Jewish humor
The tradition of humor in Judaism dates back to the Torah and the Midrash from the ancient Middle East, but generally refers to the more recent stream of verbal and often anecdotal humor of Ashkenazi Jews which took root in the United States ove ...
book by American
humorist
A humorist (American) or humourist (British spelling) is an intellectual who uses humor, or wit, in writing or public speaking, but is not an artist who seeks only to elicit laughs. Humorists are distinct from comedians, who are show business e ...
Dan Greenburg
Dan Greenburg (born June 19, 1936) is an American writer, humorist, and journalist. His 73 books have been published in 20 languages in 24 countries.
His best-selling books for adults include the non-fiction books '' How to Be a Jewish Mother: ...
which was the best selling non-fiction book in the United States in 1965, with 270,000 copies sold.Hackett, Alice Payne Seventy years of best sellers, 1895-1965 p. 227 (1967)The Bookseller ("Non-Fiction. The bestseller of the year in non- fiction was a book called How to Be a Jewish Mother, by Dan Greenburg")Bernstein, Fred A The Jewish Mothers' Hall of Fame (chapter on Leah Greenburg and the book) (1986) The book was first published by
Price Stern Sloan
Price Stern Sloan (originally known as Price/Stern/Sloan) or PSS! was a publisher (now an imprint of the Penguin Group) that was founded in Los Angeles in the early 1960s to publish the Mad Libs that Roger Price and Leonard Stern had concocted ...
under publisher
Larry Sloan
Lloyd Lawrence "Larry" Sloan (1922 – October 14, 2012) was an American publisher of Mad Libs and co-founder of the Los Angeles publishing company, Price Stern Sloan, which opened in the early 1960s.
Biography
Sloan was born Lloyd Lawrence Sol ...
.
The book was adapted into a play starring
Molly Picon
Molly Picon ( yi, מאָלי פּיקאָן; born Malka Opiekun; February 28, 1898 – April 5, 1992) was an American actress of stage, screen, radio and television, as well as a lyricist and dramatic storyteller.
She began her career in Yidd ...
and
Godfrey Cambridge
Godfrey MacArthur Cambridge (February 26, 1933 – November 29, 1976) was an American stand-up comic and actor. Alongside Bill Cosby, Dick Gregory, and Nipsey Russell, he was acclaimed by ''Time'' in 1965 as "one of the country's foremost celeb ...
which had a brief run on
Broadway
Broadway may refer to:
Theatre
* Broadway Theatre (disambiguation)
* Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S.
** Broadway (Manhattan), the street
**Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...
at the
Hudson Theater
The Hudson Theatre is a Broadway theater at 139–141 West 44th Street, between Seventh Avenue and Sixth Avenue, in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City. One of the oldest surviving Broadway venues, the Hudson was bui ...
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' The actress
Gertrude Berg
Gertrude Berg (Born Tillie Edelstein; October 3, 1899 – September 14, 1966) was an American actress, screenwriter, and producer. A pioneer of classic radio, she was one of the first women to create, write, produce, and star in a long-running hi ...
was preparing for the main role of the play, but died during pre-production.
The play was profiled in the
William Goldman
William Goldman (August 12, 1931 – November 16, 2018) was an American novelist, playwright, and screenwriter. He first came to prominence in the 1950s as a novelist before turning to screenwriting. He won Academy Awards for his screenplays '' ...
Le Parisien
''Le Parisien'' (; French for "The Parisian") is a French daily newspaper covering both international and national news, and local news of Paris and its suburbs. It is owned by LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton SE, better known as LVMH.
Histor ...
Gertrude Berg
Gertrude Berg (Born Tillie Edelstein; October 3, 1899 – September 14, 1966) was an American actress, screenwriter, and producer. A pioneer of classic radio, she was one of the first women to create, write, produce, and star in a long-running hi ...
also released a best-selling comedy album from the book in 1965.
It was re-issued as a mass market paperback in 1991 (, ).
It is deemed as a book that reinforced the stereotype of the Jewish mother in the American culture. The anthropologist
Jonathan Boyarin
Jonathan Aaron Boyarin ( yi, יונתן אהרן בוירין; born September 16, 1956) is an American anthropologist whose work centers on Jewish communities and on the dynamics of Jewish culture, memory and identity.