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Deeply Jewish comedy is having a moment, even as antisemitism rocks pop culture
(JTA) — Two weeks after a Trump-supporting heckler threw a beer can at Ariel Elias at a club in New Jersey over her politics, the Jewish comedian’s fortunes took a turn for the better. A video of the incident went viral and she made her network television debut on Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night talk show.
She spent most of her five-minute set talking about her Jewish identity and how it clashed with parts of her upbringing in Kentucky.
“I’m Jewish from Kentucky, which is insane, it’s an insane origin story,” she said last month before getting to jokes about how Southerners mispronounce her name and how badly her parents want her to date Jews.
Even though the crowd found it funny, Elias’ tight five wasn’t particularly groundbreaking. In the world of standup comedy, discussing one’s Jewish identity in a deep way has become increasingly common on the mainstream stage over the past several years. Jewish comedians are going beyond the bagel and anxiety jokes, discussing everything from religiosity and traditions (and breaking with those traditions) to how their Jewishness has left them prone to awkward situations and even antisemitism.
Ari Shaffir calls his most recent special, which was released earlier this month and titled “Jew” — and racked up close to four million views on YouTube in two weeks — “a love letter to the culture and religion that raised [him].” In his recent one man show “Just For Us” — which drew widespread acclaim and a slew of celebrity audience members, from Jerry Seinfeld to Stephen Colbert to Drew Barrymore — Alex Edelman discussed the details of growing up Modern Orthodox (and infiltrating a group of white nationalists). In 2019, Tiffany Haddish released a Netflix special called “Black Mitzvah,” in which she talks about learning about her Jewish heritage.
At the same time, the current uptick in public displays of antisemitism — punctuated by a series of celebrity antisemitism scandals and comedian Dave Chappelle’s controversial response to them — is complicating the moment for comedians who get into Jewish topics. Jewish comics are even debating what kinds of jokes about Jews are acceptable and which cross a line.
“I find it ironic that at a time where more Jewish comedians feel comfortable expressing their Judaism (i.e. wearing a yarmulke, making Jewish-oriented content) and not hiding it (by changing their name for example), we also see an up-swelling of outright antisemitism,” said Jacob Scheer, a New York-based comedian. “I don’t think — and hope — those two things are not related, but I find it really interesting and sad.”
The two phenomena could be related. Antisemitic incidents nationwide reached an all-time high in 2021, with a total of 2,717 incidents, according to an April 2022 audit from the Anti-Defamation League. Those incidents range from vandalism of buildings to harassment and assault against individuals.
“Now that [antisemitism is] a headline, it actually helps me to do what I need to do, which is just be extra out and loud and proud,” said Dinah Leffert, a comic based in Los Angeles. “I was hiding who I am just so I can survive in this environment. But this environment is not worth it if I have to hide.”
Scheer said that “people who are Jewish with an emphasis on the ‘Jew’ are having a moment.”
“[The] ‘Jew-ish’ world I wouldn’t say is dead, but I don’t think the ‘Jew-ish’ world is producing that much,” he said.
By “Jew-ish,” Scheer clarified that he means comics like Seinfeld and Larry David, who often infuse secular, culturally Jewish material into their comedy. Their apex of fame came during a time when Jewish comedy was not nearly as mainstreamed — the “Seinfeld” sitcom team was famously told that their idea was “too New York, too Jewish.”
Some of Seinfeld and David’s Jewish comedic successors, such as Judd Apatow and Seth Rogen, sprinkled in more explicitly Jewish jokes before 2010. But today, “you see more Alex Edelmans coming out,” Scheer said, referencing the increase in visibility for comedians with more observant upbringings.
Things have progressed to the level of “Jews doing comedy for other Jews about Jewish things,” Scheer added. In August, the first-ever Chosen Comedy Festival at the Coney Island Amphitheater in Brooklyn featured a lineup of mostly Jewish comics whose repertoires ranged from impressions of old Jewish women (who sound like bees) to breakdowns of the differences between how Sephardi and Ashkenazi Jews say “Shabbat shalom.” Leah Forster, who also performed at the festival, uses her Hasidic upbringing as source material for her standup routines, creating characters and using accents and impressions. (In her early days as a comedian, Forster performed for women-only audiences while she was a teacher at a Bais Yaakov Orthodox school in Brooklyn.)
The festival, which was hosted by Stand Up NY (an Upper West Side club that Scheer says is known for being “the Jewish one”) welcomed a packed audience of about 4,000 guests, many of whom were Orthodox. A second Chosen Comedy Festival will take place in downtown Miami in December.
(The New York Jewish Week, a 70 Faces Media brand, was the media partner for the Chosen Comedy Festival but had no say in its lineup.)
The festival’s co-hosts, Modi Rosenfeld and Elon Gold, who frequently collaborate, both grew their audiences in the early days of the pandemic: Rosenfeld with his camera-facing comedic characters, like the esoteric Yoely who delivers news updates with a Hasidic Yiddish twist; and Gold with his Instagram Live show “My Funny Quarantine,” which featured guest appearances from other comedians. Both Gold and Rosenfeld work antisemitism into their material.
Some are finding the moment difficult to navigate. In late October, at the standup show she runs in Los Angeles, the comic two slots ahead of Dinah Leffert asked the room, “Is anyone still even supporting Kanye at this point?” The crowd responded with resounding whoops, claps and cheers, leading Leffert to feel like they did support Kanye West, the rapper who spent much of last month in the news for his multiple antisemitic rants.
Just a few jokes into her own 10-minute set, Leffert walked offstage.
“My body wouldn’t let me keep being inauthentic about what I was really feeling,” she said. “I don’t want to give laughter to people who are anti-Jewish.”
Leffert, who is openly Zionist, said she also observes a level of anti-Zionism in comedy clubs these days that feels to her like antisemitism.
“They’re not criticizing Israel,” she said. “It slips into antisemitism very quickly. And it’s just a really hostile environment.”
During the last large-scale military flare-up of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in May 2021, she felt inundated with Palestinian flag comments on posts about Jewish holidays, not Israel.
“You just get Palestinian flags underneath your Hanukkah posts,” she said.
In October, at a club in Omaha, comedian Sam Morril told a joke about how he hopes Jeffrey Epstein won’t be honored during Jewish Awareness Month.
“Can I ask why you chose to yell out ‘free Palestine’ after a Jeffrey Epstein joke?” he responded. When the heckler said she was making a “public statement” and was looking for “justice,” Morril answered: “A public statement? At the Omaha Funny Bone?”
Eitan Levine, a New York-based comedian known for his TikTok show “Jewish or Antisemitic” — on which he asks people to vote on whether objects like ketchup and mayonnaise, for example, are Jewish or antisemitic (in a loose comic version of the word) — said he receives similar comments online.
“This is a TikTok video about bagels,” Levine said. “What do you mean, you want me to take a stance?”
Though the response to his show has been largely positive and he has gone viral several times, Levine still receives all kinds of white supremacist comments on his videos — with backwards swastika, money bag or mustachioed man emojis evocative of Hitler, along with comments that say “jas the gews” as a spoonerism for “gas the Jews,” as a way to avoid TikTok censorship. Levine said he manually deletes these kinds of comments, but sometimes that’s not enough; one of the guests on his show had to cancel an in-person show due to online threats made against her.
“This stuff is clearly happening and it is dangerous and it is scary,” Levine told JTA.
Writer and comedian Jon Savitt, whose writing has been featured on College Humor and Funny or Die, and says he has often been “the first Jew that people have ever met,” recently launched an experimental web page called Meet A Jew, where users can connect with a Jewish person, much like a pen pal. His 2016-2018 standup show “Carrot Cake & Other Things That Don’t Make Sense” largely dealt with antisemitism — and its audience, he was surprised to see, was largely non-Jewish.
“Not only did I have people come up to me after the show, but I had non-Jews come up to me months later when they saw me and say ‘tikkun olam‘ [Hebrew for the Jewish principle of repairing the world] to me, or recite Hebrew,” Savitt said. “And to me that was the coolest use case because not only were they there, but they kind of retained something.”
Savitt says he isn’t trying to change any extremists’ minds with Meet A Jew, but he sees it as one step that could engage people who may be ignorant or unaware and give them a place to ask questions.
“Although it shouldn’t be on us to educate everyone or to have to constantly be standing up for ourselves, I think there are ways that we can bring other people into the conversation as well,” he said.
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Attack on Michigan Synagogue Was Hezbollah-Inspired ‘Act of Terrorism,’ FBI Says
FBI agents work on the site after the Michigan State Police reported an active shooting incident at the Temple Israel Synagogue in West Bloomfield, Michigan, US, March 12, 2026. Photo: Rebecca Cook via Reuters Connect
The FBI said on Monday that an attack on the largest Jewish temple in Michigan earlier this month was an “act of terrorism” inspired by Hezbollah.
Ayman Ghazali, a 41-year-old man who was born in Lebanon and became a US citizen in 2016, killed himself during the March 12 attack, when he crashed his truck into the Temple of Israel synagogue before opening fire on security guards and causing an explosion using fireworks, said Jennifer Runyan, the special agent in charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Detroit field office.
No one else died during the attack on the synagogue where children were attending preschool.
Ghazali consumed pro-Hezbollah ideology prior to the attack, said Runyan, but the FBI has not been able to verify if he was a member of Iran-backed Lebanese terrorist group. There is no evidence that he had co-conspirators, Runyan said.
Hezbollah, a radical Islamist organization, was founded by Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in 1982. Both Hezbollah and the IRGC are designated as foreign terrorist organizations by the US. The US and Israel launched a war against Iran on Feb. 28.
“Had this man lived, I am convinced that my office would prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he committed the federal crime of providing material support to Hezbollah,” said Jerome Borgen, the US Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan.
Runyan said the day before the synagogue attack Ghazali started sharing photos on social media of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in US-Israeli strikes last month. Then, on the day of the attack, while sitting in the parking lot of the Temple of Israel, Ghazali told his sister in a message that he planned “to commit a mass terrorist attack.”
Antisemitic incidents have spiked in recent years in the US, with anti-Jewish incidents accounting for nearly two-thirds of 5,300-plus religiously motivated hate crimes since February 2024, according to FBI data.
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US Lawmaker Calls for ‘Full Recognition of Somaliland’ Following Israel
US Rep. John Rose (R-TN) presents a flag to President Donald Trump in the Oval Office at the White House, Sept. 5, 2025. Photo: Francis Chung/Pool/Sipa USA via Reuters Connect
A US lawmaker from Tennessee now running for governor hopes that legislation he filed this month can lead to the United States following Israel in recognizing Somaliland, which has sought global support in breaking away from Somalia in the Horn of Africa for more than 30 years, as an independent and sovereign state.
In an exclusive interview with The Algemeiner, Rep. John Rose, a Republican who serves on the House Financial Services Committee, said that following outreach from Somaliland representatives, he and his team “started digging in deeper and ultimately decided that the cause of Somaliland was meritorious.”
“We think it’s in the best interest of the United States to develop a stronger relationship and to provide a path forward for what I would ultimately hope might be a full recognition of Somaliland as an independent nation,” he added.
Israel in December became the first country to officially recognize the Republic of Somaliland.
Noting the Jewish state’s decision, Rose said that he had “looked on with interest as both Israel and Taiwan have recognized Somaliland, and we think that it makes good sense because of the geopolitics and the demonstrated history of Somaliland in terms of its democratic institutions and its attempt to join the community of nations.”
Unlike most states in its region, Somaliland has relative security, regular elections, and a degree of political stability.
Filed on March 19, the Somaliland Economic Access and Opportunity Act would require the Treasury Department to submit a detailed report to the House Financial Services Committee and to the Senate Banking Committee outlining the challenges Somaliland faces in accessing the financial system. Co-sponsors of the bill include Republican Reps. Andrew Ogles (TN), Pat Harrigan (NC) and Addison McDowell (NC).
“So, what is the lay of the landscape? We want them to tell us that,” Rose explained to The Algemeiner. “And how would Somaliland — [with] its lack of broad international recognition — how does that affect its financial access? What is Somaliland’s current compliance with international banking norms, things like customer and anti-money laundering, counter-terrorism financing standards, other regulatory expectations of where are they and where do they need to get to be?”
Identifying numerous questions his bill would address, Rose asked, “What steps could we take as a government to facilitate responsible financial access? And how can we use our voice as a nation and our vote on international financial institutions to facilitate success for Somaliland? What steps would it take to incorporate Somaliland into the SWIFT [Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication] financial messaging and payment system which would really up their game in terms of what they could hope to accomplish?”
Founded in 1973, the SWIFT system connects more than 11,000 financial institutions around the globe, enabling quick transfers of funds.
Israel’s special envoy for water issues, Ambassador Rony Yedidia Clein, center, stands with Somaliland’s director-general at the Ministry of Water Development, Aden Abdela Abdule, second from the right, and other officials at a waste treatment facility in Israel, Feb. 25, 2025. Photo: Screenshot
Rose discussed Somaliland’s geopolitical importance and counter-terrorism role, calling the region “one of the most dangerous areas and along one of the most important sea lanes in the world.” He described partnering with Somaliland as “an opportunity to provide a way to respond to and answer what Beijing is doing in the Horn of Africa.”
Somaliland, which has claimed independence for decades in East Africa but remains largely unrecognized, is situated on the southern coast of the Gulf of Aden and bordered by Djibouti to the northwest, Ethiopia to the south and west, and Somalia to the south and east. It has sought to break off from Somalia since 1991 and utilized its own passports, currency, military, and law enforcement.
China has set up its only overseas military base in Djibouti, opening in August 2017 and capable of housing 10,000 troops. Through its Belt and Road Initiative, China has also invested in Djibouti’s Doraleh Multi-Purpose Port, which the China State Engineering Corporation financed and built, propelling an average growth of 6-7 percent in the nation’s GDP. China acts as Djibouti’s banker, holding 70 percent of the African country’s $1.4 billion in external debt.
In December, China announced its opposition to Israel’s recognition of Somaliland, with Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian asserting that “no country should encourage or support other countries’ internal separatist forces for its own selfish interests.”
However, Rose noted that Somaliland is a “functioning democracy” that has the potential to be a partner of the US.
“I think it’s also an important element that this is a relatively well-functioning democracy, and we think the United States should encourage that,” he said, “We’re not proposing that we get ahead of ourselves; we just think that we should acknowledge the efforts the Somalilanders have made and try to facilitate their ascension into the community of nations.”
For those skeptical of the US potentially supporting the breaking up an African country, Rose urged people to look closer.
“You have to understand the deep history” and grasp how Somaliland “came to be part of Somalia and how the hope and promise for a united Somalia was very quickly cut short,” the lawmaker said.
“Italian Somalia took over and reneged essentially on the promise of a peaceful Somalia, and so I think if you understand that and then realize that for 35 years Somaliland has been trying to assert its independence and has essentially maintained geographic integrity over that period of time. And I think this is a lot less controversial,” Rose added.
To explain to his constituents why they should be concerned about Somaliland, Rose pointed to how “so much of the world’s commerce passes through the Gulf of Aden and you want that to be peaceful. Obviously, it is a treacherous place in terms of piracy.”
Identifying the foreign threats in the region, Rose added, “When you consider the geopolitics as it relates to China and nearby Yemen, then you know that, we need — and it is in the interest of the United States — to develop peaceful relationships with the countries that are demonstrating the right path forward in terms of embracing democracy and freedom and peace.”
On Saturday, the Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen, a US-designated terrorist group, joined the war with Iran and launched a missile attack against Israel. Senior Houthi official Mohammed Mansour also threatened to shut down maritime traffic through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a 70-mile-long chokepoint connecting the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden. In 2023, analysts estimated that 12 percent of the seaborne oil trade and 8 percent of the liquefied natural gas trade flowed through the corridor between Yemen and Djibouti.
The Strait of Hormuz “is the bigger oil shock point, but Bab el-Mandeb is the broader trade shock point,” said Nayeem Noor, vice president for business development at GMS, one of the world’s largest buyers of ships. “As the southern gateway to the Red Sea and Suez corridor, any serious threat there affects not only tankers but also container services, breakbulk, dry cargo movements, vessel availability, insurance, war risk premiums, and overall voyage economics on the Asia-Europe route.”
Somaliland also has significant mineral resources, and officials have said they are willing to offer the US a strategic military base at the entrance to the Red Sea and critical minerals as part of a deal that would include formal recognition.
Rose saw larger implications for his bill and the US’s engagement with Somaliland, saying it could provide “a blueprint, or a roadmap for how other nations that want to be peace loving and want to develop their economies, about how that could happen.”
“I think seeing Somaliland succeed is really what motivates me and knowing their earnestness for doing so and the struggle that they’ve had,” he added.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar meets with Somaliland President Abdirahman Mohamed Abdullahi on Jan. 6, 2026. Photo: Screenshot
The Abraham Accords, a series of Arab-Israeli normalization agreements started in 2020, loomed over the Israel-Somaliland diplomacy, as the move represented further progress in reconciliation between the Jewish and Muslim worlds.
“I think this does fit that mold,” Rose said. “And I think is another example of how countries that want to embrace peace and want to cultivate meaningful relationships and particularly economic relationships, I think it makes great sense. So, I do see this as fitting in a piece that fits into that larger puzzle.”
Regarding how domestic politics could shape Somaliland recognition, Rose expressed optimism about the potential for a bipartisan attitude among his colleagues in the House.
“Well, I think it’s a little early to tell, but I think there should be bipartisanship on this,” Rose told The Algemeiner. “I don’t think there’s any real political angle here that ought to cause either side to wince at this or be concerned about it or use it as a dividing line. I think it makes good sense for the United States, and I think it should make good sense on a bipartisan basis.”
Rose added, “There’s just a whole array of reasons that this makes good sense for the country, and I think it’s something we can do without compromising American interest.”
Discussing a personal connection to the region, Rose described meeting African students during his college years studying in West Lafayette, Indiana.
“I got a master’s degree in agricultural economics at Purdue University in the late ’80s, and a number of good friends were from that area of Africa — from Somalia, Ethiopia, the Sudan,” Rose said. “There was a lot of outreach from Purdue and other similar programs to try to assist. And so, I had a number of fellow students that I got to know and had good relationships with and worked with extensively from that region of the world.”
Rose said he came to understand and know about “some of the challenges that they face. So, I think there is a real opportunity to lift Somaliland in that regard and create a success story there for their independence and ability to feed themselves, all those things that that area and region of the world need to continue to advance.”
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Israel Targets Hezbollah Fighters Disguised as Paramedics as Terror Group Continues to Exploit Civilian Sites
Israeli soldiers walk next to military vehicles on the Israeli side of the Israel-Lebanon border, amid escalation between Hezbollah and Israel, and amid the US-Israeli conflict with Iran, in northern Israel, March 16, 2026. Photo: REUTERS/Avi Ohayon
Israel on Sunday night intercepted a Hezbollah operation in southern Lebanon, targeting a terrorist cell disguised as paramedics who tried to transport weapons in an ambulance toward Israeli forces.
The Israeli strike further exposed the Iran-backed Lebanese terrorist group’s use of civilians and even medical vehicles as cover for attacks.
According to Israeli intelligence, Hezbollah has fired thousands of drones and rockets toward the Jewish state since joining the war in support of Iran earlier this month, brazenly using ambulances and medical facilities as cover and embedding their weapons and operation hubs in various civilian sites.
“This incident is another example of Hezbollah’s cynical and systematic use of medical infrastructure for military purposes,” the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement.
Last week, Israel discovered a tunnel used by Hezbollah in a church in southern Lebanon, where the terrorist group has spent years building infrastructure to attack the Jewish state.
Hezbollah tunnel at a church in southern Lebanon https://t.co/5mTGP7uSvz
— Matthew Levitt (@Levitt_Matt) March 27, 2026
Under international law, deliberately using medical teams and ambulances to conceal military activity constitutes a serious violation, as battlefield protections for medical personnel apply only when they act strictly within their humanitarian role.
As the conflict in Lebanon continues to escalate, Israeli officials have repeatedly warned that once ambulances and medical teams become part of Hezbollah’s weapons transport network, they lose their protected status and become legitimate military targets.
On Monday, the IDF destroyed more than 100 high-rise towers in southern Lebanon serving as Hezbollah’s command, control, and attack-planning centers against Israeli citizens – in what officials described as the terrorist group’s “cynical exploitation of Lebanese citizens,” embedding military infrastructure amid civilian areas.
PHOTOS: Israeli soldiers discover Hezbollah weapons cache—including RPGs, mortars, hand grenades, launchers, land mines, explosive bricks, and rifles—in southern Lebanon school. (IDF) pic.twitter.com/2HIpFtPLTQ
— Avi Mayer אבי מאיר (@AviMayer) March 27, 2026
With a ground maneuver underway to expand a defensive zone in southern Lebanon, the IDF says it has eliminated over 850 Hezbollah terrorists so far, while continuing to dismantle the group’s command and weapons infrastructure.
Last week, Israeli forces ordered the evacuation of the southern Lebanese city of Tyre, after identifying Hezbollah operatives launching heavy rocket fire from residential neighborhoods, issuing the order ahead of airstrikes to safeguard civilians from the escalating attacks.
“Hezbollah, which has dragged you into this war in service of Iran’s agenda, is deliberately operating within your neighborhoods, putting your safety at grave risk and bringing destruction to your homes and communities,” the military’s Arabic spokesperson, Col. (res.) Avichay Adraee wrote in a post on X, appealing to Lebanese citizens.
For years, Hezbollah has embedded command posts, weapons depots, snipers, and troops within Shiite villages, situating them in the heart of civilian centers near schools, hospitals, mosques, and main roads to turn entire communities into battlefields.
“We found them hiding weapons in a children’s school. We found them building a tunnel in the complex of a church in al-Kiam,” IDF International Spokesperson Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani said during a briefing to journalists.
In recent weeks, Israel has intensified strikes targeting Hezbollah, particularly south of the Litani River, where the group’s operatives have historically been most active against the Jewish state.
Israel has long demanded that Hezbollah be barred from carrying out activities south of the Litani, located roughly 15 miles from the Israeli border.
The IDF is now moving into Lebanon to establish what officials described as a “forward defensive line,” targeting Hezbollah infrastructure and destroying buildings that were being used as operational “terrorist outposts.”
As reports surfaced of potential ceasefire talks between Lebanese and Israeli officials, Hezbollah Secretary General Naim Qassem warned Wednesday that negotiating under fire amounts to imposed surrender, adding that his fighters are prepared to continue operations “without limits.”
In just the first month of the conflict, Israeli officials report that Hezbollah has carried out more than 900 coordinated attacks, marking a sharp increase in cross-border activity and a broader expansion of its operations across the region.
So far, Israel has demolished five bridges in the Litani River area and taken effective control of three others, aiming to dominate the area from the air and prevent residents from returning south of the river until the threat of Hezbollah is removed.