This article appeared in the August 30, 2013 Jewish Advocate.
Just in time for the holidays, an entertaining Rabbi offers wisdom
Bob Alper works as a stand-up comedian when he’s not busy fulfilling religious duties
By Susie Davidson
Special to The Advocate
Rabbi Bob Alper PHOTO/SAM KHAN
If you are reading this, chances are you are already suffering from PTSSD (Pre-Traumatic Synagogue Stress Disorder). But help is here in the form of a new book by comedian and Rabbi Bob Alper.
“The early arrival of Rosh Hashanah this year, which begins on the eve of Sept. 4, has resulted in an outbreak of PTSSD among large sections of the American Jewish community,” said Alper’s New York-based publicist Shira Dicker. “Arriving only two days after Labor Day and concluding on Sept. 27 with Simchat Torah, the Jewish High Holiday season collides with the back-to-school season this year and virtually eclipses the entire month of September!”
Don’t we know it? How are we ever going to fit them in (or rather, like good Jews, fit everything else in around them)?
Rabbi Alper, or Bob, as he prefers to be called, has come to the rescue. He has gathered sections of his High Holiday sermons, distilled them into essays, and assembled them into a new book called “Thanks. I Needed That. And Other Stories of the Spirit.” His publishing company, Read the Spirit Publishing, terms it “a remarkably wise, inspiring and utterly delightful book … of profundity, insight and great humanity.” Coming from Alper, you can bet at least some of it will also be side-splitting.
Alper’s new book “Thanks. I Needed That. And Other Stories of the Spirit.”
“I think people can ingest lessons and inspiration through stories much more easily than through simple recitation of facts and figures or theology,” the storytelling Rabbi states in an excerpt from his online podcast. “That’s my style. And I love to touch people in positive ways. It’s an honor.”
According to Alper, levity is a time-honored Jewish tradition, and one worthy of emulation. “Since I know well the critical value of laughter, I frequently utilize humor in my sermons,” he wrote in an email. “There’s ample precedent: The Talmud relates how the scholar Rabbah used to begin his lessons with a joke. His students would relax, and then would be better able to participate in studying serious matters.” Alper ascribes to that same formula.
But he also conveys poignant human drama. The book’s opening chapter relates how Rabbi Howard Jaffe of Temple Isaiah in Lexington met his wife Irene. It also recounts their difficulties in conceiving, and how ultimately, the names of Irene’s deceased aunts, who were victims of the Holocaust, live on in one of their children.
While he pays homage to Judaic traditions, he is not afraid to stake out new ones. “The chapter ‘Growing Old with a Smile,’ which was excerpted from a sermon, focuses on the difficulties, losses and frustrations of the aging process, including the often heart-rending moment when an elderly person must discontinue driving,” said Alper. “Such a transition, I believe, calls for the creation of a ceremony, and so I wrote one, in which the person surrenders his/her driver’s license.”
The ceremony, which includes a lot of laugh lines, ends with windshield washer fluid squirted festively into the air. “Persons of Sephardic background may also wish to stroke the car with a chamois cloth, as is their custom,” added Alper. Chapter 3, “Applauding New Beginnings,” is custom-made for the New Year, and might end up in another rabbinical sermon. “A number of early purchasers among our rabbinic ranks are using my stories this year,” Alper wrote, “and the beloved sermon master, Rabbi Jack Riemer, wrote and distributed a full sermon through his TorahFax program.”
You can hear audio clips from the Rabbi’s 27-year comedy career daily on SiriusXM’s Family Comedy Channel 98, and you may have seen him on “Good Morning America,” Showtime, BBC, CNN or “Extra,” a top-rated television entertainment program. Alper has released two CDs and a DVD, as well as two previous books: “A Rabbi Confesses,” which contains some of the most uproarious bits from his stand-up act; and a more serious and inspirational tome of essays, in its fifth printing, called “Life Doesn’t Get Any Better Than This.” He performs across North America and in England at Jewish and civic venues.
“I’m 68 and a half, but this morning I did 140 push-ups, nonstop, so apparently my body refuses to act its age,” he said by phone from his home in Vermont, where he lives with his psychotherapist wife Sherri (they are empty nesters, parents of Zack and Jessie). Alper has also done more than 300 shows with Arab and Muslim comedians, primarily at colleges and universities, and has performed at Toronto’s “Muslimfest,” a festival for people of all backgrounds. He is quick, blunt and up-front, but always clean and respectful.
He calls himself “the world’s only practicing clergyman doing stand-up comedy – intentionally.” And it’s the real thing.
“I do actual stand-up, as opposed to the schtick of a humorist, who might tell some jokes and talk about being funny,” he told The Advocate. “Stand-up is a different animal,” he explained. “It’s an art form that is intensely crafted.” You can see what he means in the five-and-a-half minute, rapid-fire demo on his website. “I try to get a laugh every 10 seconds,” he explained. “There are no long jokes.” He admits that it is challenging. But it must also be quite rewarding – after all, what better reaction can one receive than a big smile from a listener? “Doing stand-up is an addiction – a healthy addiction,” he said.
Alper’s New England roots run deep. His stand-up career began at New England Federation of Temple Youth (NFTY) Talent Nights. “I would memorize Bob Newhart and Shelley Berman routines,” he said. “And I spent four great summers [from 1962 to 1965] as a counselor at Camp Tel Noar in New Hampshire, as, believe it or not, a horseback riding instructor.” His uncle, Rabbi Martin Katzenstein, was the founding Rabbi at Temple Emanu-El in Marblehead, where Alper performed last year, and when he died in 1970, he was the acting Dean of Students at Harvard Divinity School. Alper has done lots of shows in Boston, including at Temple Beth Elohim in Wellesley, and at Berklee College with his comedian colleague Ahmed Ahmed. The peripatetic Alper recently performed at the Center for Advancement of Jewish Education (CAJE) national conference in Dudley; this week he’s in Maryland and Connecticut, and next week he will appear in Toronto. On Oct. 22, he’ll perform as part of the Jewish Book Fair at the Jewish Community Center in Springfield.
A native of Providence, Alper went to school with the son of [Italian-American mobster] Raymond Patriarca Sr. “When I was in Cub Scouts, there was a father and son banquet, and they were both there, Big Ray and Little Ray,” he recalled.
While officiating at Congregation Beth Or in Philadelphia, Alper earned a D.Min. degree in ministry at nearby Princeton Theological Seminary in New Jersey. The City of Brotherly Love is still in his heart; he has conducted High Holiday services there for a combined 36 years: eight at Beth Or (1978 to 1986), and, since then, at Temple Micah, where he will preside next month.
Alper’s publicist tells of a standing ovation Alper received before 2,700 people at New York’s Chautauqua Institution, and similar enthusiastic audience responses at gigs at Hollywood Improv and the Montreal Comedy Fest.
But they also happen in his daily life. “After a show in [the California city of] San Luis Obisbo, I was sitting next to a cattle truck driver from Kansas City on the plane, who asked me what I do,” said Alper. “When I told him, he said, “‘Oh, you’re the one on Sirius XM!’ He then went into one of my routines.”