Moscow Circus Re-enacts Hasidic Wedding--With Orangutans

From JTA:

A man dressed in Chasidic regalia speeds in a go-cart around Moscow’s one-ring Circus Nikulina. Aziz Askaryan then dismounts and leads two gangly orangutans -- one in a suit and kipah, the other in a full bridal gown -- on a lurching matrimonial march toward a hastily constructed chupah in front of a guffawing audience.

The mock Jewish wedding between two orangutans has been the closing number for weeks in Act I of the famed Moscow circus, whose theme is “Empire: A Magical Show with Bright National Flavor.”

But that's OK. It's all in good fun:

“I think it's maybe in bad taste, but you must know that Russia is different than Western nations in its humor,” Baruch Gorin, a spokesman for the Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia, told JTA.

Russians see the act through the prism of a longtime love of the circus with a pinch of Russian humor that often makes light of minorities, including off-color jokes about “Yids,” among others.

Actually, different member of the circus portray various ethnic groups--but can you spot the ethnic group that is represented differently?

If anything, the show is a nod to an array of ethnic groups that comprise the Russian empire: a magician is dressed as Caucasian mountain man, acrobats are dressed as Cossacks and other performers are dressed as Ukrainians.

The only difference in the Jewish number is that Askaryan, wearing fake sidecurls and a tallit, has primates playing the roles of the Jews. The scene evokes a visceral reaction -- laughter for most, shock for others.

Mona Charen calls this "Nazi-style humor"

Perhaps. Don't forget that the Koran uses the same imagery.

Technorati Tag: Anti-Semitism.