Sarah Silverman ready to shock Israeli audience

In 2008 she launched "the Great Schlep", a campaign to encourage young Jews to convince their grandparents in Florida to vote for Barack Obama as president.

Ms Silverman, who says she is influenced by fellow Jewish comics Woody Allen and Albert Brooks, once told the JC that she was "agnostic to the core".

But as the younger sister of a rabbi, she added: "I am Jewish and proud of this culturally and ethnically - the ways in which I was born this way and am happy with whom I am."

While in Israel, it is likely the comedian will find time to visit her sister, Rabbi Susan Silverman, who lives on Kibbutz Ketura with husband and five children.