Jarrod Tanny is Associate Professor of History and the Charles and Hannah Block Distinguished Scholar in Jewish History at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. Born in Montreal, Canada, Tanny lived and breathed Seinfeld and Jewish humor long before making it part of his teaching and writing career. Having received his Ph.D. in Russian and Jewish History at the University of California at Berkeley, he embraced his East European Jewish ancestry and wrote a book called City of Rogues and Schnorrers, which examines how the city of Odessa, in today's Ukraine, was mythologized as a Jewish "city of sin," celebrated and vilified for its Jewish gangsters, pimps, bawdy musicians, and comedians. Odessa's "Jewish" comedy drew him further into humor studies and he has published numerous essays on comedy and original satires. The Seinfeld Talmud combines Tanny's love of Seinfeld with his knowledge of Jewish history and culture presented through the lens of parody. Had Seinfeld aired 1,500 years ago in the Middle East, the great rabbis of antiquity would not only have embraced the show, but would have made it a foundation of Judaic Law.
