Rabbi Jill Hausman of the Actors’ Temple in New York appears on ‘Saturday Night Live’ on May 18, 2024. (Screenshot via YouTube)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
So when she saw an email on Thursday from \u201cSaturday Night Live,\u201d asking her to be on that week\u2019s show, she knew she had to accept. <\/p>\n
\u201cIf opportunities come along, it\u2019s such great fun for me to be in something with other people,\u201d she told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. \u201cIf people come to me with an opportunity, as long as I can, I\u2019ll try to say yes. It\u2019s kind of like saying yes to life.\u201d<\/p>\n
In this case, the gig involved a surprise appearance on \u201cWeekend Update,\u201d SNL\u2019s parody news show. The five-minute appearance, in which Hausman was all but silent, placed her on millions of TV screens \u2014 grimacing in reaction to jokes about Israel, student protests and Jewish \u201cspace lasers.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe whole experience has just been loads and loads of fun,\u201d Hausman told JTA.<\/p>\n
On Saturday morning, Hausman led Shabbat prayers and a memorial service in Western Massachusetts, then drove back down to Midtown \u2014 making it in time to sit alongside the co-hosts of \u201cUpdate,\u201d Michael Che and Colin Jost, for the show\u2019s 49th season finale.<\/p>\n
Hausman, who has been a rabbi for 20 years and has also served as a cantor, has experience singing on stage. But her role on SNL was simpler: <\/p>\n
\u201cThey asked me to make the host, Colin Jost, uncomfortable,\u201d Hausman said.<\/p>\n
Hausman was brought along for a recurring segment in which Che and Jost do a joke swap: They make each other read increasingly edgier jokes that the other has never seen before. <\/p>\n
During an episode in December, Che brought an actress to pretend to be a civil rights activist who had marched with Martin Luther King, Jr. (Hausman was shown that clip when SNL explained the role to her.) <\/p>\n
But, Che admitted to Jost, \u201cThat was low. So to make it up to you, this time I invited an actual practicing rabbi.\u201d The camera panned to Hausman, who was clad in a large kippah and prayer shawl at the show\u2019s request. <\/p>\n
\u201cI think I was supposed to be recognizable as a rabbi and not just to look like a regular person,\u201d she said. \u201cI think it was an identification kind of thing.\u201d<\/p>\n
What followed were a series of increasingly cringey jokes \u2014 written by Che and read by Jost \u2014 about Israel and the Jews. <\/p>\n
As a picture of Jerry Seinfeld flashed onscreen, Jost said, \u201cPro-Palestinian protesters walked out of Jerry Seinfeld\u2019s commencement address at Duke University, and I think that\u2019s disgraceful. During these difficult times I think it\u2019s important to support our Jewish friends.\u201d<\/p>\n
He continued, \u201cThat\u2019s why the only chant you\u2019ll hear from me is \u2018Free Weinstein!\u2019 Keep fighting, Harvey! Am I right, bubbeleh?\u201d <\/p>\n
Hausman shook her head in disbelief. (Harvey Weinstein, the former movie producer, recently had one of his sexual abuse convictions overturned, but he remains imprisoned because of a different conviction.)<\/p>\n
Later, Jost turned to Hausman and said, alluding to a prominent antisemitic conspiracy theory, \u201cSo Rabbi Jill, if you\u2019re here, who\u2019s controlling the weather?\u201d She smiled and pursed her lips. <\/p>\n
Another punchline, referencing comments by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, involved a puppet of a male Orthodox rabbi threatening to hit MSNBC with \u201cour space lasers\u201d if coverage of Israel is too critical. (Another involved Jost\u2019s wife, Scarlett Johansson, who is Jewish.)<\/p>\n
\u201cI was glad the jokes weren\u2019t worse than they were,\u201d Hausman said on Monday. \u201cI didn\u2019t know what was going to be said specifically until I got to the studio and then I kind of knew. So I just was hoping that they wouldn\u2019t say anything really, really against Israel, which they didn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bob Greenberg (left), Actors’ Temple synagogue co-president appears onstage alongside host Jim Carrey in a 2011 episode of ‘Saturday Night Live.'(Screenshot via YouTube)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
The Actors\u2019 Temple, founded by shopkeepers in 1917 as an Orthodox congregation known as the West Side Hebrew Relief Association, became a spot popular among actors who, in the early 20th century, were not welcome in other spaces. It was once attended by two of the Three Stooges, Sandy Koufax, actor Shelley Winters and comedians Red Buttons, Jack Benny, Al Jolson, Milton Berle, Sophie Tucker and Henny Youngman.<\/p>\n
Hausman is not even the first member of the synagogue to make an appearance on SNL.<\/p>\n
In 2011, current synagogue co-president Bob Greenberg appeared onstage during Jim Carrey\u2019s monologue. Carrey had proposed marriage to a member of the audience in the front row, who did not accept. So Carrey then begrudgingly grabbed Greenberg from another seat, and brought him up onstage, announcing him as his \u201cnew life partner.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hausman says she had a good time. <\/p>\n
\u201cI went to have fun and to represent the Jewish community,\u201d Hausman added. \u201cI think it\u2019s important to show up as a member of the Jewish community and I did it for the Actors\u2019 Temple also. I did it for the fun of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
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