Benji Lovitt

Comedy

Lovitt's comedy career started at an open-mic night in Houston, Texas in 1997, and he continued to hone his skills at similar amateur events for several years. After making aliyah in 2006, Lovitt began performing professionally and has repeatedly headlined shows for Nefesh b'Nefesh, Birthright Israel, Masa Israel Journey, The Israel Scouts and the Jewish Federations of North America. He also regularly tours the United States to perform before a wide variety of Jewish and non-Jewish audiences for synagogues, churches and organizations like Israel Bonds, Hillel, Young Judaea, Limmud, JNF and Hadassah.

During Operation Protective Edge in the summer of 2014, Lovitt performed together with several other comedians for Israeli civilians confined to bomb shelters or otherwise impacted by rockets launched by terrorists and for Israeli soldiers taking a break from the fighting. While many of the shows were free, the proceeds from those with an admission charge were donated to the Friends of the IDF’s Lone Soldier Program .

Lovitt also produced humorous videos on Jewish holidays, aliyah and other topics. He has been interviewed on the Israeli television show Hayom l'Machar and appeared as a featured bachelor on the Israeli reality dating show Singles.

Writing

Lovitt has been widely published in Israeli and American media. He is a regular blogger for the Times of Israel and previously provided guest columns for the Jerusalem Post. Articles by Lovitt can also be found at eJewish Philanthropy, the Jewish Daily Forward, Ynet, Israel21c, PresenTense Magazine, Jewish Boston and other online publications.

Lovitt is perhaps best known for his annual "Things I love about Israel" Yom Ha'atzmaut lists that highlight unique aspects of Israeli society from the perspective of an oleh.

Lovitt's January 2014 article in eJewish Philanthropy about bringing short-term Israel program participants to Tel Aviv was one of the site's most widely read and discussed pieces and is often credited with inspiring Birthright Israel to launch the Tel Aviv Urban Experience in 2015.

Personal life

Lovitt was born in Dallas, Texas and has two older siblings. Lovitt attended J.J. Pearce High School and earned a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology degree from The University of Texas at Austin. He was active in the Young Judaea youth movement for many years and also held leadership roles at Texas Hillel.

Young Judaea brought Lovitt to Israel for the first time when he was 15 years old, and he returned a few years later to spend a gap year before college as a participant on Young Judaea's Year Course program. Lovitt made aliyah in 2006, in the midst of the Second Lebanon War and began writing about his experiences in a blog called "What War Zone???" He currently lives in Tel Aviv.

Lovitt, often referred to as a chumus enthusiast talks about the chickpea dish regularly in both interviews and his comedy. "Chumus McGee" is one of Lovitt's alter egos.