Di Idn Kumen!

Excerpt

In 1967, the Israeli Yiddish comedy theatre group Shpilkes, under the direction of Yosef Hayblum and Misha Nathan, came out with a new musical comedy titled Di yidn kumen! di yidn kumen! (The Jews are Coming! The Jews are Coming!), aimed at celebrating the victory in the Six-Day War. This production was part of the Yiddish light entertainment industry, which was considered and referred to as an expression of shund culture. 

The poster that advertised the comedy (figure 1) manifested a number of paradoxical situations, the most striking of them being the representation of war as a comedy. This extraordinary combination of war and comic atmosphere was strengthened by the visual images. The paratroopers, who occupy most of the poster’s space, remind one of a group of aerialists dancing in the air, whose celebratory parade, disproportionately large heads, and thin legs turn them into funny and grotesque figures. In addition, the clothing of the brave clown-parachutists–especially their helmets—show them to be soldiers of the Israeli army—the victors of the Six-Day War. In contradiction to typical war drawings, the victors rather than the defeated appear here as the comic personages. 

Here, the Jewish folk tradition of humor, whose salient characteristic is laughing at oneself, supplanted a serious and heroic approach. Thus, the Yiddish theatre poster advertised laughter and a view of life as entertainment, which invaded Israeli reality. Moreover, below the ensemble of brave Yiddish parachutists there is a comic drawing (from right to left) of Abba Eban, the Israeli minister of foreign affairs; Levi Eshkol, the Israeli prime minister; and Moshe Dayan, the Israeli defense minister, all riding on a tank with the flag of Israel on it. Moshe Dayan holds a sling, just like the biblical King David in his battle with Goliath. (No he does not. DJW)

The Israeli tank chases five injured Arab soldiers, one of them riding a camel. In this section of the poster as well, the caricatural language neutralizes the military message of the event. Overall, the poster does not criticize the war, nor does it try to say that the war victory makes no sense; it just offers a humorous look, from a bird’s-eye view. This caricature, coming from a Yiddish cultural perspective, urges us not to take ourselves too seriously.

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https://ingeveb.org/articles/israeli-yiddish-light-entertainment-shows