Seriously! Chabad rabbi to make standup debut in Soho

“I’m open to challenges,” says Mendy Korer. The Chabad rabbi is a master of the understatement. Last month he competed his first ultramarathon (a 50K run along the Lea Valley and out to Hatfield that he describes as “stunning”). Now he’s embarking on an even greater challenge, preparing to take the mic for two solo standup shows. Rabbi Korer’s gigs this weekend at the Soho Sanctum, a celebrity hangout, are thought to be a first for an Orthodox rabbi in the UK.

His shows, on 25 February, are titled A Rabbi Walked into a Bar. “It’s me having a very public therapy session, sharing with my fellow barmates all the tribulations and challenges and adventures and humour of being a rabbi,” Rabbi Korer says. “We’re going to give people a blast. I’m really eager.”

Some of his old friends had been in touch asking if it’s all right to come along. “I told them I’m not looking for sympathy laughs,” he says, all tongue-in-cheek determination. A natural storyteller, he has also received tips from his friend Milton Jones, the award-winning comedian and Mock the Week panellist.

Jones, known for his offbeat one-liners, had explained to the rabbi how to expose some of the awkward or strange ways people act – so that it makes people laugh and at the same time makes them think. “You’ve got your jokes, you build up whatever story you have, but every so often it’s about touching on some of the struggles that people live with,” Rabbi Korer says. “So come on that journey and experience it with me. And it’s a good cause, so if you can’t come, contribute with largesse.”

That “good cause” is the buying a permanent Torah scroll for his synagogue. Chabad Lubavitch of Islington is the only Jewish community in the borough since 1967 and was set up by the rabbi and his wife, Hadasa, in 2011, who now have five children. Members and guests gather for Shabbat, festivals, and for social and educational events, including an annual outdoor Chanukah candle lighting and party on Islington Green, which always draws big crowds. The community also runs Krav Maga (Israeli martial art) classes, children’s programmes, and an art gallery with exhibitions by contemporary Jewish artists.

To help fundraising efforts for the scroll, Jones, along with three other professional standups, played a couple of gigs in Highgate last July. That show followed an initial one a few months earlier at the synagogue, where veteran Jewish comic Ivor Dembina headlined, supported by Mike Capozzola.

The scroll will cost £40,000, of which just over £14,000 has been raised to date. It will be dedicated to the memory of Julian Young, a lawyer who died of leukaemia in 2021. He and Rabbi Korer, who grew up in Stamford Hill and was ordained in New York, became friends when they met on Upper Street during Arsenal’s FA cup win celebrations in 2015. The scroll will be a symbol of the regeneration of Jewish life in the area: Islington’s last shul closed in the 1960s.

Young was a solicitor-advocate and four-time president of the West London Law Society. He was also a legal commentator on TV and radio, and was involved in a case representing a prisoner whose murder conviction was quashed after 27 years based on DNA evidence.

Judy Ramjeet, who is organising the event and was Young’s partner, said: “Julian was one of the kindest people with the biggest heart, whose raison d’être was to help others.

“Obtaining a Torah scroll to benefit the whole borough of Islington, home of his beloved Arsenal, will be an apt tribute to him. Julian’s memory will live on in the Torah scroll. He abided by those values throughout his life.”

Rabbi Korer is already looking forward to the day, which he hopes will include a street party, when the scroll is brought to the synagogue on its inauguration.

• All income from ticket sales will go towards buying a Torah scroll. Tickets for the afternoon show (4pm) on 25 February are available here and tickets for the evening show (7.30pm) are here. Donations to the scroll appeal can be made separately here.