'Lightening the national mood': Modi performs in Jerusalem amid war - review

During Sukkot, when New York comedian Modi last came to Israel, the biggest problem that appeared to be facing the Jewish state was an internal rift over judicial reform that he rightly said was “not funny.”

Ahead of that visit, Modi told The Jerusalem Post that “the job of a comedian is to lighten the national mood.”

Unwittingly speaking prophetically, he added: “When they come to a show, people want to forget about their problems and tsuris [troubles].” 

Immediately after his six shows across the country, Israel’s tsuris got out of control. On October 7, he was woken up by sirens at the Setai Hotel in Jaffa. He later saw Bruno Mars and his crew get evacuated from the hotel.

Back for one show at the Jerusalem Theatre Sunday night, Modi told the crowd that he was relieved when Mars left because if the hotel had been hit by a rocket that killed the singer, no one would have cared about his own death.

That kind of dark humor was a perfect fit for the audience that packed the theater after more than eight months of war. Born Mordechi Rosenfeld in Tel Aviv, Modi understands the Israeli mentality, and he threw in plenty of Hebrew as he pontificated on the cultural differences between Israelis and the American Jews he lives with nowadays in Manhattan.

'Perfect timing'

“You’ve kept your Jewish American accents!” he admiringly told the crowd of immigrants to Israel.

At the climax of his routine, he mocked wealthy Diaspora Jewish ladies who come to Israel on solidarity missions wearing designer clothes and jewelry to barbecue for IDF soldiers. He mocked the response of confused soldiers who did not understand why the women came and didn’t speak their language. 

“You... here... eh?

At one point, an audience member told Modi that they made aliyah to Israel in December.

“Perfect timing!” he declared, as the crowd laughed.

Modi remarked that at a certain point after making aliyah, it hits people: “Oh my God, we live in Israel.”

He said he hears plenty of American Jews talk about making aliyah because “the Nazis are coming.” But he said the truth is “the Nazis are already over here.”

Modi moved with his family to the United States at age seven and was raised on Long Island. After studying to be a cantor and working as a Wall Street banker, he switched to a less lucrative career in stand-up comedy. Voted one of the top 10 comedians in New York City by The Hollywood Reporter, Modi is one of the comedy circuit’s most sought-after performers. 

Most of the events he headlines lately are fundraisers for Israel by Jewish organizations across North America. He said the event in Jerusalem was his first in a long time that was not a fundraiser.

At one fundraiser in Vancouver, he even won an enormous shofar in a raffle. That, of course, gave him plenty of fodder for his routine. He tried to get the shofar through Canadian airport security.

When he told the security agents it was a ram’s horn, they asked where the ram’s other horn was.

Modi does his share of traveling. He warned the Israeli audience not to go to Europe, where “every once in a while, you see a woman not wearing a hijab.”

While Modi concluded his show with “Hatikva” and expressed solidarity with Israel, he stopped short of volunteering to join the IDF.

“If Israel needs me, we’ve already lost the war,” he said.