Jewish Humour as Jewish Identity

Out of East European Jewish life a series of dualistic mental sets was created: specialness opposed to shameful vilification; powerful thinking against powerlessness in action; cohesive communal closeness opposed by segregation and isolation; the potential for great rage checked by the realistic consequences of its overt, direct expression. These incongruities are all productive of great anxiety. They also produce a tolerance for ambiguity, and increased capacity to alternate rapidly the frames of reference applied to inner and outer reality, while at the same time maintaining the ego's control. The ego-identity which grows out of the need to reconcile these tensions is both individually and collectively prepared to use a humour which allows the covert expression of rage, which raises to perfection the play with words and concepts and finally infuses these processes with the content of its life and values. The dilemmas confronted in the Ghetto have now extended to 'girdle the great globe itself'. The Jewish identity with its incongruities has merged with the incongruent issues confronting the human identity.