{"id":16265,"date":"2015-12-04T00:27:15","date_gmt":"2015-12-04T08:27:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=16265"},"modified":"2015-12-03T23:41:23","modified_gmt":"2015-12-04T07:41:23","slug":"duos-message-is-laughter-heals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2015\/12\/04\/duos-message-is-laughter-heals\/","title":{"rendered":"Duo\u2019s message is \u201claughter heals\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

The comedy team of Rabbi Bob Alpert and Ahmed Ahmed on their August 2015 Laugh in Peace Tour. (photo from Laugh in Peace<\/a>)<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBoth Jews and Muslims have a lot in common. What are we fighting over? Jews and Muslims don\u2019t eat pork, we don\u2019t celebrate Christmas, we both use \u2018ch\u2019 in our pronunciation, and we are both hairy creatures of God,\u201d says comedian Ahmed Ahmed. \u201cThe only real difference between Jews and Muslims is that Jews never like to spend any money and Muslims never have any money to spend.\u201d<\/p>\n

So goes one of the dozens of jokes featured in the Laugh in Peace<\/a>\u00a0comedy routine of Ahmed and Rabbi Bob Alper. It\u2019s one Arab, one Jew, one stage. The unlikely duo\u2019s show was in Israel (Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Haifa) and the Palestinian territories (Ramallah) for the first time from Aug. 12-17. Together, Ahmed and Alper have performed more than 150 times during the last 14 years \u2013 throughout the United States, Canada and England \u2013 at synagogues, churches, mosques, theatres and college campuses.<\/p>\n

Their story began as a gimmick by a savvy publicist, said Alper, a Reform rabbi who spent more than a decade at pulpits in New York and Philadelphia \u2013 or, as he calls it, \u201c14 years of performing in front of a hostile audience.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alper admits he was at first resistant to the idea of the combined show. \u201cMy publicist calls me one day and says, \u2018Bob, why don\u2019t you do a show with an Arab comedian?\u2019 I said, \u2018Do you have any other ideas?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Ahmed was skeptical, too. \u201cI got this call, \u2018My name is Bob Alper and I am a Reform rabbi.\u2019\u2026 He says, \u2018I have an idea. I thought it would be great to do a show together.\u2019\u2026 Well, I said, \u2018That sounds good, where do you perform?\u2019 He says, \u2018Well, I perform in synagogues.\u2019 \u2026 I thought someone was playing a joke on me.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the timing was right. In 2001, at the height of the terrorism of the second Palestinian intifada<\/em> (uprising) in Israel, people were primed for comic relief. Alper says, when people are tense or sad, \u201ccomedy is even more important.\u201d<\/p>\n

Over time, the two have been more than just a successful and sought-after show. They\u2019ve become good friends. The women in Alper\u2019s small Vermont town fell in love with Ahmed through his visits and regularly inquire about his well-being. Alper has eaten in Ahmed\u2019s parents\u2019 California home.<\/p>\n

\u201cAhmed\u2019s dad asked about my family,\u201d Alper recalled. \u201cWhen I told him my wife would be having shoulder surgery the following month, he looked gravely at me and ordered, \u2018You must stop twisting her arm.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

They also believe they have played a role in breaking down barriers between Muslims and Jews. On college campuses, where Jewish-Muslim tension and antisemitism run rampant over the issue of Israel, Ahmed and Alper perform for mixed audiences. Jewish males wearing yarmulkes and females in hijabs sit side-by-side, smiling and laughing.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen people laugh together, it is hard to hate each other,\u201d said Alper, recounting how at the University of Arkansas it occurred to him that they were guests of the Razorbacks \u2013 a Muslim and a Jew performing at a school whose mascot is a pig.<\/p>\n

They keep their shows apolitical, though they do touch on their personal religious experiences in the 90-minute performances, which generally are divided between solo acts of 30-35 minutes and a joint opening and closing. The closing includes stories from their travels.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Read more at jns.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Among the 2016 shows listed on Bob Alper\u2019s website (bobalper.com<\/a>) is only one in Canada, and it just so happens to be at Congregation Beth Israel<\/a> on March 23.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The comedy team of Rabbi Bob Alpert and Ahmed Ahmed on their August 2015 Laugh in Peace Tour. (photo from Laugh in Peace) \u201cBoth Jews and Muslims have a lot in common. What are we fighting over? Jews and Muslims don\u2019t eat pork, we don\u2019t celebrate Christmas, we both use \u2018ch\u2019 in our pronunciation, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16145,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[785],"tags":[5016,547,5015,1673,2610,2609],"class_list":["post-16265","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-performing-arts","tag-ahmed-ahmed","tag-beth-israel","tag-bob-alper","tag-israeli-palestinian-conflict","tag-jews","tag-muslims"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16265","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16265"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16265\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16145"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}