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Richard Lewis: A True Mensch
Jewish comedian Richard Lewis, who died at the age of 76 in Los Angeles, was known for his whirlwind of nervous energy. On a recent episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm, Lewis told Larry David he was putting him in his will, and Larry said it was not necessary. But it’s clear that Lewis will be remembered very fondly by the public, and by those who knew him best.
“He’s one of two comedians I paid to see,” comic Elon Gold told me in an interview.
Gold started comedy at 16 so he would get to see comedians for free; the other comic he paid to see was Gilbert Gottfried.
“[Lewis] was a hero to me,” Gold said. “He was always in my top five. Any time he was on [David] Letterman I dropped everything and watched it and went crazy laughing. He was a combination of Woody Allen and Lenny Bruce, two of the greatest comedians who ever lived. He took that mantle and that voice and coined the term neurotic. I think he was actually mad when other Jewish comedians would use that word. Like Larry [David] said [about Lewis], ‘sweetest guy, funniest guy, that’s a rare combo.’”
Gold guest starred on the show Anything But Love, and got to work with Lewis.
“He couldn’t have been kinder to me,” Gold said. “He was gracious, sweet, and always funny. He had troubles but used it to his advantage. He took torment and trauma that was his childhood and mined it for comedy gold. When you can do that, you’ve won at the game of life.”
Gold joined the cast of Curb in season 11 as a Hulu executive, and said while he didn’t get a chance to do any scenes with Lewis, that Lewis was extremely complimentary.
I interviewed Lewis in 2014. But at first, our wires got crossed about the correct time, and my phone was off. He left a hilarious message that I’ve saved. “What was that like a little Jewish soprano?” Lewis said. “Hey, it’s Alan over here, over there I’m not in. Leave your number. Hey, I’ve been a comedian and an actor and an author for 45 years. I call you exactly on time. I don’t give you any of this fake Jewish mob stuff. You know what I mean? Come on, grow up. Alan, it’s Richard Lewis … What’s wrong with you? Why aren’t you there? What are you doing up there? You sending weather balloons up? There’s got to be an excuse that warrants you not being at the phone. I sold out Carnegie Hall in ’89. You know where you were in ’89? Nowhere. You weren’t born yet…”
He wanted to make it clear that he was joking, so he then asked me how his acting was. He was extremely kind in the interview, and said he was never sure that he would be a star.
“It doesn’t cost anything to be a mensch,” Lewis told me when I asked him how one stays grounded in Hollywood with fame and fortune.
He was one of my favorite comedians because he would say unexpected things, like when he said his mother had “major open guilt surgery” on The Johnny Carson Show.
In his 2013 documentary House of a Lifetime, Lewis showed a picture of his character from Robin Hood: Men in Tights, which Mel Brooks autographed to a “neurotic Jewish storm.”
Known for wearing black, Lewis was born in Brooklyn on June 29, 1947. He went to Hebrew school, and his father Bill was a co-owner of a catering company in Teaneck, New Jersey. He would graduate from Ohio State University, and was discovered by comedian David Brenner while he did standup in Greenwich Village, Manhattan. Lewis’ first big role was as Jewish comedian Billy Gondolstein in Diary of a Young Comic, a TV movie that aired on NBC. In 1985, he gained acclaim for his Showtime special I’m in Pain. He also appeared on the Howard Stern Show numerous times, including when he spoke about how he met Larry David when he was 12, hated him, and they had fistfights, but later became friends.
Lewis battled depression and alcoholism in his life.
Like so many others, I loved watching Lewis in Curb over the years. My favorite moment is when Lewis, after realizing he has called his girlfriend “honey” too early in the relationship, calls a waitress “honey” ten times, so it seems normal and his girlfriend doesn’t think he was trying to fast-track things.
Modi Rosenfeld, another comedian, said it was a pleasure to work with Lewis.
“We worked together at a few different events,” he said. “He’s one of the few comedians who is the same person both on and off stage. Always very friendly and supportive to younger comedians — which I was at the time.”
Comic Eli Lebowicz told me that Lewis stood out as someone with a neurotic nervous energy “and was proud of being a Jew.”
On Sunday night’s episode of Curb, people came up to Lewis to compliment him on his act, including a joke about “the bartender from hell.”
In his book, The Other Great Depression, Lewis wrote: “I figured out while writing my autobiography that I chose applause over tears and booze over fears.”
The author is a writer based in New York.
The post Richard Lewis: A True Mensch first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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US House Members Ask Marco Rubio to Bar Turkey From Rejoining F-35 Program
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio attends a cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington, DC, US, April 10, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Nathan Howard
A bipartisan coalition of more than 40 US lawmakers is pressing Secretary of State Marco Rubio to prevent Turkey from rejoining the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program, citing ongoing national security concerns and violations of US law.
Members of Congress on Thursday warned that lifting existing sanctions or readmitting Turkey to the US F-35 fifth-generation fighter program would “jeopardize the integrity of F-35 systems” and risk exposing sensitive US military technology to Russia. The letter pointed to Ankara’s 2017 purchase of the Russian S-400 surface-to-air missile system, despite repeated US warnings, as the central reason Turkey was expelled from the multibillion-dollar fighter jet program in 2019.
“The S-400 poses a direct threat to US aircraft, including the F-16 and F-35,” the lawmakers wrote. “If operated alongside these platforms, it risks exposing sensitive military technology to Russian intelligence.”
The group of signatories, spanning both parties, stressed that Turkey still possesses the Russian weapons systems and has shown “no willingness to comply with US law.” They urged Rubio and the Trump administration to uphold the Countering American Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) and maintain Ankara’s exclusion from the F-35 program until the S-400s are fully removed.
The letter comes after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan claimed during a NATO summit in June that Ankara and Washington have begun discussing Turkey’s readmission into the program.
Lawmakers argued that reversing course now would undermine both US credibility and allied confidence in American defense commitments. They also warned it could disrupt development of the next-generation fighter jet announced by the administration earlier this year.
“This is not a partisan issue,” the letter emphasized. “We must continue to hold allies and adversaries alike accountable when their actions threaten US interests.”
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US Lawmakers Urge Treasury to Investigate Whether Irish Bill Targeting Israel Violates Anti-Boycott Law
A pro-Hamas demonstration in Ireland led by nationalist party Sinn Fein. Photo: Reuters/Clodagh Kilcoyne
A group of US lawmakers is calling on the Treasury Department to investigate and potentially penalize Ireland over proposed legislation targeting Israeli goods, warning that the move could trigger sanctions under longstanding US anti-boycott laws.
In a letter sent on Thursday to US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, 16 Republican members of Congress expressed “serious concerns” about Ireland’s recent legislative push to ban trade with territories under Israeli administration, including the West Bank, Gaza, East Jerusalem, and the Golan Heights.
The letter, spearheaded by Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-NY), called for the US to “send a clear signal” that any attempts to economically isolate Israel will “carry consequences.”
The Irish measure, introduced by Foreign Affairs and Trade Minister Simon Harris, seeks to prohibit the import of goods and services originating from what the legislation refers to as “occupied Palestinian territories,” including Israeli communities in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Supporters say the bill aligns with international law and human rights principles, while opponents, including the signatories of the letter, characterize it as a direct extension of the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement, which seeks to isolate Israel as a step toward the destruction of the world’s lone Jewish state.
Some US lawmakers have also described the Irish bill as an example of “antisemitic hate” that could risk hurting relations between Dublin and Washington.
“Such policies not only promote economic discrimination but also create legal uncertainty for US companies operating in Ireland,” the lawmakers wrote in this week’s letter, urging Bessent to determine whether Ireland’s actions qualify as participation in an “unsanctioned international boycott” under Section 999 of the Internal Revenue Code, also known as the Ribicoff Amendment.
Under that statute, the Treasury Department is required to maintain a list of countries that pressure companies to comply with international boycotts not sanctioned by the US. Inclusion on the list carries tax-reporting burdens and possible penalties for American firms and individuals doing business in those nations.
“If the criteria are met, Ireland should be added to the boycott list,” the letter said, arguing that such a step would help protect US companies from legal exposure and reaffirm American opposition to economic efforts aimed at isolating Israel.
Legal experts have argued that if the Irish bill becomes law, it could chase American capital out of the country while also hurting companies that do business with Ireland. Under US law, it is illegal for American companies to participate in boycotts of Israel backed by foreign governments. Several US states have also gone beyond federal restrictions to pass separate measures that bar companies from receiving state contracts if they boycott Israel.
Ireland has been one of the fiercest critics of Israel on the international stage since the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre across southern Israel, amid the ensuing war in Gaza, leading the Jewish state to shutter its embassy in Dublin.
Last year, Ireland officially recognized a Palestinian state, a decision that Israel described as a “reward for terrorism.”
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US Families File Lawsuit Accusing UNRWA of Supporting Hamas, Hezbollah
A truck, marked with United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) logo, crosses into Egypt from Gaza, at the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip, during a temporary truce between Hamas and Israel, in Rafah, Egypt, Nov. 27, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh
American families of victims of Hamas and Hezbollah attacks have filed a lawsuit against the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, accusing the organization of violating US antiterrorism laws by providing material support to the Islamist terror groups behind the deadly assaults.
Last week, more than 200 families filed a lawsuit in a Washington, DC district court accusing the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) of violating US antiterrorism laws by providing funding and support to Hamas and Hezbollah, both designated as foreign terrorist organizations.
The lawsuit alleges that UNRWA employs staff with direct ties to the Iran-backed terror group, including individuals allegedly involved in carrying out attacks against the Jewish state.
However, UNRWA has firmly denied the allegations, labeling them as “baseless” and condemning the lawsuit as “meritless, absurd, dangerous, and morally reprehensible.”
According to the organization, the lawsuit is part of a wider campaign of “misinformation and lawfare” targeting its work in the Gaza Strip, where it says Palestinians are enduring “mass, deliberate and forced starvation.”
The UN agency reports that more than 150,000 donors across the United States have supported its programs providing food, medical aid, education, and trauma assistance in the war-torn enclave amid the ongoing conflict.
In a press release, UNRWA USA affirmed that it will continue its humanitarian efforts despite facing legal challenges aimed at undermining its work.
“Starvation does not pause for politics. Neither will we,” the statement read.
Last year, Israeli security documents revealed that of UNRWA’s 13,000 employees in Gaza, 440 were actively involved in Hamas’s military operations, with 2,000 registered as Hamas operatives.
According to these documents, at least nine UNRWA employees took part directly in the terror group’s Oct. 7, 2023, invasion of and massacre across southern Israel.
Israeli officials also uncovered a large Hamas data center beneath UNRWA headquarters, with cables running through the facility above, and found that Hamas also stored weapons in other UNRWA sites.
The UN agency has also aligned with Hamas in efforts against the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), an Israeli and US-backed program that delivers aid directly to Palestinians, blocking Hamas from diverting supplies for terror activities and selling them at inflated prices.
These Israeli intelligence documents also revealed that a senior Hamas leader, killed in an Israeli strike in September 2024, had served as the head of the UNRWA teachers’ union in Lebanon, where Lebanon is based,
UNRWA’s education programs have been found by IMPACT-se, an international organization that monitors global education, to contribute to the radicalization of younger generations of Palestinians.