Meet the team behind the JCC’s witty sign

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Drive down Montclair Road on Birmingham’s east side and you’ll encounter a neighborhood icon: the roadside marquee at the Levite Jewish Community Center. The sign hosts puns, Judaic references, and pop culture riffs. While the sign is well-known and appreciated among the community, its authors have remained anonymous, until now.

The witty signage was initiated in 2022 by David Gonnerman, the JCC’s director of communications, a couple of years after he began working at the JCC.

Gonnerman felt that there could be a better way to engage with the sign. 

“ I saw that there might be a more interesting way to do this,” Gonnerman recounted his thought process to start posting jokes on the sign. 

Some of his signs read, “PARTY LIKE A LOX STAR” and “IF RUNNING LATE IS YOUR PRIMARY CARDIO, MAYBE IT’S TIME TO JOIN THE J.”

This January marked the end of Gonnerman’s time as the JCC’s signkeeper. 

“I was getting tired of my own material, and it seemed like a fresh set of eyes would be appropriate,” said Gonnerman who then assigned the JCC’s Zoe Weil and Kat Culp, the director of special projects and an administrative assistant respectively, to the task. 

While the pair was initially nervous, they soon found their groove. Using Gonnerman’s same process and timeline, Weil and Culp update the sign weekly with two phrases, one by each of them for both sides of the sign. 

Some of their signs have read, “MY CAT’S FAVORITE HOLIDAY IS PURRRRRRRRIM,” and “I TOLD A MATZAH JOKE. IT FELL FLAT.”

The process of choosing the phrases isn’t organized. Instead they’re products of Weil and Culp bouncing ideas back and forth until they giggle hard enough at an idea. 

“There is a giggle threshold we try to reach,” Weil said. 

Weil said one giggle isn’t enough for the team. Instead, success often comes with a snort or a slap on the knee. While the sign is a “labor of love” for Weil and Culp, it’s had a real impact. 

A couple of months ago, the duo received a voicemail from a Birmingham community member.

 “I pass by every day,” the voicemail said. “Whoever is in charge of the signs out front, they make me laugh. They start my day off so good. I just love them.” 

The sign made a particular impact on Paige Klein, who is now the director of finance at the JCC. Before working at the JCC, Klein would pass the sign regularly and laugh at the phrases displayed. When it came time for her to apply for a job at the community center, she started her cover letter with appreciation for the sign’s hilarity. 

The appreciation expressed by members of the JCC and the greater Birmingham community are valued by the team at the Levite Jewish Community Center. 

“People drive by on the worst days and the best days. And I think if we can make them laugh and smile on their best days, then we’ve done our job,”  Culp said. 

While choosing the phrase isn’t a strict process, revealing it certainly is. 

“You gotta go out there and look at it yourself. That’s part of the beauty and it’s a strict rule and there are no exceptions,” Culp said.

This week’s sign is on display and certainly passes the giggle test. 

You can find an archive of the Levite Jewish Community Center’s signs on Instagram, @jcc_marquee.

Vahini Shori is a Report for America corps member reporting on faith and culture for WBHM