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Jewish Comedian Elon Gold Balances the Humorous and Serious in a Way That Few Can
Elon Gold. Photo: provided.
At a recent show at the Westside Comedy Club in Manhattan, Elon Gold thrilled a crowd by doing impersonations of former (and future) President Donald Trump and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders.
In a stellar Trump accent, he quipped: “They tried to get me. I saw the bullet. I saw the bullet. And I went, ‘I don’t like that.’ Then it just pierced my ear. I never thought I’d get my ears pierced…”
Performing before the election, Gold said that Doug Emhoff would be well prepared if Kamala Harris had been elected.
“If you are a Jewish man and you’re married, say nothing,” Gold said.
“Colonizers?” Gold asked. “Jews! The only place we colonized was the Catskills.”
Gold said the secular new year is fun because people get drunk, whereas for the Jewish New Year, Jews read from the machzor about possible ways to die.
“Who by fire? Who by water? Who by beeper?” Gold quipped.
He said Jews need to explain to people how Israel is not an oppressor.
“Jews are not in the oppression business,” he said. “There’s no money in it.”
One of the opening comedians, David Weinbach, a former winner of The Jewish Week’s Funniest Comic Contest, took the stage before Gold, telling the crowd that this Rosh Hashanah, instead of dipping his apple in honey, he’s dipping it into Ozempic.
“You gotta do what you gotta do to look good,” he joked.
Weinbach said he admired that Gold has used his platform to combat lies against Israel, as did opening comedians Eli Lebowicz and Talia Reese.
While some Jewish celebrities have stayed away from commenting about Israel, Gold has spoken at rallies and been extremely vocal in support of the Jewish State. He has also gone to Israel to perform.
While he is a master of comedy, he takes antisemitism very seriously. I wish there were more comedians who could be like Gold, but we are lucky to have him.
Gold was a recent guest on the Here I Am podcast of Columbia University professor Shai Davidai, who went viral with a video in which he highlighted injustice against Jews at Columbia and in the US.
“Why, when the Jews defend themselves and their country, they’re not allowed to?” Gold said on the podcast.
He also said that it’s an insane twist that Israel has been accused of genocide.
“No, we’re preventing genocide [by Hamas],” Gold said. “…Everybody wants to hate…”
Gold said the deaths of Gazan civilians are tragedies of the war started by Hamas, which bears the responsibility for the harm they suffer — especially because Hamas uses them as human shields.
“Israel wants not one dead civilian,” he said. “Hamas wants not one living civilian.”
Gold explained that he is able to compartmentalize the situation in Israel. He says that there are times he is filled with anger, but must do his job — although he cancelled his immediate gigs after October 7. Then one Jewish organization asked him not to cancel, saying they needed the humor.
Gold said he said the name of Hersh Goldberg-Polin every day in his prayers, and it was earth-shattering to find out he and five others were murdered.
In an old interview, Gold told me that four Middle Eastern men in a car screamed at him while he was with his family in Los Angeles in 2014, while there was a war in Gaza, and the man yelled to Gold that he hoped his children died, while his children were standing behind him. Gold went to the police, and it was not considered a hate crime.
The author is a writer based in New York.
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3rd Round of Nuclear Talks Between Iran, US Concludes in Oman
Atomic symbol and USA and Iranian flags are seen in this illustration taken, September 8, 2022. Photo: REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
i24 News – The third round of talks between Iran and the United States over Tehran’s rapidly advancing nuclear program has concluded on Saturday, US media reported.
The two sides are understood to have discussed the US lifting of sanctions on Iran, with focuses on technical and key topics including uranium enrichment.
On April 12, the US and Iran held indirect talks in Muscat, marking the first official negotiation between the two sides since the US unilaterally withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal in May 2018 during President Donald Trump’s first term.
The second round of indirect talks took place in Rome, Italy, on April 19.
All parties, including Oman, stated that the first two rounds of talks were friendly and constructive, but Iranian media pointed out that the first two rounds were mainly framework negotiations and had not yet touched upon the core issues of disagreement.
According to media reports, one of the key issues in the expert-level negotiations will be whether Washington will allow Iran to continue uranium enrichment within the framework of its nuclear program. In response, Araghchi made it clear that Iran’s right to uranium enrichment is non-negotiable.
The US, Israel and other Western actors including the United Nation’s nuclear agency reject Iranian claims that its uranium enrichment is strictly civilian in its goals.
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Hamas Says It’s Open to 5-Year Gaza Truce, One-Time Release of All Hostages
Demonstrators hold signs and pictures of hostages, as relatives and supporters of Israeli hostages kidnapped during the Oct. 7, 2023 attack by Hamas protest demanding the release of all hostages in Tel Aviv, Israel, Feb. 13, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Itai Ron
i24 News – The Palestinian jihadists of Hamas said they were willing to secure an agreement with Israel that that would see them remain in charge of the enclave, a source told international media. The deal would include an internationally guaranteed five-year truce and the release of all Israeli hostages in a single batch.
The latest bid to seal a ceasefire follows an Israeli proposal which Hamas had rejected earlier in April as “partial,” urging a “comprehensive” agreement to halt the war ignited by the October 7 massacres.
Israel demands the return of all hostages seized in the 2023 attack, and the disarmament of Hamas, which the jihadists rejected as a “red line.”
An earlier Israeli offer, rejected by the Palestinian terrorists, included a 45-day ceasefire in exchange for the return of 10 living hostages.
More than a month into a renewed Israeli offensive in Gaza after a two-month truce, a Hamas official said earlier this week that its delegation in Cairo would discuss “new ideas” on a ceasefire.
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Suspected Chemical Blast at Iran’s Bandar Abbas Kills 4, Injures Hundreds
People walk after an explosion at the Shahid Rajaee port in Bandar Abbas, Iran, April 26, 2025. Photo: Mohammad Rasoul Moradi/IRNA/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS
A huge blast on Saturday likely caused by the explosion of chemical materials stored at Iran’s biggest port, Bandar Abbas, killed at least four people and injured more than 500, Iranian state media reported.
The explosion, which hit the Shahid Rajaee section of the port, occurred as Iran began a third round of nuclear talks with the United States in Oman, but there was no immediate indication of a link between the two events.
Hossein Zafari, a spokesperson for Iran’s crisis management organization, appeared to blame the explosion on poor storage of chemicals in containers at Shahid Rajaee.
“The cause of the explosion was the chemicals inside the containers,” he told Iran’s ILNA news agency.
“Previously, the Director General of Crisis Management had given warnings to this port during their visits and had pointed out the possibility of danger,” Zafari said.
An Iranian government spokesperson, however, said that although chemicals had likely caused the blast, it was not yet possible to determine the exact reason.
Iran’s official news channels aired footage of a vast black and orange cloud of smoke billowing up above the port in the aftermath of the blast, and an office building with its doors blown off and papers and debris strewn around.
Bandar Abbas is Iran’s largest port and handles most of its containers in transit.
The blast shattered windows within a radius of several kilometers and was heard in Qeshm, an island 16 miles south of the port, Iranian media said.
The semi-official Tasnim news agency posted footage of injured men lying on the road being tended to amid scenes of confusion.
State TV earlier reported that poor handling of flammable materials was a “contributing factor” to the explosion. A local crisis management official told state TV that the blast took place after several containers stored at the port exploded.
As relief workers tried to put out fires, the port’s customs officials said trucks were being evacuated from the area and that the container yard where the explosion occurred likely contained “dangerous goods and chemicals.” Activities at the port were halted after the blast, officials said.
DEADLY INCIDENTS
A series of deadly incidents have hit Iranian energy and industrial infrastructure in recent years, with many, like Saturday’s blast, blamed on negligence.
They have included refinery fires, a gas explosion at a coalmine, and an emergency repairs incident at Bandar Abbas killed one worker in 2023.
Iran has blamed some other incidents on its arch-foe Israel, which has carried out attacks on Iranian soil targeting Iran’s nuclear program in recent years and last year bombed the country’s air defenses.
Tehran said Israel was behind a February, 2024 attack on Iranian gas pipelines. And in 2020, computers at Shahid Rajaee were hit by a cyberattack. The Washington Post reported that Iran’s arch-foe Israel appeared to be behind that incident as retaliation for an earlier Iranian cyberattack.
Israel has indicated it is nervous about the outcome of US-Iran talks, demanding a full dismantlement of Iran’s nuclear program. Tehran says the program is used solely for peaceful purposes, while international observers say it is getting closer to being able to build a bomb.
There was no immediate comment from Israeli military or Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office when asked for comment on whether Israel was in any way involved in Saturday’s explosion.
Oil facilities were not affected by the blast on Saturday, Iranian authorities said. The National Iranian Petroleum Refining and Distribution Company said in a statement that it had “no connection to refineries, fuel tanks, distribution complexes and oil pipelines.”
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