‘I think people want a chance to laugh at the things we hold sacred’

So you think I'm worthy of leading the Jewish people?

Since gaining an online following, Gottlieb has continued to be surprised by the kinds of people and conversations her page has attracted.

“People who I know peripherally or are firmly secular will actively like my content, in that they will press like on very niche memes on different commentaries in the Torah – memes that I understand, because I went to Kesser Torah [school] for 13 years.

Interspersed through the jokes are educational moments. “I’ve had very religious people who follow me who then have questions about progressive politics, and we have conversations about it. And I’ve had conversations where I send a Rashi source to someone who has never studied the Parsha before.”

Now a celebrity on the Jewish internet, and in the physical world – people regularly stop her on the street - Gottlieb has published articles covering Jewish pickup lines, feminist orthodoxy and the misrepresentation of religious Jews in medical dramas. She is an enthusiastic promoter (and freebie receiver) of Koren religious texts, and last year tied in winning an award from US youth Jewish site Alma for the Best Jewish Meme Account.

She gives partial credit to the global pandemic for her rapid growth in followers, as people spent more time online and she has devoted more time to creating content. However, there are also other reasons for JewishMemesOnly’s success and broad appeal.

“I think people want a chance to laugh at the things we hold sacred,” Gottlieb says. “The reason why we find Jewish memes hilarious is because we can recognise the ridiculousness that our lives are. But also poking fun at that doesn’t take away from our reverence of those things.”

Responses to her content are not always positive. Gottlieb comes across as nonchalant when I ask her about online harassment. Her protocol in response to anti-Semitism, homophobia or any kind of hate speech in the comment section or directed toward her is always an immediate block, a tactic that she thinks people don’t take advantage of enough.

Other times, Gottlieb deals with patronising comments and criticism for her more “harif”(spicy) memes.

“I posted a meme once that had a picture of the Lubavitcher Rebbe in it. A bunch of people got really pissy about it. In their eyes it’s not for me to joke about, and in my eyes, I have been firmly involved in the Chabad community for most of my life.

“There are people who tell me I’ve pushed a line that they don’t like. It tends to be people who think they know more than me, and I don’t like to generalise based on gender, but I have a lot of men say to me – ‘that’s not true’, especially when it comes to Torah commentaries and about my specific understanding of it.”

While Gottlieb’s content exhibits an in-depth knowledge of religious Jewish practice and text, it is also flavoured by her progressive politics, feminism and identity as a lesbian. Behind her content is a strict no-punching-down ethos.

“I’m sick of jokes about women rabbis and women at shul, made by men. When I’m making jokes about women at shul, it’s from the woman’s perspective. I feel like a lot of people haven’t had the chance to laugh at that, and see things voiced in that way. Not those tired jokes that people have said over and over that always have a tinge of misogyny attached or are always anti-progressive thought in some way.”

So how do you like the gefilte fish?

As to the future of what has become a “very public hobby”, Gottlieb says her only plan is to keep making more memes and hopes that none of it comes back to bite her when she becomes a teacher. This is a concern articulated most anxiously by her mother, who also replies to every one of her stories with feedback.

Her mother will be the first to let Gottlieb  know when she doesn’t approve of the content or the use of swear words - and has  expressed frustration that her daughter has not  been able to make money from her meme page.

Gottlieb’s aspiration to be a Jewish Studies teacher, her insightful humour and penchant for meme-making may seem at odds with each other. But their symbiosis is evident in the way she describes her love for Jewish learning and  her exasperation with the way Jewish day schools, especially Modern Orthodox schools, cling to traditional models of teaching Jewish Studies.

“I think it’s such a shame that I spent 13 years in a Jewish day school, and only really began loving studying Torah two years after that,” she says. “ I am so eternally grateful for the Jewish literacy skills that I got … but there’s got to be a way to infuse a love and reverence for these texts, with the proper skills. Because otherwise, what’s the point? So many kids just leave school and never pick up a Chumash or a Tanach again.

“And as much as I love having moments of education on my Instagram, I sometimes think, if I’m the only way that you have a connection with this, that sucks. Go out and learn! Torah is whacked in the best possible way. And Jewish schools need to be better at making people fall in love with it.”

On how humour fits into all of this, she says, “If you like [Judaism], if you really like it, that’s what gives you the right to make fun of it. You don’t get to laugh at something then hate it. I really like this, and I understand this in a deep and nuanced way. Now I can laugh at it. It also makes you funnier.

“If you know about something intimately, the funnier you can be making fun of it. Because you know where all the weird spots are. What you see beyond the jokes is that I love Torah, I love Tanach and I love Judaism. Every joke I make comes from a place of adoration for this life that I’ve been handed. I hate to be the religious gooey person but I thank God sometimes that this is the life I get to live.”

You can follow Shoshana Gottlieb on Instagram as JewishMemesOnly, and @TheTonightSho on Twitter.