Customer Reviews

You Don't Have To Be Jewish / When You're In Love The Whole World Is Jewish (1966 Studio Cast)

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This CD is a re-release of two LP albums that originally came out around the same time as Allan Sherman's "My Son, the Folksinger" back in the mid-1960s. This is REAL Jewish humor --- not the nasty anti-semitic jokes that poke fun at Jews, but the types of in-jokes where we Jews laugh at ourselves and the world around us. The casting is superb, the dialect authentic, and the timing is just right. Bob Booker, the producer, says in the liner notes, "We decided to do an album version of Fiddler on the Roof-type stories, like those great bits that were sprinkled throughout the musical. I'm not Jewish, but the point is that you really don't have to be Jewish to love these wonderful stories from Jewish folklore."

Booker himself may not be Jewish, but most of the cast are, and the material certainly is. Many of the jokes are taken from Jewish vaudeville, the Yiddish theater, the Borscht Belt, and the stetls of Eastern Europe. For some reason, this type of humor seems to have gone out of style in recent years, which is really too bad, because it's an important part of Jewish history and culture. Most of the Jews in my generation know these jokes, even if they've never heard the CD. So nu, why should the younger generations miss out on such good laughs?

In addition to classic shticks, there are some original songs that I just love. "The Ballad of Irving" (the 142nd-fastest gun in the West) pokes fun at Hollywood cowboy images, while "Things Might Have Been Different" humorously conjectures what the world would be like if various historical characters and events had been Jewish. (A similar type of humor was used by Gene Wilder in his 1979 comedy film, "The Frisco Kid," about a rabbi traveling through the Wild West -- also a big favorite of mine.)

Some of these jokes may be politically incorrect today, but so what? When we allow ourselves to step off the PC pedestal and look at life as it really is, most of us have to admit that we really do know people who act like that. These jokes are funny, not because they are about Jews per se, but because they let us laugh at universal human absurdities anyone can relate to. If other ethnic groups can tell jokes about how they do or do not fit into the dominant American culture, then why not the Jews?

The early 1960's were a good time to be Jewish in the United States. The long legacy of Anti-semitism had been washed away by the World War II, and the premiere of the hit Broadway show Fiddler on the Roof made Yiddishkeit mainstream. The invasion and dilution of the venerable bagel added to the mix, as did the tonic of the Six Day War. Dustin Hoffman was a star, as were Zero Mostel and Barbra Streisand. Bob Dylan. Don't forget Neil Diamond, although I'd love to.

Bob Booker and George Foster, neither members of the Tribe, hopped on the Zeitgeist and produced several funny albums based on Jewish stories and humor with some modernizing touches. My father loved these records and I heard all of them many times, so many times they are as much a part of my childhood as my family.

The question is, are these albums still funny? Anti-semitism is on the rise. Israel is painted as bad for defending itself against suicide bombers. Paul Wellstone goes down in an aircrash. Beck doesn't play up his background and who wants Courtney Love? Adam Sandler makes Jerry Lewis look like a genius.

So it was as a nostaglia trip that I ordered this CD. My wife had never heard it either. When I put the CD on, my heart melted, and I began to laugh, understanding the jokes a lot better at 42 than at 6. This is a funny record, still funny and dead on.

My daughter's favorite piece is "My husband the monster," as was mine. History repeats itself. Politicians and rock stars come and go, usually not fast enough, but a good laugh is eternal.

Now release "The Jewish Princess" and my life will be complete.

There's not nearly enough Jewish humor anymore. Mike Myers' Coffee Talk from Saturday Night Live was the last great example. Not people making fun of Jews, but Jewish people celebrating the little things that make them different from other people.

Most of the time the jokes are incomprehensible to non-Jews, or people who are unacquainted to Jewish Culture, but that's okay, it makes them funnier to those who get it, like a private joke. My favorite Jewish Joke is a good example of this: A guy trapped on a desert island for twenty years keeps himself sane with his faith. He builds, by hand, TWO beautiful temples. When asked why, he explains, "This is the one I attend. I would not set foot in that one if you PAID me!"

This is a collection of some of the best Jewish comedians/actors of the time like Lou Jacobi, Phil Leeds (last seen on Seinfeld), and a very young Valerie "Rhoda" Harper. The jokes are mostly old chestnuts, but they're done with such joy that you don't mind. "The Ballad of Irving" is a classic, alone worth having the cds for.

I'm sorry they didn't make this a 3-disc set. The third album in this series, "The Yiddish are Coming! The Yiddish are Coming!" featured most of the same cast, with most of the sketches about the war in the Middle East. Perhaps a little too political (not to mention dated) but if you can score a copy of the original album, it's well worth it.

Vinnie (not Jewish, but kosher enough to pass)

Grabbed your attention, huh?

Growing up in my family in the Canal Zone, with three older siblings, was never dull. In fact, we were what you might call a family who loved to perform. We were kind of the Jewish Partidge Family.

What did we most often perform? Shtick from this album. It seems that before I was born (I'm the youngest with siblings between 11 and 17 years older than me), my family owned a copy of When You're in Love the Whole World is Jewish, and they all committed it to memory. By the time I came along, the album was long gone, but the shtick remained.

The Airplane, the Bank Robbery, the Cemetary, the Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, these all and more flow in me like the blood through my veins. With my siblings (and me) performing these to amazed (or were they really horrified?) family and friends, these old chestnuts became part of our repetoire.

Imagine, then, my surprise to find a copy of this for sale on Amazon. I've never heard this CD, but I know it by heart. I ordered my copy today, and can't wait for it to arrive, so I can begin to educate my two children on the joys of being part of a "Whole World [that] Is Jewish..."

When I was a little girl, (Iam 40 now) my grandfather, Irving Goldstein, used to play this album and we laughed so much together!..especially at "The Ballad of Irving." He told me that the song had been written about him, and I believed him. My grandfather died back in 1989, and the album got sold as part of his estate. I was devastated to have lost it. But thanks to the internet, I looked it up this morning, 30 years later, and here it was! :)Thank you for the memories and laughs, past ones with my grandfather and future ones with my grandchildren.

Someone loaned this album to my parents in the 1960s when I was a kid and I loved listening to it! Although between being a goyim (gentile)and a kid they had to explain a few things to me.
But I plan to give it to a Jewish friend for Christmas. Hmm, is that a little ironic or what? We laugh about "The Convict" even though he only heard it repeated by me.

I first listened to this record when I was still a pishkele, but it has stayed with me to this day, and I was thrilled to be able to replace my vinyl with CD. Apart from some of the best jewish performers of the day, the jokes haven't aged that much. OK, so they aren't as offensive as Jackie Mason, but they capture the essence, and they remind you how important delivery really is to fully appreciate the joke. Buy!!! You won't be dissapointed.

What a cast! What scripts! This is an astoundingly funny collection that will make you wish you'd been circumsized. And for those people who fear that this may just be "Jewish" humor, I have to ask this: Do you like the Marx Brothers? Or the Three Stooges? Or Jerry Lewis? Or Jackie Mason? If you answered yes to any of these, get out your credit card and order this cd.

This album is a classic! No matter who hears it, Jewish and not Jewish, they roar with laughter. I have played it at home, in my car, and with friends...Each time I play this CD, I laugh as hard as I did the first time I heard it. I always find something new to laugh about. The casting is superb. It brings back wonderful memories, dialects, and the wonderful Yiddish accents and humor of my own mama and daddy. Oy--- such a winner!

Wonderful, clean, family-safe humor of the old classical style.

A bit dated, but it still holds up very, very well.

One needs a pretty good understanding of American Jewish culture to fully get into it, though; otherwise, you will find it rather boring, like being invited to a friend's family dinner in which they talk only in in-jokes and family code all night.

But for those in-the-know, this is great, classic humor.

Thankfully I've had enough Jewish friends and been around Jewish culture that I get most of it - not quite all of it, not in the same way that a person who truly lives in that culture would get it, but I get most of it. And even as a gentile, I find it hilarious. Had I not had the experience of years in NYC and working with many wonderful Jewish people, though, I think I'd be rather lost in this.