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Published: Dec. 13, 2022, 5:43 p.m.

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How Contemporary Ethnic Stand-Up has Dragged Jewish Humor into the Gutter

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We are witness to the recent appearance of Jewish stand-up comedians who \\u2013 though allegedly grounded in PC/Woke equality and diversity principles \\u2013 serve up anti-Jewish humor to appreciative wide audiences. The discussion begins with a focus on Ari Shaffir\\u2019s latest performance labeled \\u201cJew\\u201d as a springboard for an overall analysis and debate of Jewish humor, branching out to Ethnic Humor and Self-Deprecating Humor, to the very essence of Humor Theory per se. Insofar as self-directed humor often serves as a disguised mode of criticism in context where explicit criticism is taboo, the discussants explore alternate recourses to questioning which might be available to youngsters and adults who are on the verge of breaking out of the constraints of stifling religious cultures. 

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Prof. Juni notes Shaffir\\u2019s methodology of Ecumenical Religio-Washing where repetitions of one anti-Catholic byte are interspersed throughout the diatribe in an attempt to temper the pointed anti-Jewish message of the presentation. Tellingly, Ari is \\u201cwise\\u201d enough not to incorporate any anti-Black (or much of anti-any-other-group) tidbits in his titillating racist, misogynist, antisemitic potpourri. 

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Rabbi Kivelevitz cites a number of classic comedians of the last two decades, as he argues that the Woke-sanctioned license to criticize Jews exists because they have been designated by the new demi-god of Intersectionality as part of the White Power-Structure, and thus excluded from the privileged PC diversity category which exempts some \\u2013 and only some -- \\u201cminority\\u201d groups from criticism or critique. 

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Juni outlines the academic understanding of self-directed humor, highlighting several key elements:

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a.\\tThe anti-Jew joke delivered by the Jew is intended to give the messages: Those people are not me at all, as evidenced by the fact that I am putting\\u201d them\\u201d down.

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b.\\tHere I am making fun of myself, so there is nothing more you can possibly say to denigrate me.  

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c.\\tSince I am now in charge of hitting myself on the head, I can moderate just I hard I do it \\u2013 and I\\u2019ll make sure it hurts me less than if you would hit me.

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d.\\tThis is my \\u201cjoking\\u201d way of criticizing the Jewish (or Orthodox, traditional, etc.) establishment with minimal retribution \\u2013 being that it\\u2019s supposedly just being said in jest.

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Zeroing in on the last element, Juni deplores the code of silence which characterizes much of traditional religious culture which forces many young people to abandon the system altogether \\u2013 if they don\\u2019t have alternate venting options (such as humor). Prof. Juni elaborates that while behavioral codes are necessarily and even desirable in society, thought policing is the bane of healthy development. R. Kivelevitz emphatically disagrees with Juni\\u2019s stance, as he references a number of commentators who openly question some of the very same \\u201cabsurdities\\u201d that Shaffir lambasts in his diatribes, which clearly indicates that challenging and questioning are parts of the standard discourse in traditional Jewish thought.

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Prof. Juni is one of the foremost research psychologists in the world today. He has published ground-breaking original research in seventy different peer reviewed journals and is cited continuously with respect by colleagues and experts in the field who have built on his theories and observations. 

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He studied in Yeshivas Chaim Berlin under Rav Yitzchak Hutner, and in Yeshiva University as a Talmid of Rav Joseph Dov Soloveitchik. Dr. Juni is a board member of the Association of Orthodox Jewish Scientists and has regularly presented addresses to captivated audiences. Associated with NYU since 1979, Juni has served as Director of PhD programs, all the while heading teams engaged in cutting-edge research. Professor Juni\'s scholarship on aberrant behavior across the cultural, ethnic, and religious spectrum is founded on psychometric methodology and based on a psychodynamic psychopathology perspective. He is arguably the preeminent expert in Differential Diagnostics, with each of his myriad studies entailing parallel efforts in theory construction and empirical data collection from normative and clinical populations. 

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Professor Juni created and directed the NYU Graduate Program in Tel Aviv titled Cross-Cultural Group Dynamics in Stressful Environments. Based in Yerushalayim, he collaborates with Israeli academic and mental health specialists in the study of dissonant factors and tensions in the Arab-Israeli conflict and those within the Orthodox Jewish community, while exploring personality challenges of second-generation Holocaust survivors. 

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Below is a partial list of the professional journals where Professor Juni has published 120 theoretical articles and his research findings (many are available online): 

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Journal of Forensic Psychology; Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment, and Trauma; International Review of Victimology; The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease; International Forum of Psychoanalysis; Journal of Personality Assessment; Journal of Abnormal Psychology; Journal of Psychoanalytic Anthropology; Psychophysiology; Psychology and Human Development; Journal of Sex Research; Journal of Psychology and Judaism; Contemporary Family Therapy; American Journal on Addictions; Journal of Criminal Psychology; Mental Health, Religion, and Culture. 

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As Rosh Beis Medrash, Rabbi Avraham Kivelevitz serves as Rav and Posek for the morning minyan at IDT. Hundreds of listeners around the globe look forward to his weekly Shiur in Tshuvos and Poskim. 

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Rav Kivelevitz is a Maggid Shiur for Dirshu International in Talmud and Halacha as well as a Dayan with the Beth Din of America. 

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