From: utzoo!decvax!ucbvax!ARPAVAX:CAD:ESVAX:hy Newsgroups: net.jokes Title: The Chelm story Article-I.D.: ucbopt.1043 Posted: Fri Jun 11 12:27:36 1982 Received: Sun Jun 13 01:54:52 1982 My father was born in chelm and he tells me that my grand father was at one time the "Chelemer Rebbi" (one of the authentic Wise Men of Chelm!). Anyway my pa claims that the origin of all the jokes is the following: The town was a real center of talmudictalmudic scholarly activity in Poland and some of the most learned people in the area came to Chelm to study. But alas they were snobs, and made fun of everyone else. So yes there is justice in the world. One day Sholom Alechem came to town and becoming so disgusted with the the snobishness of the community, he started to write the now famous tales of the Wise Men of Chelm. Or so claims my father, a true "chelem'er"