Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Make a matched gift and support Jewish journalism. DONATE NOW
Yiddish World

VIDEO: Funny skit of Jewish diners at a Chinese restaurant on Christmas

In this YidLife episode, comics Jamie Elman and Eli Batalion can’t agree on why this Jewish ritual is so popular

In this hilarious episode of the online comedy series, YidLife Crisis, Jamie Elman and Eli Batalion go through the familiar Jewish ritual of eating out in a Chinese restaurant on Christmas.

Why has this become such an ingrained tradition? It’s often attributed to the fact that Jews and Chinese lived in close proximity (e.g. Chinatown is right next to the Lower East Side of Manhattan) and because Chinese restaurants were the only eateries open on Christmas Day.

In this clip, called “Yingl Belz,” Chaimie (played by Elman), looks for deeper meaning in this ritual. Leizer (Batalion) thinks Chaimie is being ridiculous. As the argument gets heated, the hapless waiter gets caught in the middle.

It’s our birthday and we’re still celebrating!

This week we celebrate 129 years of the Forward. We’re proud of our origins as a Yiddish print publication serving Jewish immigrants. And we’re just as proud of what we’ve become today: A trusted source of Jewish news and opinion, available digitally to anyone in the world without paywalls or subscriptions. 

We’ve helped five generations of American Jews make sense of the news and the world around them — and we aren’t slowing down any time soon.

As a nonprofit newsroom, reader donations make it possible for us to do this work. Support independent, agenda-free Jewish journalism and our board will match your gift in honor of our birthday! 

Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:

  • Credit the Forward
  • Retain our pixel
  • Preserve our canonical link in Google search
  • Add a noindex tag in Google search

See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.