Ari’s Thoughts : From our Founder
A couple of months ago, I was sitting in a restaurant, writing with a fellow comedian, and I got a call. It began something like this:
“Hi. My name is Danielle. I’m calling from The White House.”
“The White House?”
“The White House.”
“In Washington?”
“That one.”
I double-checked because comedians are always getting booked into seedy restaurants with overly grand names, and I just assumed ”The White House” was the name of a backwoods restaurant that was somewhat white.
So she sent me an email to confirm. And sure enough, a short while later I got this in the mail:
 Front of Invitation |
 Back of Invitation |
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I packed a bag and headed to D.C. (Which also home to JCorps DC!).
A cab dropped me off by the sidewalk outside the White House’s East Gate and a very familiar-looking fellow standing out in the cold with a printed guest list checked my name and allowed me onto a line.
It turned out he was familiar because it was Dr. Kutner from House! Kal Penn, the actor who played Dr. Kutner quit acting in the show to work for the President.
After the longish line, where they checked everyone’s name about five times while men with squiggly wires going into their ears looked us up-and-down, we were let through the gate and … onto another line. Here, we entered a room where they scanned us through metal detectors. The security felt strangely laid back — I’ve been screened more harshly trying to enter a falafel joint in Jerusalem.
Someone behind me on line made a joke about “coming in a red dress and blonde wig”. I missed the Salahi reference and thought, “They invited Giuliani?”
We were let out of the security room and onto the driveway to walk to the East Wing entrance.
Senator Lieberman
Inside was amazing. The White House isn’t a house — it’s a palace. It may look small on the outside. This is an illusion. What looks like a building with a few windows, belies the fact that those windows are each a few stories tall. Imagine putting a lego man in your sister’s doll house.
Senator (comedian!) Al Franken
I checked my coat and started to mingle. I saw Senator Al Franken and went right over. As a comedian, it was cool to meet one of the early cast members of Saturday Night Live.
I got to chat with Senator Lieberman. I write speeches with his former speechwriter, and we chatted about him, and then the Senator blew me away by remembering JCorps’ name.
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William Daroff
William Daroff, from the Jewish Federations of North America, was a living Rolodex, and introduced me, their “Jewish Community Hero”, to everyone.
Senator Lautenberg
I met Senator Lautenberg, who, it turns out, is the Senator of my home state of New Jersey. (It’s probably not a good sign for him or me that I didn’t know that.)
I’m holding, by the way, the White House Hanukka Program, which included the Maoz Tzur song which the crowd later sang!
After a short time for mingling we were ushered into a more-central room which has a staircase down from the Presidential residence.
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Camera phone anyone?
First Vice President Joe Biden was announced. Then they made the announcement for the President and Mrs. Obama, and a million camera flashes went off.
The President took the podium and gave some sort of speech related to Hanukka and service. It was difficult to hear over the clicking of cameras and chatting.
The menorah was lit, the President and Mrs. Obama started shaking hands, and suddenly there were a few hundred people between me and the President.
This was no challenge. I grew up going to synagogue every week, fighting through crowds of Jews to get to after-prayer Kiddush smorgasbords. I’d trained for this for years. At that moment, Obama was my tuna fish.
I got within eight feet of The President and he started to head away, closer to the door to leave. I went for a Hail Mary.
“Mr. President. I’m a comedian from New York!”
I caught his attention.
“Are you funny?”
“I tell jokes about you every night on stage. Can I tell you one?”
“Sure.”
“In the joke, I’ll say ‘Obama’ instead of ‘Mr. President.’”
“Sure.”
The moment after telling President Obama the Obama joke!
“So, they’re calling Obama a Nazi.”
["Oh yeah."]
“Which I think is fantastic… Because if you thought the Presidency was a tough job for a black guy to get.”
[The President starts cracking up.]
“Nazi? We have overcome!”
“That’s great!”
“Mr. President, you are breaking-down color barriers!”
The President, still laughing, reaches around with his other arm and gives me a quick hug.
Glatt Kosher White House food
How can you top that? How about having a latke in the White House? And a mini sufganiya (a Jelly donut, a traditional Hanukka treat)! I wasn’t expecting them to be full of jelly and as my teeth hit the preserves, I went from biting into a donut hole to biting into pure happiness. The baby lamb chops weren’t bad either.
Rabbi Levi Shemtov
The food in the White House was Glatt Kosher, and supervised by Lubavitch and the OU. The White House went all out to ensure everyone could eat the food.
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Ronald Reagan
Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel
JCorps and comedy have gotten me into a lot of cool places.
Where can JCorps take you? Get involved and find out.
~ Ari