Episode 4: Oy! Who are you laughing at?

Did you hear the one about Haimy and Moishe …? In this episode Vivi and Nadia tell some of their families’ favourite Jewish jokes and find out about Cockney-Yiddish rhyming slang with actor Nick Cassenbaum. We look at Yiddish humour with our studio guest, writer Michael Rosen. We discuss his family’s fragmentary use of Yiddish and how he drew on it in his comic writing. We mull over what is so funny about a story of Jewish technical incompetence, and the outrageous adventures of an East End Jewish wife in a Yiddish music hall parody of a famous ragtime song, Bill Bailey Won’t You Please Come Home.

**‘A Jew Takes a Pleasure Trip’ (Yid for oyf plezher) (1927)**

Asher Beilin, translated by Vivi Lachs

Asher Beilin (1881-1948) was born in Kiev, Ukraine. He worked as private secretary to the celebrated Yiddish writer Sholem Aleichem from 1901-5 before moving to London in 1906. He published in Hebrew language journals but was prolific as a Yiddish journalist, writer and playwright. He worked for Der idisher zhurnal (The Jewish Journal) and Der idisher ekspres (The Jewish Express) and also wrote for Di tsayt (The Jewish Times) under the psuedonym An eygener (A Relative). He settled in Jerusalem in 1933.

One morning, I could swear it was last Monday, no sorry, maybe it was Wednesday, or was it Tuesday? Anyway, it doesn’t make any difference when it was, the point is that it happened… [read more ]

Listen to the story in Yiddish below

‘Vos geyst nisht aheym Sore-gitl’ (Won’t You Come Home Sara-Gitl) (c. 1903)

Arn Nager, translated by Vivi Lachs

Actor and writer Aaron Nager (1880-1930s) arrived in London in around 1898. He was a prolific songwriter for the London Yiddish music halls and a popular comedian who sang the lead character in his own compositions. He also wrote occasional comic pieces for the satirical theatre journal Der bloffer (The Bluffer).

In a sheyner zumer nakht
gey ikh mir fartrakht
tref ikh mayn vaybl vi a tayvl
volkendik bay nakht
in ridzhent strit…

On a lovely summer night
I go for a walk, contemplating
And meet my wife like the devil
walking at night
In Regent Street… [read more]

The Cockney Yiddish Podcast is written and presented by Nadia Valman and Vivi Lachs

Produced by Natalie Steed at Rhubarb Rhubarb for Queen Mary University of London

Funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council

Guests: Michael Rosen and Nick Cassenbaum

Reader in English: Michael Rosen

Reader in Yiddish: Sima Beeri

Featured story: Asher Beilin, ‘A Jew Takes a Pleasure Trip’, translated by Vivi Lachs. From East End Jews: Sketches from the London Yiddish Press (Wayne State University Press, 2025)

Featured song: Katsha’nes, ‘Vos geyst nisht aheym, sore-gitl?’ (Lyrics: Arn Nager. Music: Hughie Cannon). From the CD Don’t Ask Silly Questions (Katshanes, 2017)

Theme music: Klezmer Klub, ‘Vaytshepl mayn vaytshepl’ (trad) and ‘Yiddisher Honga’ (trad). From the CD Whitechapel mayn Vaytshepl (Klub Records, 2009)

Website images:

Audience watching ‘Secrets of the London Yiddish Stage’ (Jewish Museum, 2022)
Asher Beilin’ (Wikimedia Commons)
‘Arn Nager’ (londoner kupletist, ca. 1903)