From innuendo in Genesis to grand irony in Jonah, humor forms an important and often overlooked element in the Hebrew Bible.

Ruth Wisse isn’t asking Jews to stop joking; but more than humor, she knows, is required to fend off their (dead-serious) enemies.

Old Odessa was tempting: a Vegas-like playground free of restrictions where “you can see the flames of hell.” But what does Odessa tell us. . .

Jews have justly become identified with humor and wit, often at their own expense. But is it something of which to be proud—and how proud?. . .

“I applaud the intellectual courage of [Ruth Wisse's No Joke], the breadth of her learning, the comprehensiveness of her ambitions, her unembarrassed declarations of pleasure. . .