Why Were There No Jokes After the 2021 Meron Crowd Crush? On Israeli “Joking Relationships”

Authors

Tsafi Sebba-Elran, University of HaifaFollow

Abstract

The vast research literature on disaster jokes demonstrates that no calamity is too horrific to be followed by jokes that typically recontextualize traumatic events and channel the threatening voices that these events provoke. Why, then, did no jokes circulate after the deadliest civil disaster in Israel’s history, which occurred on Mount Meron during the Lag Ba’Omer celebrations in April 2021? Drawing upon the ethnographic concept of “joking relationships,” this essay documents representations of ultra-Orthodox Jews (Haredim) in contemporary Israeli memes and explains the restraint that Israeli society shows toward this group with whom the Meron disaster is associated. The absence of jokes is employed here as a prism through which one can gain insight not only into prevalent Israeli beliefs, emotions, and perceptions but also into the function of jokes in delineating internal social boundaries.

Recommended Citation

Sebba-Elran, Tsafi (2023) "Why Were There No Jokes After the 2021 Meron Crowd Crush? On Israeli “Joking Relationships”," Jewish Folklore and Ethnology: Vol. 2: Iss. 1, Article 4.
Available at: https://digitalcommons.wayne.edu/jewishfolklore/vol2/iss1/4