TORONTO — Canadians and Jews: “great sense of humour, no self-esteem,” says comedy writer/producer Mike Reiss.
Toward the end of his speech, Reiss, best known for writing and producing The Simpsons, thanked the crowd at the UJA Campaign 2011 closing event for supporting the “worthy cause.”
“I want to thank you… for donating your time and donating your money to this worthy cause, whatever the hell it is. I think we’re buying skullcaps for dogs.”
While not quite on par with skullcaps for dogs, for the hundreds of people who gathered Feb. 15 at Toronto’s Westin Prince Hotel, the cause was important.
Campaign co-chair Sherry Firestone said this year’s campaign had excellent results.
Compared to the 2010 campaign, she said, overall gifts from donors have increased, as well as the number of donors – 900 new ones and 700 previous donors who did not contribute in 2010. The 2011 campaign also attracted 800 canvassers, more than in many years, who helped raise more than $53.8 million to date, for UJA initiatives.
“We truly change people’s lives for the better, in both the short and the long term,” said fellow campaign chair Jeff Rosenthal.
Last year’s campaign raised a total of $64 million, but as of February 2010, when last year’s campaign closing was held, UJA had raised slightly less than this year’s total to date, approximately $53 million.
“The official campaign closing celebration is never the closing of funds coming in,” federation spokesperson Howard English told The CJN. “We will have a much better idea [of the final total] in a few months.”
Lisa Draper, UJA’s chair of campaign operations, introduced the 51-year-old Reiss by showing clips from two episodes of The Simpsons, where the family visits Toronto and Israel.
“We are going to have a lot of fun over the next six or seven hours,” Reiss said by way of introduction. “That’s a joke of course. It won’t be fun at all.”
In addition to discussing The Simpsons, Reiss, who grew up in a small town in Connecticut, touched on the extent of his Judaism.
“I’m Jew…ish. And by that I mean I would never eat a ham sandwich. On Yom Kippur. In a synagogue. If there was anybody watching.
“The hardest part about growing up in a small town is that I look so Jewish. I mean, I put myself through college modelling for hate literature,” he joked.
Many of the show’s cast and crew are also Jewish. “About half of our writing staff is Jewish, and so is the other half. The place is sort of like a kibbutz, only more Jewish.”
“[Cast members] Julie Kavner, Hank Azaria and Harry Shearer [are Jewish]. The voices of Bart, Patty, Selma, Principal Skinner, Burns, Smithers, Moe and Disco Stu are all Jewish. The Reverend Lovejoy is Jewish. Super Christian Ned Flanders, Jewish. Apu the Hindu, well, he’s a Jew too. One Jewish character on the show, Krusty, is played by an Italian guy. But the Italian chef on our show is played by a Jew.”
The 23 writers for the show, Reiss said, are a diverse group, consisting of “some men, two women… [and] one guy who’s half black,” as well as three Canadians who cannot be kept apart.
“Every time we turn around we see the three of them sitting in a corner, like it’s Canadian Tire on a Saturday… we’ll go, ‘You go to Malibu, you go to North Hollywood and you fly to New York.’ And we turn around and boom! All three of them are in the corner again, drinking Tim Hortons coffee.”
The Simpsons have done their fair share of travelling, including to Japan, Brazil and France – and the show has ended up getting banned or sued as a result, said Reiss.
“There are only two countries the Simpsons have visited that did not complain about their treatment on the show. [They were] Canada and Israel. Why? Because Canadians and Jews have a great sense of humour and no self-esteem whatsoever.”
Reiss wrapped up by thanking the UJA for allowing him to address a diverse group, everyone from “lawyers to attorneys.”
With files from Frances Kraft