The Jewish Mothers' Hall of Fame

By Fred A. Bernstein

Book Overview

For this wonderful collection, Fred A. Bernstein interviewed 25 mothers of famous and successful Jewish people, including, for example, Clara Sussman, mother of Rosalyn Yalow, a Nobel Prize winner in medicine: Like other mothers in the book, Clara exemplified a life of hard work and sacrifice, as well as worry about her child when a teacher told her Rosalyn was a genius (I never met the man Einstein but I heard he was a little peculiar). And also Leah Adler, mother of film director Steven Spielberg, who, Bernstein writes, was the funniest person he'd ever met, and readers will agree. With obvious love and pride, Leah kvetches about bringing up a peculiar son (I didn't know what the hell he was).

The mothers in The Jewish Mothers' Hall of Fame lovingly report on their children--rock stars, a lawyer, a playwright, and other achievers, and at least two people more notorious than famous: porn film star Harry Reems and Yippie ex-convict Abbie Hoffman.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0385233779
• ISBN13: 9780385233774
• Release Date: April 1986
• Publisher: Doubleday Books
• Length: 192 Pages
• Weight: 1.74 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.6" x 8.7"

Customer Reviews

More like other mothers only more so

Bernstein appears to like the Hollywood entertainment types, and so the mothers he choses for his little interviews and stories are the mothers of Spielberg, Bob Dylan, Gene Simmons, and another twenty or so other 'stars'. In his introduction Bernstein makes the claims that Jewish mothers are like all other mothers but only more so, that is in the caring, worrying, pushing end of things. It was interesting to hear the mother of Bob Dylan stand up for him and for whatever turn he happened to take, religious-wise, or any other wise. This stuff especially consider the great weight of most of the personalities included is 'fluff' but it is pleasant fluff. It is also nice that Bernstein has a chapter on his own mother who he pays tribute to.