heritage. “Jews in the United States move into neighborhoods where there are no Jews allowed,” he jokes. “There’s nothing but Jews there. Each one thinks he’s the only one.”

Jackie Mason describes Jews at restaurants

The joke about Jewish diners complaining about the food and also the portion sizes wasn’t Mason’s, but it might as well have been. In this skit, he characterizes Jewish diners as domineering and picky, contrasting them with non-Jews who he said accepted whatever seats and food they were given.

“Jackie Mason: The World According to Me” (1988)

One of Mason’s most memorable acts was a standup routine based on his own life called “The World According to Me.” Within the first minute, he references his Jewishness in the context of the performance being a one-man show. “It disturbs a lot of people,” he said. “A lot of people say, who is a Jew to be making such a comfortable living?”

Rabbi Krustofski on “The Simpsons”

Mason was a regular on “The Simpsons” as the voice of Rabbi Krustofski, Krusty the Klown’s father. In this scene, he voices the character telling his son that comedy is an inappropriate career for someone in an observant Jewish community who comes from a distinguished line of rabbis — someone much like Mason himself.

—
The post Jackie Mason was a Jewish American comedy icon. These videos show why. appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

2X match on all Passover gifts!

$90 → $180 $180 → $360

$360 → $720

Other amount