From "The Jazz Singer" to "Dirty Dancing," movies and TV have included some memorable Jewish moments, both funny and serious. But mostly funny, especially all the movies that Mel Brooks had a hand in making. This program, will explore some of the best in this genre, including Brooks as an Indian chief in "Blazing Saddles," Gene Wilder in "The Frisco Kid," Julie Andrews singing in Yiddish, Archie Bunker celebrating Shabbat, and Ed Ames performing an unintentional Bris on the "Johnny Carson Show." Visual images and audio and video will be used throughout the program.

A long-term devotee of Jewish humor, Al Kustanowitz has been collecting and sharing it even before there was an internet. In 2009, after a 36-year career at IBM managing new technology projects, he founded Jewish Humor Central (jewishhumorcentral.com), an internet blog. Through the blog he brings a daily dose of fun and positive energy to readers who would otherwise start the day reading news that is often drab, dreary, and depressing (subscribing is free). He has published 12 books on Jewish humor based on his more than 4,000 blog postings, each of which includes a video clip and his commentary. He is a member of the Advisory Board of the International Association of Yiddish Clubs. He earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the City University of New York and taught computer science courses at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences at New York University.