The daily sentinel., 1910-01-14
THE HEBREWS HAVE A HUM0R
OF THEIR OWN.

There is in circulation among the
Jews a large body of humorous anec-
'dotes transmitted from generation to
generation just as are the folk tales
of more serious nature. They deal
with rabbis. melamdin, kaufieute.
and many of them would be ineom-
prehensible TO those who have not
had an intimate experience with the
phases of Jewish life dealt with.
Every occasion when Jews fore
gather is enlivened with stories that
my grandfather, peace to him, used
to tell" or with something that
"Feiyel, the peddler, used once to
tell" or something by some other
worthy. Saturday afternoon, when
the daylight fades and IL is too dark
to do anything but talk or muse, is
a favorite time for their Interchange
Nobody knows them all. Once hav-
ing heard one. you can't go back to
a book to refresh your memory; at
least, says the American Hebrew, it
was so until a year ago, when in Ger
many a lover of the stories put down
in a book what he had heard and
what he could get others to repeat.
Here are some of them:
melamed was teaching his boys
to translate from the original He
brew of the Bible. They were en-
gagged upon the third book of Moses.
where every species of unclean ami
NAL is carefully described so that the
faithful Jew may avoid eating the
same.
The poor ''belfer,' or assistant
teacher, knew his Hebrew perfectly;
but his knowledge of natural history
was extremely limited. He was often
at a loss for the German names of
those strange creatures of which he
had no conception. He did his best,
and generally could depend upon the
boys in their studious zeal not TO
notice anything wrong.
The teacher came to the word
'yanschuf." which means fish
hawk; but. as he had neither an i'm
age OF the thing nor a word for it in
his mind. he translated it without
ado, 'yanschuf This time, how
ever. the boys did not allow them
selves to be so easily disposed of.
They wished to know what a yam
really was, and kept on their
questions until the teacher. finally
driven into corner. tried to save
himself with the answer:
'Fll tell you children-a yam
schuf is crazy fish. And we are not
to eat crazy fish" b"
Thereupon the youngsters called
out:
Teacher, how can a yanschuf be
a crazy fish? 1t is among the birds
there!"
Well" says the teacher calmly,
lit is fish, and it has got among
the birds, Doesn't that prove that 1t
is crazy fish?"
A merchant who had Just married
a very rich wife was promenading
with his bride when he met a friend
to whom he introduced her. The lady
was so ugly that the friend could not
refrain from whispering to the young
You know, Max, she isn't exactly
is beautiful"
And her teeth are gone" contin-
ued his friend gently
Next week. said Max. stolidly.
she shall get some.
And she squints, too.--poor
murinured the friend.
Thereat the bridegroom turned up
on him and said: ~
You needn't be afraid to speak
aloud: she is deaf. too"
A Berlin financier. who had cele-
brated his S0th birthday about
quarter of year previously, fell very
sick. His business friends visited
1im and tried to cheer him up.
You. with your strong constitu-
lion, will come out of this sickness
al right" said one. God will leave
you with us until 80 at least"
The sick financier smiled and said
why should he wait to take, me
1t 80 when he can have me at S0H ?"
An elderly gentleman was express
ng his dissatisfaction with his SON.
n-law.
What can you complain of against
lim?" he was asked.
He cannot play cards." said the
why, you ought to be glad that
ne can't play cards. said the other.
What do you mean? Be glad,"
'etorted the father-in-law. HE can
not play cards; but he plays never
.heless.