By Sandi Masori
SAN DIEGO — The nice thing about JFest is there’s something for everyone. Like music? Great! There are some concerts by various Jewish musicians. Like theater? There are some play readings. And for patrons last night who were looking for a laugh, there was a comedy show.
This wasn’t your regular comedy show though. I mean, yeah there was an emcee (Avi Liberman) who did a set and introduced the other funny acts (Kira Soltanovich and Bob Zany), but unlike many other comedy shows, this one was for a cause.
Comedy for Koby tours Israel and North America and benefits the Koby Mandell foundation. The foundation was set up by Seth and Sherri Mandell after their then 13-year old son was murdered by terrorists in 2001. Its goal is to help bereaved families heal after losing a loved one to terrorist violence. The Foundation’s personnel run camps and other emotional support services for those who have been affected by terror, and they believe that laughter is an integral part of healing. And oh boy do we need that now more than ever.
Fifteen years ago, Liberman stumbled on the book that the Mandells wrote and was so moved by it that he sought them out and partnered with them to develop the Comedy for Koby tour. Originally, according to the Comedy for Koby website, they just toured around Israel as one of its most popular English-language comedy shows.
As you can imagine, post 10/7 there’s an even greater need for this kind of support and healing. Their summer camp Camp Koby may be instrumental in helping some of the kids who lost family in the horrific violence perpetrated by Hamas on 10/7.
The actual comics may change from show to show, but what doesn’t change is that all of the proceeds from the show go to the foundation.
As for the show we saw at the JCC last night, Liberman, Sultanovich and Zany brought the laughs. I did feel a little bad for them though, as the 500 seat JCC theater was a bit large for the size of the audience that attended (perhaps 125 or so). It’s hard to keep the momentum and energy going when the audience is spread out like that, so more power to them. All three of them did a fair amount of crowd work, and I’ll admit I was relieved not to be in the “splash zone” of the first few rows. I especially liked Liberman’s riffing on the Jewish holidays. How do you explain Sukkot to someone who’s not Jewish?
All in all, it was a nice light evening benefiting an important cause, so a win all the way around. JFest is wrapping up with only a week to go and has three more events between now and the end of the month. It’s important that we support our Jewish arts, not only for the preservation of the arts themselves, but also for our own sense of community and wellbeing. In these times of rising antisemitism, it’s more vital than ever for us to come together to laugh, eat, dance, listen, watch and commune.
We need to be reminded that though the world may be ugly at the moment, we are a mighty and diverse people with a great history of resilience and we’re not alone in the craziness.
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Sandi Masori is a theatre and restaurant reviewer for San Diego Jewish World