Filthy Yiddish Jokes, in Volume
NEWS ITEM: Mameloshn abounds with dirty sayings — a fact made evident in a newly re-published book, “Yiddish Sayings Mama Never Taught You.” Some believe the volume will encourage young students of the language.
Why shouldn’t Jews, like other folks,
Enjoy their share of dirty jokes?
In ev’ry culture, ev’ry clime,
One finds that humor reeks with slime.
Old Sigmund Freud discovered this,
Through keen psychoanalysis.
(His insights were in fact so shrewd,
They quickly dubbed him “filthy Jude”.)
Scant difference exists between,
Erotic stuff and the obscene.
Vulgarity, like sewage, thrives,
Wherever humans are alive.
Like noxious fumes within the gut,
Arises laughter born of smut.
Exemptions to this moral blight,
Do not apply to Yiddishkeit.
Of “purity” be disabused!
Instead, just simply be amused.
Do tales of spice equate to vice,
Or constitute “not being nice”?
Off-color jokes are nothing new,
And shouldn’t raise a cry-and-hue!
Who cares if tales from mamelush,
Release in some the prudish blush?
Why I became the Forward’s editor-in-chief
You are surely a friend of the Forward if you’re reading this. And so it’s with excitement and awe — of all that the Forward is, was, and will be — that I introduce myself to you as the Forward’s newest editor-in-chief.
And what a time to step into the leadership of this storied Jewish institution! For 129 years, the Forward has shaped and told the American Jewish story. I’m stepping in at an intense time for Jews the world over. We urgently need the Forward’s courageous, unflinching journalism — not only as a source of reliable information, but to provide inspiration, healing and hope.
, editor-in-chief