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At Chosen Comedy Festival in Brooklyn, comics lean into nuances of identity
(New York Jewish Week) — When comedian Modi Rosenfeld took the stage as co-host of the second annual Chosen Comedy Festival in Brooklyn on Tuesday evening, he stuck to an approach that has brought him success with Orthodox audiences: leaning into specificity.
“People want to hear us talk about antisemitism, they love to hear us make jokes and make fun of it,” he told the New York Jewish Week following the festival, which drew a lineup of Jewish comics to the Coney Island Amphitheater to perform for a crowd of thousands, many of them Orthodox Jews.
“They love specific humor,” Rosenfeld said. “When you mention the Persians, the Syrians, the Ashkenazim, the Hasidim — they love to be called out. People love that kind of attention when it’s in a positive way.”
But when he did a set at the festival, he also joked about another part of his identity that hasn’t usually shown up when he performs at Orthodox venues: His marriage to a millennial man.
“My husband’s younger — 10, 12 years younger — 22 years younger. Ten and 12…” he said in a shrinking voice that trailed off as the audience laughed.
Going there, in front of that audience, was a change for Rosenfeld, who discussed being gay in a “Variety” interview in January, but explained that he didn’t incorporate that part of his life into his act for Orthodox crowds. He said he tailors his comedy to meet his audience — recognizing what they will find funny and what subjects are appropriate for each room or club.
On Tuesday, Rosenfeld felt that this audience was ripe for the jokes, which he said he had been working on for an upcoming standup special.
Related: Deeply Jewish comedy is having a moment, even as antisemitism rocks pop culture
“This is my audience. They came to see me,” Rosenfeld said. “It’s my festival. I’m a producer, I’m a performer, I’m the host. So whatever I do is okay, ’cause it’s my show. It’s not a show that somebody else brought me in.”
He added, “And so I felt the room and they were amazing. They were there and they were ready.”
Rosenfeld’s 10-minute set came during the middle of the show, which he co-hosted with comic Elon Gold. It featured some of the lineup from last year’s festival, including Rosenfeld, Gold, Jeff Ross and Jessica Kirson, in addition to newcomers such as Eunji Kim, Eli Leonard, Rich Vos and Ari Shaffir — who self-released his standup special, titled “Jew,” last year.
There was a surprise appearance from Dave Attell, the former Comedy Central personality and “Saturday Night Live” writer. The show also included musical performances from the band Emotional Intelligence and Hasidic folk group Zusha, and was DJed by Lady Blaga.
The acts ran the comedy gamut from Kirson’s raunchy impressions of elderly grandparents having sex to Kim reflecting on the nuances of being an Asian Jew.
In one bit, Kim related that her young son was surprised that a classmate, named Silas, was Jewish. After all, he told her, “Silas doesn’t look Jewish!”
“I said, ‘What do you think a Jew looks like?’” Kim continued. “And my son looked at me and he said, ‘Asian.’”
Leonard’s act featured bottle dancing and an unusually timely joke about Jesus’ death — made just days after Oscar winner Jamie Foxx ignited a debate on social media with an Instagram post on the same topic.
“If we kill our only carpenter,” Leonard said, “who nails him to the cross?”
Since its founding in New York last year by Dani Zoldan, the owner of the Upper West Side comedy club Stand Up NY, the Chosen Comedy Festival has gone on tour in Miami and Los Angeles. This year, it grew to include nine shows in New York City — including a performance of comedian Alex Edelman’s Broadway show, “Just For Us” — and one show in the Catskills.
“Jews are so dying to show how proud they are of being Jewish,” Rosenfeld told the New York Jewish Week. “What an amazing outlet to do it through comedy.”
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The post At Chosen Comedy Festival in Brooklyn, comics lean into nuances of identity appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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Four More Sentenced to Jail for Amsterdam Attack Against Israeli Soccer Fans
Israeli soccer fans under assault, near Amsterdam Central station, in Amsterdam, Netherlands, Nov. 8, 2024, in this still image obtained from a social media video. X/iAnnet/via REUTERS
An Amsterdam court announced at a public hearing on Wednesday jail sentences, ranging from 11 days to three months, for four more perpetrators of the violent attack against Israeli soccer fans that took place in the streets of the Dutch capital last year.
The lengthiest sentence of three months, with the deduction of pre-trial detention, was given to a 27-year-old man who incited violence against Maccabi Tel Aviv fans on Nov. 7, 2024, with messages posted in a WhatsApp group chat that had thousands of members. He wrote “Dead Jew better than a living Jew” and messages about “Dirty cancer Jews.”
The court shared several other of his offensive messages, one of which included an image of Holocaust victim Anne Frank alongside the text “slaughter gas is for losers. I use Zyklon B,” referring to the deadly gas used in gas chambers at Nazi concentration camps. He had also shared an image of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler with the text “pull up pull up gas,” a drawing of Hitler with a swastika, and the message “Hamas Hamas all Jews on the gas.”
The 27-year-old also insulted Jews, made comments trivializing the Holocaust, and shared locations of “those Jews” so they would be attacked during the “Jew hunting” rampage that took place on Nov. 7. He even provided a time and location for attackers to gather and coordinate their assault, which took place in Amsterdam after Maccabi Tel Aviv competed against the Dutch team Ajax in a UEFA Europa League match. The court said he confessed to assisting in the violence carried out by dozens of anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian gangs.
Maccabi Tel Aviv fans were chased by assailants carrying knives and sticks, run over by cars, physically assaulted, and some were forced by their attackers to say “Free Palestine.” Amsterdam’s mayor called the attackers “antisemitic hit-and-run squads.”
A 32-year-old man, who founded the WhatsApp group where the attack was planned and promoted, was sentenced on Wednesday to six weeks in prison, minus the 26 days because of his pre-trial detention. He told attackers on the night of the premeditated and coordinated onslaught where and how they could escape police arrest, and where they could find Israelis to victimize.
A 22-year-old man was given one month in prison, with deduction for his pre-trial detention, for assisting in the violence. He shared on the WhatsApp group chat the location of Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters and urged attackers to spread out in different locations around Amsterdam. The Public Prosecutor’s Office had demanded 12 months in prison for him, but the court ruled there was not sufficient evidence that he personally assaulted Israeli soccer fans.
The fourth suspect sentenced on Wednesday, a 26-year-old, chased a Maccabi Tel Aviv supporter and physically beat the victim with his belt. He also has a criminal record with previous violent crimes. However, he does not need to do any jail time for his actions. On Wednesday, he was sentenced to 30 days in prison, of which 19 days is suspended. Eleven days remain in his sentence, but because that is equivalent to his pre-trial detention, he does not need to spend any time in prison. He was also given a two-year probation period for public assault. On Tuesday night, the night before his sentencing, he was seen at an anti-Israel demonstration in Amsterdam Central Station, according to Dutch media.
Sentencing for the attack began in December 2024, when an Amsterdam court ruled five men would face penalties ranging from six months to one month in prison, and a work sentence of 100 hours. In total, nine people have now been prosecuted for the violence. Amsterdam police said they have 122 suspects in the case.
The Lawfare Project, an international Jewish civil rights organization legally representing more than 50 victims of the attack, previously lambasted the Dutch court for what they described as “light sentences” for the assailants.
The post Four More Sentenced to Jail for Amsterdam Attack Against Israeli Soccer Fans first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Hamas Calls for Global Siege on US, Israeli Embassies After Renewed Strikes in Gaza
Illustrative: Pro-Hamas demonstrators gather in the heavily Orthodox Jewish neighborhood of Borough Park in New York City on Feb. 18, 2o25. Photo: Screenshot
Hamas has called for “mass demonstrations and a global siege on Israeli and American embassies around the globe,” according to Iranian state-run media, following Israel’s decision to resume military operations against the Palestinian terrorist group in Gaza after negotiations to extend a ceasefire failed.
In a statement issued on Tuesday, Hamas urged the “Arabic and Islamic world” and “free people everywhere” to mobilize against “the Israeli regime’s resuming its US-backed war of genocide against the Palestinian territory.”
The group called for immediate pressure on both Israel and the United States “to end the ongoing military onslaught,” in Gaza, according to Iran’s Press TV.
“The fascist occupation government has resumed its barbaric aggression and genocide war against our people in Gaza, violating all human norms, values, and divine laws during the holy month of Ramadan,” the statement reads”
Iran is Hamas’s chief international backer, providing the Palestinian terrorist group with weapons, funding, and training.
Israel on Monday night began conducting “extensive” strikes against Hamas targets in Gaza, before resuming ground operations in the coastal enclave on Wednesday.
“This follows Hamas’s repeated refusal to release our hostages, as well as its rejection of all of the proposals it has received from US presidential envoy Steve Witkoff and from the mediators,” the Israeli prime minister’s office said in a statement. “Israel will, from now on, act against Hamas with increasing military strength.”
In its own statement, Hamas called for mass demonstrations in cities worldwide and a coordinated siege of Israeli and American diplomatic missions “in response to the Israeli government’s resumption of its military aggression and its reversal of the ceasefire agreement, which has flouted all international and humanitarian laws and norms.”
The Palestinian Islamist group also urged demonstrators to raise Palestinian flags and mobilize resources in support of “the legitimate rights of Palestinians to freedom, independence, and an end to a simultaneous stifling blockade that the regime was enforcing against the coastal strip.”
“Let us unite all efforts at the Arab, Islamic, and international levels and be one voice against the Zionist aggression and the genocide war it is waging against more than two million Palestinians,” the statement read.
Israel recently imposed a total blockade on Gaza after the first phase of the ceasefire with Hamas expired without an agreement to extend the truce.
During the first phase, which began on Jan. 19, fighting ceased for six weeks as Hamas released 33 Israeli hostages (25 alive and eight deceased) in exchange for nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners, many of whom had been serving long sentences in Israeli prisons for terrorist activities.
The second phase was meant to include a complete Israeli military withdrawal from Gaza and the release of the remaining hostages taken by Hamas-led Palestinian terrorists from Israel. However, negotiations faltered when Hamas rejected a US proposal, supported by Israel, to release additional hostages and extend the ceasefire while continuing to discuss a permanent resolution.
The US, Qatar, and Egypt have been trying to bridge the differences between the Islamic terrorist group and Israel to restart negotiations in order to release remaining hostages held in Gaza and lift the blockade.
On Tuesday, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said that Jerusalem will not cease military operations against Hamas until all the hostages are returned.
“Hamas must realize that the rules of the game have changed, and if it does not immediately release all the hostages, the gates of hell will open, and it will find itself facing the full intensity of the IDF [Israel Defense Forces] in the air, sea, and land, until its complete elimination,” Katz said during a visit to the Tel Nof Airbase.
“We will not stop fighting until all the hostages are returned home and all threats to the southern residents are removed,” he added.
The post Hamas Calls for Global Siege on US, Israeli Embassies After Renewed Strikes in Gaza first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Iran Says It Will Consider ‘Opportunities’ as Well as Threats in Trump Letter
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi looks on before a meeting with Qatar’s Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, in Tehran, Iran, Aug. 26, 2024. Photo: Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS
Iran will consider the “opportunities” as well as the threats in a letter from US President Donald Trump that urged it to reach a new nuclear deal, and will soon respond, Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said on Thursday.
Iran‘s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei rejected Trump‘s letter last week as deceptive, saying Trump‘s excessive demands would “tighten the knot of sanctions and increase pressure on Iran.”
But Araqchi said Tehran was still evaluating the letter and weighing its reply.
“Trump’s letter was more a threat, but it claims to have opportunities. We paid attention to all points held in the letter and will consider both threat and opportunity in our response,” Araqchi said.
“There is an opportunity behind every menace.”
On Wednesday, Axios reported that Trump‘s letter gave Iran a two-month deadline to reach a nuclear deal or face stricter sanctions under the US President’s renewed “maximum pressure” campaign.
Araqchi said Tehran would respond to Trump‘s letter in the coming days via appropriate channels, rejecting any direct negotiations as long as Washington levels “pressure, threats, and sanctions.”
In his first term, Trump withdrew the US from a 2015 deal between Iran and major powers that had placed temporary limits on Tehran’s nuclear activities in exchange for sanctions relief.
After Trump pulled out in 2018 and re-imposed sanctions, Iran breached and far surpassed those limits in the development of its nuclear program.
Western powers accuse Iran of seeking nuclear weapons by enriching uranium up to 60 percent purity, above what they say is justifiable for a civilian program.
Tehran says the development of its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes and that it respects its commitments under international law.
The post Iran Says It Will Consider ‘Opportunities’ as Well as Threats in Trump Letter first appeared on Algemeiner.com.