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A Bukharian comedian mines his Jewish identity in his debut standup solo show
(New York Jewish Week) – On paper, at least, it seems like Natan Badalov had a pretty typical American Jewish childhood. He went to a Jewish day school for elementary and middle school, had a bar mitzvah and graduated from a public high school.
And yet, despite growing up in a city that’s home to more than 1.5 million Jews, Badalov, 31, always felt like something of an outsider.
Badalov’s family came from Uzbekistan in the early 1990s, as part of a wave of Bukharian immigrants who fled Central Asia after the fall of the Soviet Union. While most Bukharian families settled in the heavily Jewish Queens neighborhoods of Forest Hills and Rego Park, the Badalovs moved to the remarkably diverse neighborhood of Jackson Heights, which is technically only a few miles from away but may as well have been on another planet.
These days, there are some 50,000 Bukharian Jews in New York, though for much of Badalov’s childhood he was isolated from them. He attended a Jewish day school in Manhattan, where he said many of his classmates had never interacted with someone who wasn’t Ashkenazi. Some people made fun of his looks, and he said some adults there did not allow him to question the meaning of God and faith.
By the time he started at Forest Hills High School — which had a large population of Bukharian Jewish students — he felt alienated from them as well. “I had a thing for a long time where, because of religious trauma, I would push away from Judaism,” Badalov told the New York Jewish Week. “But it always just tends to come back. You can’t avoid your problems.”
Recently, Badalov, who still lives in Queens, dated a rabbi, who asked him all sorts of questions about his Jewish upbringing and Jewish identity. And while the relationship didn’t work out, the experience inspired him to think deeply about his feelings about Judaism and why he pushed it away.
After performing stand up comedy as a side gig around the city for the last seven years, the intense period of introspection inspired him to create his first-ever solo standup show “Connect the Dots,” which he will debut Nov. 8 at the Astoria venue Q.E.D. as part of the New York Comedy Festival. “It’s about me trying to evaluate everything that happened — why I dated a rabbi and why it didn’t work out,” he said. “It’s very Jewish.”
Ahead of next week’s set, the New York Jewish Week caught up with Badalov to talk about what inspired his debut show, how his identity has evolved and whether or not he’s the “Martin Luther King of Bukharian comedians,” as he calls it.
This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
New York Jewish Week: What inspired you to create this show?
Natan Badalov: It’s about me trying to find my Jewish identity. It was inspired by a common thing with every immigrant family, where there’s, like, that pressure to get married. I dated a rabbi for a few years and it didn’t work out. Heartbreak is a great inspiration for everything, really.
What I talk about in the show is about how when you date someone, they want you to be part of their life. It makes sense, you’re in a relationship. For her, being a rabbi meant going to services and being more observant. I wasn’t — I was just content with being as religious as I am now, which is just culturally Jewish. That’s where we would butt heads, usually about the future.
We dated for about a year and a half. It was during the pandemic. We got together because we both had some resentment towards Judaism. A lot of Jewish people thought I was Muslim and all this other stuff. For her, a lot of more religious people didn’t respect that she was a female rabbi.
But the relationship made me start thinking about my Jewish identity more. She would ask me if I would raise my kids Jewish and I’ve never been asked that before. Thinking about it, I said “No, I wouldn’t do it because of the trauma that I went through. I wouldn’t want to put them through that.” She would say, “That’s so sad.” Those conversations made me try to understand how much I value or whether I value Judaism in my life at all. I had never asked myself those questions.
What do you mean by religious trauma?
Growing up, I went to day school from second to eighth grade. I had a little uniform, I wore a yarmulke, I put on tefillin. I would visit my relatives in Israel from time to time, so it was a very Jewish environment.
But being Bukharian and coming to the U.S., there was always this kind of tension between me and Ashkenazi Jewish people. I grew up in Ashkenazi spaces and American Jewish spaces. There would be certain instances where I would have to explain myself and explain who I am and where I’m from.
One time, I was followed in the synagogue, which was pretty fucked up and confusing — it’s something with the eyebrows. I think that makes people question things. I went to Forest Hills High School, which is basically half Bukharian. That was my first introduction to being around “Oh my god, everybody got the same eyebrows,” which was crazy.
Because of stuff like that, as I got older, I started feeling more and more defensive and on edge when I was going to synagogue. It pushed me away from it. Even to this day, I still feel that way, but writing this show has really helped me process it.
Now I’m comfortable calling myself “just Jewish.” That was something I wasn’t even comfortable with for a long time. I would say to myself, “Well, I’m not even practicing, so what’s the point of calling myself Jewish.” But I accepted that just because I’m not doing those things doesn’t mean that it’s not part of my life.
Do you feel a responsibility to represent Bukharian Jews in comedy?
I used to get upset like, “Why don’t you people know about Bukharian Jews?” But I’ve come to terms with it.
I don’t know many Bukharian comedians. There are some that do sketches and stuff on TikTok but in terms of standup, I don’t know of any in America or New York. There have been Bukharian people that want to do stand up and they’ve been messaging me asking for advice. So it’s good to see that, there’s a desire to do it. I’m always down to help. I don’t really want to be like, I don’t know, the Martin Luther King of Bukharian comedians. It’s great if people identify or connect to me in that way, but there’s a lot of pros and cons to that. Being Bukharian is not my only thing or my claim to fame. It’s just one part of me.
How did you get into comedy?
The end of 2016. I always wanted to do it; I would always just write the material but I thought everyone did that. I would go to open mics and just watch for a long time, way too long. It got to the point where people kind of knew me — comics usually just do their set and leave, so they all assumed I was a comedian who might be on after them. Eventually I had to do a set.
My first set was about me being a Broadway usher at the Friedman Theatre. I forgot it all. I forgot every single thing. I just started pointing at everyone and just going like, “Yo, what’s up?” I said what’s up to every person in the room, about 15 people. By the 15th person. I was done, that was it. I just walked off. But now I’m here with a set.
Natan Badalov will perform “Connect the Dots” as part of the New York Comedy Festival at Q.E.D. Astoria on Nov. 8 at 9 p.m. Get tickets for $15. In response to the Israel-Hamas war, Badalov is donating a portion of the proceeds to the Global Empowerment Mission, a charity that helps affected families receive food, clothing and medicine.
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The post A Bukharian comedian mines his Jewish identity in his debut standup solo show appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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Drexel University Professor Stole Signs From Synagogue, Police Say
Illustrative: People pass a cluster of signs outside a pro-Hamas encampment at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill. on April 28, 2024. Photo: Max Herman via Reuters Connect
A Drexel University professor allegedly participated in a mass theft of items from a synagogue in a suburb outside Philadelphia, a local NBC affiliate reported on Tuesday.
Mariana Chilton, 56, a professor of health management and policy at Drexel, has been accused of stealing pro-Israel signs from the Main Line Reform Temple in Lower Merion Township, traveling there from her neighborhood of residency, Wynnewood, Pennsylvania. Chilton allegedly drove the getaway car while two other accomplices, Sarah Prickett and Sam Penn — who is from New York — trespassed the synagogue and absconded with the loot.
“We are just taking them because we feel like it is a representative of genocide,” Chilton told law enforcement after being caught in the act, the report stated. She then, after offering to “just put them back,” refused to identify herself and comply with other lawful orders.
Video evidence provided by a local resident placed Chilton and her accomplices at the scene of the crime, and a Main Line Reform Temple official identified the signs recovered from her car as the temple’s property. That was enough for law enforcement to charge her with several offenses, including conspiracy and theft. She is also charged with driving without a license and not registering her vehicle.
Drexel University has not responded to The Algemeiner‘s request for comment for this story.
Experts have told The Algemeiner in the past academic year that while the conduct of anti-Zionist students should be reported on, the role of faculty in fostering and engaging in antisemitic acts should be closely scrutinized. Last semester, anti-Zionist faculty attached themselves to anti-Israel, pro-Hamas demonstrations, sometimes breaking the law by preventing officers from dispersing unauthorized demonstrations and detaining lawbreakers.
At Northeastern University in Boston, professors formed a human barrier around a student encampment to stop its dismantling by officers, and at Columbia University, anti-Zionist faculty at the school, as well its affiliate Barnard College, staged a walkout in support of the demonstrations and demanded the abeyance of disciplinary sanctions against anti-Zionist students — dozens of whom cheered Hamas and threatened more massacres of Jews similar to Oct. 7 — who violated school rules.
Chilton’s case is unlike any other reported in the past year, however. While dozens of professors have been accused of abusing their Jewish students and encouraging their classmates to bully and shame them, none are alleged to have resorted to stealing from a Jewish house of worship to make their point.
Mass participation of faculty in pro-Hamas demonstrations marks an inflection point in American history, Asaf Romirowsky, an expert on the Middle East and executive director of Scholars for Peace in the Middle East, told The Algemeiner in April.
Since the 1960s, he explained, far-left “scholar activists” have gradually seized control of the higher education system, tailoring admissions processes and the curricula to foster ideological radicalism and conformity, which students then carry with them into careers in government, law, corporate America, and education. This system, he concluded, must be challenged.
“The cost of trading scholarship for political propagandizing has been a zeal and pride among faculty who esteem and cheer terrorism, a historical development which is quite telling and indicative of the evolution of the Marxist ideology which has been seeping into the academy since the 1960s,” Romirowsky said. “The message is very clear to all of us who are looking on from the outside at this, and institutions have to begin drawing a red line. The protests are not about free speech. They are about supporting terrorism, about calling for a genocide of Jews.”
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
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White House Cites Biden Clash With Netanyahu Over Iran as Proof of President’s Mental Fitness
US President Joe Biden hosts the 2023 Teacher of the Year event at the White House in Washington, US, April 24, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
Amid growing concerns over US President Joe Biden’s mental fitness, key White House officials are suggesting his foreign policy discussions with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, including a clash over how to respond to Iran’s unprecedented military attack on the Israeli homeland earlier this year, serve as evidence that he is still capable of leading from the Oval Office.
Biden and Netanyahu engaged in a heated back-and-forth in the immediate aftermath of Iran launching a massive missile and drone salvo at Israel in April, according to a new report by the New York Times. The US and other allies helped Israel shoot down nearly every drone and missile. The attack caused only one injury.
However, the Times revealed that while Netanyahu initially wanted to respond to Iran in a forceful way, Biden threatened to withhold US support in the event of a major Israeli retaliatory strike, arguing it would risk sparking a regional conflict in the Middle East.
“Aides present in the Situation Room the night that Iran hurled a barrage of missiles and drones at Israel portrayed a president in commanding form, lecturing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by phone to avoid a retaliatory escalation that would have inflamed the Middle East,” the Times reported. “‘Let me be crystal clear,’ Mr. Biden said. ‘If you launch a big attack on Iran, you’re on your own.’”
“Mr. Netanyahu pushed back hard, citing the need to respond in kind to deter future attacks,” the report continued. “‘You do this,’ Mr. Biden said forcefully, ‘and I’m out.’ Ultimately, the aides noted, Mr. Netanyahu scaled back his response.”
Israel’s military response was small and appeared aimed at minimizing the risk of escalation.
The Times report, headlined “Biden’s Lapses Are Said to Be Increasingly Common and Worrisome,” came on the heels of Biden delivering a widely-panned presidential debate performance last Thursday against former US President Donald Trump. Biden’s performance, which oftentimes appeared incoherent and muddled, set off alarm bells in Democratic circles, sending the president’s allies scrambling to extinguish concerns over his age and mental acuity.
While highlighting rising concerns, the news story also noted instances in which, according to aides, Biden appeared coherent and capable, citing the exchange with Netanyahu and his handling of the Iranian missile attack more broadly as one such example.
However, an anonymous Biden administration official told the Times that they are unsure whether Biden could hold his own against adversarial foreign leaders such as Vladimir Putin of Russia.
On Wednesday, the White House directly attributed quotes to Netanyahu in which the Israeli premier reportedly said he found Biden “very clear and very focused” during his visit to Israel following the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas. According to a White House spokesperson, Netanyahu also reportedly cited the “more than a dozen phone conversations, extended conversations with President Biden” as evidence of the commander-in-chief’s vitality.
“Some White House officials adamantly rejected the suggestion of a president not up to handling tough foreign counterparts and told the story of the night Iran attacked Israel in April,” the New York Times reported. “Mr. Biden and his top national security officials were in the Situation Room for hours, bracing for the attack, which came around midnight. Biden was updated in real time as the forces he ordered into the region began shooting down Iranian missiles and drones. He peppered leaders with questions throughout the response.”
During its first direct attack on Israeli territory, Iran in April launched roughly 300 missiles and drones at the Jewish state.
Leading up to the attack, Iranian officials had promised revenge for an airstrike on Iran’s consulate in Damascus, Syria that they attributed to Israel. The strike killed seven members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), a widely designated terrorist organization, including two senior commanders. One of the commanders allegedly helped plan the Hamas terrorist group’s Oct. 7 massacre across southern Israel.
Israel has neither confirmed nor denied involvement in the incident.
“After it was over, and almost all of the missiles and drones had been shot down, Mr. Biden called Mr. Netanyahu to persuade him not to escalate. ‘Take the win,’” Mr. Biden told the prime minister, without reading from a script or extensive notes, according to two people in the room. In the end, Mr. Netanyahu opted for a much smaller and proportionate response that effectively ended the hostilities,” the article added.
Days later, Israel responded to the Iranian aggression by launching a modest missile attack on an airbase near Isfahan. The Jewish state sought to show that it could effectively target key strategic locations in Iran while not escalating the conflict any further. Netanyahu insisted on launching a retaliatory attack against Iran, arguing that ignoring the Iranian strikes would incentivize more attacks against the Jewish state.
IRGC Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh said that Iran is waiting for “the opportunity” to launch a new round of strikes against Israel, Iranian media reported on Tuesday, potentially boosting Netanyahu’s argument that a smaller response would invite further attacks.
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Journalist at US-Based Nonprofit Promoted Stabbing Israelis, Depicted Rescued Hostage as Pig Drinking Blood: Report
Palestinian terrorists ride an Israeli military vehicle that was seized by gunmen who infiltrated areas of southern Israel, in the northern Gaza Strip, Oct. 7, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Ahmed Zakot
A journalist at a US-based nonprofit posted tutorials on how to commit stabbing attacks and depicted a rescued Israeli hostage as a pig drinking blood, according to newly surfaced social media posts.
Eitan Fischberger, a communications analyst and former Israel Defense Forces (IDF) staff sergeant who first broke the story on X/Twitter, alleged that Mahmoud Ajjour, a correspondent for The Palestine Chronicle, posted disturbing images and videos to his Instagram page.
Fischberger posted screenshots and screen recordings of the posts.
According to The Chronicle‘s website, Ajjour is a photojournalist and correspondent for the outlet, which is a US-based 501c3, or nonprofit organization.
One of the posted images depicted Noa Argamani — an Israeli who was kidnapped from the Nova music festival during Hamas’ Oct. 7 terrorist attacks in southern Israel, and then rescued in an IDF special operation last month — as a pig drinking blood from a Coca-Cola bottle.
Here, for example, Ajjour posted a picture of Israeli hostage Noa Argamani, portrayed as a pig drinking the blood of Palestinians.
Noa, as you recall, was freed by Israeli forces in the same rescue operation in which Ajjour’s terrorist colleague was killed pic.twitter.com/oiLCqekxbl
— Eitan Fischberger (@EFischberger) June 30, 2024
In Oct. 2015, Ajjour posted a picture of a masked Palestinian holding up a knife, with the caption, “I declare it a revolution.”
That time — from approximately Sept. 2015 to June 2016 — was referred to as the “knife intifada,” as there was an uptick in Palestinian terrorist attacks, particularly using knives, against Israelis in Jerusalem, along with other parts of Israel and the West Bank.
Ajjour also seems mighty fine endorsing stabbing attacks pic.twitter.com/xi2MnZVddl
— Eitan Fischberger (@EFischberger) June 30, 2024
During that same month, Ajjour also reportedly posted a two-part tutorial on how to carry out stabbings with the caption, “May Allah protect them,” likely referring to those who were engaging in such attacks.
So much, in fact, that he uploaded a two-part instruction video showing off some best practices for stabbing Israelis pic.twitter.com/Z12rVo4Enx
— Eitan Fischberger (@EFischberger) June 30, 2024
Then, in 2023, after the son of a Hamas preacher was killed when a device he was trying to launch at Israel exploded, Ajjour mourned his death on Instagram. “Your father’s legacy is proud of you,” he wrote alongside a picture that included what appeared to be a Hamas flag.
And here, Ajjour mourns the death of Bara’a al-Zard, son of Hamas preacher Wael al-Zard.
Silly Bara’a died in an explosion caused by a device he was trying to launch at Israeli forces near the Gaza security fencehttps://t.co/vZR6IW0shF pic.twitter.com/ipQw55BYd7
— Eitan Fischberger (@EFischberger) June 30, 2024
This is not the first time a journalist from The Palestine Chronicle was alleged to have either supported or partaken in terrorism.
Abdallah Aljamal, who was a correspondent for The Chronicle, allegedly held three Israeli hostages in his home, according to the Israeli government. He was killed during a raid that rescued four hostages, including Argamani. After the allegations came to light, The Chronicle changed Aljamal’s status on its website from a correspondent to a contributor.
The Palestine Chronicle did not respond to a request for comment for this story.
Fichberger wrote that he wants the US House Ways and Means Committee to investigate The Chronicle for what seems to have become a pattern.
“If The Chronicle is let off the hook for employing an actual terrorist hostage-taker, it would prove that the American counter-terror legal apparatus really is irreparably broken,” he wrote.
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