Sarah Silverman is heading to the Upper East Side to talk Jewish joy

Sarah Silverman is going to synagogue on Monday, and you can join her. On October 26, the comedian will be at Temple Emanu-El for a conversation about Jewish joy—a subject with considerable range in the hands of someone who turned her father’s eulogy into stand-up material.

Silverman will be part of “Finding Jewish Joy,” an in-person conversation presented by the Jewish Education Project in collaboration with the Temple Emanu-El Streicker Cultural Center. The program begins at 7pm and will explore Jewish identity through humor and storytelling, with particular attention to how laughter helps people navigate difficult experiences.

There is something appealing about assigning that subject to a comedian whose recent work has involved finding the funny in circumstances few people would volunteer to revisit onstage. Her Netflix special, PostMortem, released in May 2025, draws on the deaths of her father and stepmother, who died nine days apart in 2023.

In a Fresh Air interview last year, Silverman explained that some of the special grew out of the eulogy she delivered for her father. She also described the pleasure of remembering him in company: “my parents were so funny and such characters and loved to laugh.” Her sister Susan, a rabbi, helped choose an inscription for her father and stepmother’s shared tombstone that acknowledged precisely that.

That history gives Monday’s premise some substance. Silverman has already spent considerable time thinking about the relationship between grief and laughter, including the peculiar intimacy of telling an audience about someone it will never meet. In the same interview, she described how performing the material eventually became a pleasure, giving her another opportunity to introduce people to her family. It is a compelling background for a conversation about what Jewish joy can contain.

The evening is billed as a conversation, so plan for a discussion rather than a conventional stand-up set. Streicker lists admission at $40, with a $100 reserved-seating option. The $500 VIP tier includes seating in the front rows and a pre-event reception with Silverman beginning at 6pm, with a photo opportunity available. Current ticket options can be checked through the official event page.

One practical detail deserves attention before you head uptown: the registration listing says the event will take place either at 10 East 66th Street or in Temple Emanu-El’s main sanctuary on Fifth Avenue. Organizers say the specific entrance will be confirmed in a reminder email the day before. The listing schedules the evening for 7–8:30pm—an hour and a half to consider Jewish joy with someone who has given considerable thought to laughing at a funeral.