The word “khokhma”, which acquired the meaning of a joke in Russian, comes from the Hebrew word “wisdom”. The book you are holding in your hands is trying to take us back to the original meaning of this word. It contains jokes, anecdotes, stories, sayings, reasoning, gossip and quotes - in a word, jokes that reflect all aspects of the life of Jews in Central and Eastern Europe. Most likely, some of it is familiar to you, but, you can be sure, not all of it. All these jokes were collected and commented on by Zalzia Landman, a native of Galicia, a citizen of Switzerland, a well-known expert on the history of Jews, the Yiddish language and, above all, on Jewish wit. Translation based on the 7th German edition (1970).