Project Summary Over the last hundred years,
from Vaudeville to Seinfeld, many Jewish Americans have chosen
comedy for their career. While accounting for less than 3% of the United
States population, Jews have comprised a highly disproportionate number
of America's successful comedians and comedy writers. A GIFT FOR LAUGHTER
celebrates this phenomenon while exploring the roots of Jewish humor in
the Jewish experience. Using a rich mixture of archival footage, film
and television clips, performance footage and spirited commentary
from a diverse group of comedians, comedy writers, historians and experts
on comedy, the film tells the story of Jews in comedy in a style similar
to Ken Burns' Jazz. "This project
is destined to shed important light on the American Jewish experience,
and to provide much more than entertainment. A GIFT FOR LAUGHTER
is bound to illumine how an ancient people bore its legacy of suffering,
and how this minority adapted to a New World that promised a relief
from oppression and an opportunity for social and economic advancement." – Stephen
J. Whitfield, Professor, Brandeis University
