Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
The Schmooze

Sarah Silverman Mocks Hasids in Post-Yom Kippur ‘SNL’

Sarah Silverman, the sharp-tongued Jewish comic, did not wait long after the end of Yom Kippur to start sinning again.

Appearing on Saturday Night Live, just hours after the holiest of Jewish holidays, Yom Kippur (also known as the Day of Atonement), was over, she cracked her first joke at the expense of the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community.

It started out cute, but Silverman being Silverman couldn’t resist taking a pot shot at her fellow Jews, who wear long black coats in public for religious reasons of modesty.

“Tonight is the end of the holiday of Yom Kippur,” said Silverman toward the beginning of her opening monologue, “and I just want to take this opportunity to say to all the Hasidic Jews out there: I promise you God will not mind if you wear a nice cotton blend in the summer. You are being ridiculous.”

A message from our Publisher & CEO 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 [email protected], 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.