Join Al Kustanowitz for a nostalgic trip back to the funniest Jewish-themed comedy sketches that Saturday Night Live has featured throughout its 50-year history.  Though not an exclusively Jewish program, SNL’s Jewish writers and performers have ensured that Jewish themes and attitudes have made Jewish audiences adopt it as their own.

As SNL enters its 50^th year, this program will include video clips of a Purim sketch with Mayor Ed Koch, Jon Lovitz as Hanukkah Harry saving Christmas and Easter, Billy Crystal and Rick Moranis as know-it-all know-nothing rabbis, Adam Sandler singing his signature Hanukkah song, and Andy Samberg as the Jewish Willy Wonka with Ben Stiller in a world of Jewish deli.  Watch mock commercials for Jewish Jeans and Hanukkah Hymns, Howard Cosell’s Bar Mitzvah, Jerry Seinfeld as a Yeshiva basketball star, and a Jewish version of “It’s a Wonderful Life.”

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.