CHICAGO — Many Jewish kids have Hebrew school teachers who make Israel come alive inside their classrooms.

Joel Chasnoff

Comedian Joel Chasnoff, originally from Evanston, was one such Jewish student. At Solomon Schechter Jewish Day School, back in the second grade, his Israeli teacher, Ruti, helped forge Chasnoff’s early connection to Israel.

“Ruti would sit us down and have us read Israeli newspapers and sound out the words,” he recalled. “It just made me feel connected to this other place. It made me feel like I belonged there even though I had never been.”

Unlike most Jewish kids, Chasnoff took it one step further. His book, The 188th Crybaby Brigade: A Skinny Jewish Kid from Chicago Fights Hezbollah (Simon and Schuster), documents his time as a tank gunner in the Israel Defense Forces Armored Corps.

His unit was responsible for defending Israel’s north, including the Golan Heights and the Syrian border. His service in 1997-98 included two months of basic training, two months of tank school, and three months of advanced warfare training, followed by a tour of duty.

“It’s not a typical army story,” said Chasnoff, who these days pursues comedy in New York and lives in the Bronx with his Israeli wife and three daughters.

“It’s about Jewish identity, it’s about a father/son relationship, it’s about the way Judaism is changing and how the Israel that we mythologize isn’t the real Israel.”

During his army stint, Chasnoff kept journals chronicling his experiences. “I had little notebooks that I kept in my pocket, and would write even if it was just one sentence a day,” he said.

Chasnoff’s entire act examines his own Jewish experience, a positive, loving one. He had a Conservative Jewish upbringing, a kosher household, Jewish summer camp, and Shabbat dinners with his parents and two younger brothers, where they “refrained from watching television, unless there was a Cubs game on.”

Despite his love for all things Jewish and for Israel, Chasnoff hadn’t always considered himself the ideal candidate for the Israeli army. But at age 23, despite his lack of athletic prowess, Chasnoff decided to put his comedy career on hold and join the IDF. He had his reasons — besides his inspiration from his second-grade teacher. As a teenager, he traveled to Israel several times.

“The Israeli soldiers were so much like us, Jewish, a lot of them from the same countries we originally came from, and yet they were so much cooler than we were,” he said. “They had guns, they were doing these mighty things that Jews were not supposed to do and that the Jews I grew up with never did. The idea of Jews that were powerful and didn’t take crap from anyone was so appealing to a 17-year-old boy who was kind of small and skinny and short and wanted to be powerful himself.”

And there was a girl. He met a Yemenite-Persian-Israeli named Dorit at the end of college. Their relationship was growing more serious and Chasnoff knew that if he and Dorit stayed together, they would likely one day live in Israel. Since every Israeli gets drafted, he couldn’t fathom living in Israel as a “freeloader…without paying my dues.”

In the army, Chasnoff was considered a “lone soldier” because his parents lived outside of Israel. He was also five years older than most of his comrades, who went into the army right out of high school. He was assigned as his platoon’s soldier-in-chief, responsible for keeping track of every soldier in the platoon.

The title of his book comes from his basic training, when half of his platoon was in the infirmary with fake excuses and injuries — sprained ankles, stomachaches, headaches — anything to get out of hiking, guard duty, and kitchen work.

Chasnoff said he’s grateful he joined the IDF: he simply loves Israel. “When you’re on Masada, that revolt actually happened there…I know I have something in common with just about everyone in Israel. When I get off the plane in Israel, I just feel like I’m home.”

The DJCC presents Cookout & Comedy on Monday, June 13 at the Boonshoft CJCE, 525 Versailles Drive, Centerville. The kosher cookout begins at 5:30 p.m. with author/comedian Joel Chasnoff at 7 p.m. $10 per person. R.S.V.P. to Karen Steiger at 853-0372 by June 6.