How_to_Be_a_Jewish_Mother

<i>How to Be a Jewish Mother</i>

How to Be a Jewish Mother

1964 Jewish humor book by Dan Greenburg

How to Be a Jewish Mother is a 1964 Jewish humor book by American humorist Dan Greenburg which was the best-selling non-fiction book in the United States in 1965, with 270,000 copies sold.[2][3][4] The book was first published by Price Stern Sloan under publisher Larry Sloan.[5][6]

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The book was adapted into a play starring Molly Picon and Godfrey Cambridge which had a brief run on Broadway at the Hudson Theater from December 1967 through January 1968.[1][7] The actress Gertrude Berg was preparing for the main role in the play but died during pre-production.[8]

The play was profiled in the William Goldman book The Season: A Candid Look at Broadway.

A 1983 French adaptation, Comment devenir une mère juive en 10 leçons, met with long-running success.[9][10] Gertrude Berg also released a best-selling comedy album from the book in 1965.[1]

It was re-issued as a mass-market paperback in 1991 (ISBN 0843100206, ISBN 9780843100204).

It is deemed as a book that reinforced the stereotype of the Jewish mother in American culture.[11] The anthropologist Jonathan Boyarin qualified the book a "work of covert anti-Semitism".[12]

References

  1. [1]
    Battaglio, Stephen. David Susskind: A Televised Life, p. 251 (2010)
  2. [2]
    Hackett, Alice Payne. Seventy years of best sellers, 1895-1965, p. 227 (1967)
  3. [3]
    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")
  4. [4]
    Bernstein, Fred A. The Jewish Mothers' Hall of Fame (chapter on Leah Greenburg and the book) (1986)
  5. [5]
    Werris, Wendy (2012-10-15). "Obituary: Larry Sloan, 89". Publishers Weekly. Retrieved 2012-11-17.
  6. [6]
    Wang, Regina (2012-10-18). "'Mad Libs' Publisher Larry Sloan Dies". Time Magazine. Retrieved 2012-11-17.
  7. [7]
    (29 December 1967). Theater: 'How to Be a Jewish Mother'; Molly Picon Stars With Godfrey Cambridge, The New York Times
  8. [8]
    Marjorie Ingall (16 September 2018). "Remembering the Emmys' First Best Actress Winner". Tabletmag.com. Retrieved 10 August 2022.
  9. [9]
    (10 March 2001). Une mère juive joyeuse et drôle, Le Parisien (in French)
  10. [10]
    (6 October 2004). Comment devenir une mère juive...., lemagazine.info (in French)
  11. [11]
    Emily Shire (14 April 2017). "How 'Crazy' Are Jewish Mothers?". Thedailybeast.com. Retrieved 10 August 2022.
  12. [12]
    "You Don't Have to Be". The New York Times. 21 February 2013. Retrieved 10 August 2022.


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