Published: 8 May 2025
Last updated: 8 May 2025
The Boomer take
I’ve always been a big fan of the therapeutic value of laughter but the recent piece by Larry David did not bring a smile. It brought to mind a conversation I had with my six-year-old daughter while sitting in Hong Kong’s beautiful Ohel Leah synagogue on Yom Tov many years ago.
A lady walked in wearing very little and eyebrows were raised. I explained to my daughter that it’s fine to wear a bikini on the beach, but it isn’t appropriate to wear to shul any more than you’d go to play on the beach in a ball gown. There’s a time and a place.
But is there ever a time and place for Holocaust humour? As the child of survivors who grew up in a survivor community in the Melbourne of the 1950s and 1960s, my answer is a very firm no.
Comments1
Marie Lakos8 May at 12:33 pm
Hi there. Very well written thanks. Isabelle’s last paragraph resonates with me. My mum told me when she was in the camp with her best friend Szuszi they would laugh over the heiarchy of the prison guards as to who had the authority – and when – to hit the prisoners. The guards took themselves and their duties very seriously. Such a ridiculous concept when you think about it now – to fight over who does the hitting – over poor defenseless women – who have committed no crimes other than being Jewish! I think their jokes kept them sane! Nothing wrong with that wouldn’t you say?