The 9 Best Jewish Moments from Curb Your Enthusiasm

9 Weeks of Curb
5 min readSep 18, 2017

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Pretty…pretty…pretty טוֹב.

With Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, coming up this week, we’ve decided to celebrate by giving you the best Curb Your Enthusiasm moments involving Judaism.

L’Shana Tova and a very Happy and Healthy New Year!

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Larry Sings Ein Keloheinu

(Season 4, Ep. 9 — The Survivor)

This scene’s Glatt certified ridiculous. Perhaps this is evidence that Larry goes to shul on Saturday morning?

-MS

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Don’t Buy Rosh Hashanah Tickets From a Scalper

(Season 5, Ep. 1 — The Larry David Sandwich)

Ah — the high holy days. They really are a tough ticket! Yes, sometimes you get lucky and a scalper will sell you some great seats (fun fact: there’s no such thing as “high holy day ticket scalping” in real life), but sometimes you get unlucky if you’re Larry David.

Larry buys scalper tickets to get into temple, and in classic Curb fashion, gets kicked out because his tickets were actually fakes. Never trust a scalper!

-JD

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Larry Pretends to Be Religious and Fails At Hebrew Miserably

(Season 5, Ep. 8 — The Ski Lift)

Richard Lewis needs a kidney transplant. Larry gets a tip from a celebrity friend (George Lopez) that befriending the head of the Kidney Consortium, Ben Heineman, could potentially help get Richard moved to the top of the donor list. Mr. Heineman is an Orthodox Jew.

Larry tries to gets on Mr. Heineman’s good side by pretending to be Orthodox, himself. His non-sensical attempt at Hebrew make for one of the funniest scenes in the whole series.

-MS

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Larry Finds Out His Divorce Lawyer Isn’t Really Jewish

(Season 8, Ep. 1 — The Divorce)

Finding out someone isn’t who they say they are is always quite a surprise. Larry suspects that his lawyer (named Berg) isn’t Jewish, and it’s confirmed when LD finds out he graduated from a school called St. Christopher’s. He brings this up, and Berg insists it’s not an issue because he had never intentionally led Larry to believe he was in fact Jewish.

To be fair, Berg was doing a bit of false advertising…

-JD

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He’s a Survivor…from the Television Show…Survivor!

(Season 4, Ep. 9 — The Survivor)

Larry is having a bunch of people over for dinner, including his father’s friend Solly, who is a Holocaust Survivor. One of the invitees to the dinner, Larry’s rabbi, asks if he could bring a guest, who is also a survivor. Larry obliges, assuming it’s another Holocaust Survivor.

However, the rabbi’s survivor friend turns out to be Colby Donaldson, a contestant from the TV show Survivor. What happens next could only be concocted in the sick mind of Larry David.

-MS

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The Afikomen Cheater

(Season 5, Ep. 7 — The Seder)

I don’t know about you, but I loved searching for the afikomen when I was a kid. It was basically a game of hide and seek in the middle of a holiday (winner gets a dollar).

In this episode, a few of Larry’s younger dinner guests are searching for the afikomen. Larry’s rather conservative cousin whispers in one of the kid’s ears, which eventually leads to the kid locating the exact hiding spot. LD is convinced that his cousin cheated and refuses to pay the kid.

-JD

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Self…Loathing…Jew

(Season 2, Ep. 3 — Trick or Treat)

Larry and Cheryl are waiting outside of a movie theater, and LD begins to whistle a tune by the famous German composer Richard Wagner. This triggers the rage of bystander, who immediately starts interrogating and questioning Larry about his Judaism.

-MS

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Proud Jews Wear Yarmulkes

(Season 8, Ep. 3 — Palestinian Chicken)

I don’t know what everyone else here thinks, but three people arguing over religious beliefs in the parking lot of a chicken restaurant is already a golden recipe. Larry’s ability to squish thousands of years of religious conflict into what is widely considered to be the best episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm ever (Palestinian Chicken) just goes to show how much of a genius he is.

Larry and Jeff have been secretly eating at Al Abbas Chicken, a new Palestinian-owned chicken joint (it’s the best chicken in town). They invite Marty Funkhouser, who has recently re-dedicated his life to the Jewish faith.

In the parking lot, LD and Jeff suggest that Funkhouser takes off his yarmulke before entering the Palestinian restaurant. The Funkman refuses, so Larry tries to wrestle it from his hands. You have to see it to believe it.

-JD

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Larry and Bill Buckner Go to Minyan

(Season 8, Ep. 9 — Mister Softee)

Larry befriends Bill Buckner, a former MLB star who’s best known for bobbling a ball in the 1986 World Series and costing the Red Sox the championship. While walking down Park Avenue, they are approached by a man who asks if they could complete a Minyan (in order to properly mourn one’s death in Judaism, there must be 10 people in the room).

Larry and Buckner join the Minyan, only to be quickly shown the door due to the fact that one of the attendees is a huge Red Sox fan who hasn’t forgiven Buckner for his baseball error.

-MS

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Other installments:

Week 1 — 9 Executive Orders Under a Larry David Presidency

Week 2 — 9 Most Absurd and Very Best Curb Arguments

Week 3 — 9 Best Curb Your Enthusiasm Celebrity Cameos

Week 4 — Are You Sure? — The 9 Best Larry David Stare-Downs

Week 5 — 9 Insane Moments that Are Honestly Too Insane for Curb Your Enthusiasm

Week 6 — A Tribute to Comic Shelley Berman, Larry David’s TV Dad

Week 7 — Don’t Be a Larry David

Week 9 — COMING SOON (September 24, 2017)

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9 Weeks of Curb

One top 9 article every Sunday night for the 9 weeks leading up to the long awaited Season 9 Premier