Jackie Mason at Gulfstream Park, Hallandale, FL, October 1, 2006. Rabbi Yacov Moshe Hakohen Maza, a.k.a. Jackie Mason, was born in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, to a family of immigrants from Minsk, and grew up on the Lower East Side of New York City. According to his official biography ( Jackie, Oy!: Jackie Mason from Birth to Rebirth, 1988), he was ordained in 1953 by Rabbi Moshe Feinstein and worked as a rabbi in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, and Weldon, North Carolina. Mason recalled, “I started telling more and more jokes, and after a while, a lot of gentiles would come to the congregation just to hear the sermons.”