Live from New York, It’s the 10 Best Jewish Moments on SNL!

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past few months, you know that Saturday Night Live is celebrating its 50th anniversary. The legendary comedy sketch series is going all out for this milestone. On Peacock, fans can watch SNL50: Beyond Saturday Night, a four-part docuseries on what happens behind the scenes, and Ladies & Gentlemen…50 Years of SNL Music, a documentary on the show’s musical guest performances. Then, on February 16, comes the big event, SNL50: The Anniversary Special, a three-hour extravaganza celebrating every memorable moment of this hilarious series. 

A retrospective of all those funny moments would hardly be complete without looking at some of the Jewish-themed sketches from SNL’s five decades. After all, the show’s creator Lorne Michaels (born Lorne Lipowitz) is Jewish, as are some of the series most famous cast members. There have been many sketches that achieved greatness through their use of Jewish humor and culture. Here are ten of the greatest SNL sketches (in no particular order) that center around Jewish people and customs.

1. The Hanukkah Song

In 1994, the Jewish Sandler appeared on Weekend Update strumming a guitar and singing to all of the Jewish boys and girls at home who had to hear Christmas songs all  the time. The chorus of “So, put on your yarmulke/it’s time to celebrate Hanukkah” became an instant classic. Along with that catchy refrain, Sandler sings about the many celebrities people may not know are Jewish, like David Lee Roth, James Caan, Kirk Douglas and “all three Stooges,” along with people who are half Jewish, such as Paul Newman and Goldie Hawn (“Put them together, what a fine looking Jew!”) With a comedic style and a fun tune, Sandler was able to teach millions of viewers about some great Jewish role models.

2. Jacob the Bar Mitzvah Boy

If you’ve been around Jewish children, you have probably met someone just like Jacob the Bar Mitzvah boy. Vanessa Bayer’s precocious character first appeared in a 2011 sketch, with each subsequent appearance being on Weekend Update. Jacob is an awkward kid who has been preparing for his bar mitzvah and knows everything about Jewish customs, including Shabbat and the various Jewish holidays, and is eager to share his knowledge. During his appearances, he reads off a script, similar to ones that boys read at their bar mitzvahs, that talks about Judaism, occasionally mixed in with corny lines, such as “Shabbat is the traditional day of rest, from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday. I mean, I’ve heard of recess, but this is ridiculous!” and “On the first day, God said let there be light, and on the second day, he said, let there be Derek Jeter and the New York Yankees.” Every time the anchor tries to get Jacob off script, he won’t budge. A particularly memorable bit involves the appearance of Jacob’s father, played by Billy Crystal, who acts exactly like his child. Jacob is the good Jewish boy that every parent dreams of, and we applaud him for his dedication to his faith.

3. This You Call a Wonderful Life?

Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life is one of the most famous Christmas movies of all time. It’s  about a man, George Bailey, who is given a vision of what the world would be like if he were never born. But what if that famous Christmas movie had been Jewish? This 2010 SNL sketch opens with a Turner Classic Movies host explaining that the film was originally made as a Hanukkah movie called This You Call a Wonderful Life? In that film, instead of pitching in to raise the $8,000 which George’s hapless uncle lost and which the bank examiner suspects him of embezzling, everyone who shows up at the Baileys’ house is feeling hopeless and anxious. However, they do bring over some rugelach, babka and lox spread and then proceed to have an argument about their favorite delis, which, according to the TCM host, originally went on for 43 minutes.

4. Gilda Radner Lighting the Menorah

Some interesting trivia about SNL is that it may have featured the first time someone lit a menorah on national television. This happened in a 1977 sketch by the Jewish Gilda Radner. Radner and John Belushi play a Jewish couple who invite Belushi’s boss, played by Bill Murray, and his wife, played by that week’s host Mary Kay Place, over for Hanukkah dinner. The invited couple are not Jewish, and they don’t seem very knowledgeable about the culture and customs. Nevertheless, Radner’s character sets up the menorah, tells the story of the Maccabees, lights the candles and then recites the Hanukkah blessing. Even Murray’s character admits to getting a little misty. The sketch may be remembered not for being particularly funny, but for the sensitivity and representation of an important part of Judaism in front of a large audience..

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5. Jewish Elvis

When Austin Butler hosted the show in 2022 to promote the forthcoming biopic Elvis, people thought the actor would be doing an Elvis impression in a sketch. People were not expecting Jewish Elvis, played by Jewish cast member Sarah Sherman. The sketch takes place on the first night of Hanukkah at a retirement home, where the women, including Butler in drag, are obsessed with the night’s performer, Jewish Elvis. This Elvis has a belt covered with stars of David and a necklace to match, and he’s complaining about “schvitzing like a hounddog.” Jewish Elvis’s performance includes Elvis Presley’s greatest hits with Borscht-Belt-style comedic complaints interjected between lyrics, like “Wise men say… who are these wise men? Why are they so wise?” The king of rock and roll gets a fun Jewish twist, and you don’t have to be an old lady at a retirement home to appreciate Jewish Elvis’s magic.

6. Christmastime for the Jews

Around Christmas, many Jewish people can feel left out. Thus, 2005’s “Christmastime for the Jews” became the anthem for Jewish people on December 25. It’s a song sung by Darlene Love and set to a stop-motion animation. Love sings about how gentiles are all indoors celebrating with their families and  it’s  “the night the Jews control the town.” She sings about how the Jews are having the most fun on Christmas, as they go to movies “without waiting in line,” go out to dinner in Chinatown, crank Barbra Streisand music as loud as they want and more. All of the imagery is done in the style of a claymation holiday movie to show that Christmas can be a magical time of year for everyone, even those who don’t celebrate it.

7. Rabbi Jill Hausman on Weekend Update

Co-anchors Colin Jost and Michael Che often mess with each other in their classic “Joke Swap” bit, whereby they each write jokes for the other and read them for the first time live. Once, Che brought out a fake civil rights activist to troll Jost. Another particularly memorable moment was in 2024 when Che had a real rabbi as a guest. Rabbi Jill Hausman, who works with the Actors’ Temple (a temple in the heart of Manhattan’s Theatre District that caters to creative types), sat next to Jost while he read some slightly offensive jokes. The audience registered shock and Hausman sat silently, shaking her head. In one bit, Jost read an account of  students walking out on Jerry Seinfeld delivering Duke’s commencement, ending,   “During these difficult times, it is important to support our Jewish friends. That is why the only chant you’ll hear me saying is ‘Free Weinstein.’ At another point, Jost had to hold a rabbi puppet and use it to  talk about space lasers. Through all of these “cruel” jokes, Rabbi Hausman was looking increasingly disappointed in Jost, adding a whole new level to the hilarity of the Joke Swaps.

8. Hanukkah Harry

At Christmastime, most children are visited by the jolly Santa Claus. However, when Santa Claus isn’t available, Hanukkah Harry steps in, played by the Jewish Jon Lovitz. In Hanukkah Harry’s first appearance in 1989, Santa Claus has come down with the flu, and Harry, accessorized with a long beard and a blue yarmulke, is happy to help. Instead of reindeer, he is led by three donkeys, Moische, Herschel and Schlomo. Hanukkah Harry gives gifts like pants and socks. Hanukkah Harry also appears in an Easter sketch, where he helps out the Easter Bunny and brings some Passover treats to children, like macaroons and chocolate matzah.

9. Coffee Talk

Many people can relate to the  Jewish mother who has an opinion on everything. That is the beauty of the Coffee Talk sketches, which premiered in 1991 with Mike Myers as Jewish mother Linda Richman. Myers was inspired by his Jewish mother-in-law for these sketches, which see Richman discussing everything on her mind in her signature loud Brooklyn accent, throwing in some Yiddish and faux-Yiddish words here and there (verklempt is a favorite). She often talks with her guests about her love of Barbra Streisand, so when the singer actually appeared in one of these sketches, it was truly memorable. It’s a stereotype, but done with love, and it feels authentic.

10. Jewess Jeans

There is a certain designer style (which is considered offensive by some Jewish women now) displayed by the “Jewish American Princess,” and Gilda Radner epitomized that style in a pair of Jewess Jeans in this 1980 SNL bit. In a parody of the Jordache Jeans ads of the time, Radner plays the recurring character Rhonda Weiss modeling the new Jewess jeans, which have outlines of Stars of David embroidered on the back pockets. She dances around in the jeans, along with other women, to  the Jewess Jeans jingle, which has lyrics like, “She’s read every best-selling book, she’s a gourmet blender cook, she’s got that Jewish look.” The video ends with the voice-over, “You don’t have to be Jewish,” to which Weiss replies, “But it wouldn’t hurt.”