Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
The Schmooze

Israeli Sketch Comedy Pokes Fun at U.S. Jews

It must be American Jewry season on Israeli television. A few weeks ago, everyone was talking about the depiction of the Jewish American man in the government’s ad campaign to get Israelis living in the U.S. to head “home.” Now, U.S. Jews are fodder for the most popular sketch show in Israel.

Eretz Nehederet has just run a parody of Taglit-Birthright’s trips, which bring Diaspora Jews to visit Israel and — the funders hope — develop affection for the country.

The sketch uses several stock figures. There is the wealthy Jewish-American princess who says that Israel has the feel of home… partly because it’s a similar size to her home. And there’s also the Israeli take on a frat boy. All the American participants are highly excitable, delighted when told of the historical sights — such as an oil press — they will visit, and absolutely thrilled when they learn there may be time to visit Yad Vashem.

Then there’s the Israeli tour guide who is constantly trying to talk up his country. It’s a “modern developed country,” he stresses from the tour bus’s microphone, before requesting, in a reference to the controversy about segregated busses, that the women sit at the back. He’s at his funniest when he says that at Yad Vashem the visiting youngsters should “SMS your parents to continue donating to the State of Israel so there won’t be another Holocaust, because the sequel is always worse than the original.”

Watching the sketch, you can either pontificate about what it says about Israelis’ attitudes towards Americans, or just have a good laugh.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at editorial@forward.com, subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.

Exit mobile version