How to Be a Jewish Mother

{{Short description|1964 Jewish humor book by Dan Greenburg}}

{{Infobox book

| name = How to Be a Jewish Mother: A Very Lovely Training Manual

| title_orig =

| translator =

| image = File:HowToBeAJewishMother.jpg

| caption = First edition

| author = Dan Greenburg

| illustrator =

| cover_artist =

| country = United States

| language = English

| series =

| genre =

| publisher = Price Stern Sloan

| pub_date = October 1964

| media_type = Print (hardcover)

| pages = 99

| isbn =

| preceded_by =

| followed_by =

}}

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.Hackett, Alice Payne. [https://books.google.com/books?id=cOI8AQAAIAAJ Seventy years of best sellers, 1895-1965], p. 227 (1967)[https://books.google.com/books?ei=-WM-UJDbGsm16AHJ7oGIDw&id=s-5OAAAAIAAJ&dq= 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. [https://books.google.com/books?id=zPl2wNG0EDwC&pg=PT23 The Jewish Mothers' Hall of Fame] (chapter on Leah Greenburg and the book) (1986) The book was first published by Price Stern Sloan under publisher Larry Sloan.{{cite news|first=Wendy|last=Werris|title=Obituary: Larry Sloan, 89 |url=http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/authors/obituaries/article/54394-obituary-larry-sloan-89.html |work=Publishers Weekly |date=2012-10-15 |access-date=2012-11-17}}{{cite news|first=Regina|last=Wang|title='Mad Libs' Publisher Larry Sloan Dies |url=https://newsfeed.time.com/2012/10/18/mad-libs-publisher-larry-sloan-dies/ |work=Time Magazine |date=2012-10-18 |access-date=2012-11-17}}

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.Battaglio, Stephen. [https://books.google.com/books?id=E1TT4POdbGUC&dq=%22how+to+be+a+jewish+mother%22+greenburg+1964&pg=PA251 David Susskind: A Televised Life], p. 251 (2010)(29 December 1967). [https://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FA0917F93B5B127A93CBAB1789D95F438685F9 Theater: 'How to Be a Jewish Mother'; Molly Picon Stars With Godfrey Cambridge], The New York Times The actress Gertrude Berg was preparing for the main role in the play but died during pre-production.{{cite web |url=https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/community/articles/gertrude-berg-best-actress-emmy |title=Remembering the Emmys' First Best Actress Winner |website=Tabletmag.com |date=16 September 2018 |author=Marjorie Ingall |accessdate=10 August 2022}}

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.(10 March 2001). [http://www.leparisien.fr/loisirs-et-spectacles/une-mere-juive-joyeuse-et-drole-10-03-2001-2002017421.php Une mère juive joyeuse et drôle], Le Parisien (in French)(6 October 2004). [http://www.lemagazine.info/?Comment-devenir-une-mere-juive Comment devenir une mère juive....], lemagazine.info (in French) Gertrude Berg also released a best-selling comedy album from the book in 1965.

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.{{cite web |url=https://www.thedailybeast.com/how-crazy-are-jewish-mothers |title=How 'Crazy' Are Jewish Mothers? |website=Thedailybeast.com |date=14 April 2017 |author=Emily Shire |accessdate=10 August 2022 }} The anthropologist Jonathan Boyarin qualified the book a "work of covert anti-Semitism".{{cite web |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/24/books/review/you-dont-have-to-be.html |title=You Don't Have to Be |website=The New York Times |date=21 February 2013 |accessdate=10 August 2022}}