THE JEWISH BOOK OF WHY
Alfred J. Kolatch

In this best-selling volume and its sequel, The Second Jewish Book of Why, Rabbi Kolatch explores almost one thousand questions about Judaism. Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform views are presented objectively, in a manner designed to explain the reasons behind Jewish practice. 1,000,000 copies sold. Also available as a boxed set.

The Jewish Book of Why
Hardcover
ISBN-10: 0-8246-0256-0
ISBN-13: 978-0-8246-0256-7
5½ x 8½ 336 pages
List Price $24.95

The Second Jewish Book of Why
Hardcover
ISBN-10:0-8246-0305-2
ISBN-13: 978-0-8246-0305-2
5½ x 8½ 432 pages
List Price $24.95

Boxed set of both volumes
Hardcover
ISBN-10: 0-8246-0314-1
ISBN-13: 978-0-8246-0314-4
5½ x 8½ 768 pages
List Price $52.95

DRAWING A CROWD
Bill Gallo’s Greatest Sports Moments
by Bill Gallo with Phil Cornell
Foreword by Pete Hamill

Featuring hundreds of gems that will delight the eye as well as the heart, Drawing a Crowd brings together the best of the work of distinguished New York Daily News sports cartoonist Bill Gallo.

Laugh, ponder, even shed a tear or two as Bill, Basement Bertha, and the rest of the Gallo clan relive the most memorable sports moments of the past forty years and share some little-known things about some very well-known people.

Peppered with the artist’s unique perspective, good-natured wit, and reminiscences on everyone from Ali to Joe D, Sinatra to Stengel, Torre to Trump, Broadway Joe to Johnny U, Drawing a Crowd proves why Bill Gallo, long a New York secret, is truly a national treasure.

What the pros are saying about
DRAWING A CROWD

“When Bill Gallo was recently asked how long it took him to draw a cartoon, he replied, 'Two hours and 40 years.' Drawing a Crowd is a celebration of those four decades and Gallo’s uncanny ability to render sports stories into insightful, single-frame drawings….The sports world is richer for it!”
—The New York Times

“This is a classic.  If I could own only ten sports books—and I have hundreds—this would be one of them.”
—Chicago Tribune

“This guy’s cooler than Clyde.  We know about his talent, but what about that character!”
—Walt Frazier, basketball star

“A rare talent!”
—Chicago Sun-Times

“The top sports cartoonist in the land.”
—Los Angeles Times

“An engaging opus.”
—Library Journal

“A great book.”
—Carmine Basilio, boxing champ

“Delightful and inspiring!”
—Rudy Giuliani, mayor of New York City

“I have been fortunate to have seen Bill Gallo’s work for most of my life.  No one does it better than he does.  I advise any sports fan or fan of human nature to rush out and buy this book.”
—Bobby Valentine, manager, New York Mets

“It’s not just athletes who make home runs and touchdowns.  Bill Gallo scores every time his pen touches paper.  His knowledge of sports and his interpretations of the games and the players are incredible.  Bill Gallo is a sports treasure.  Drawing a Crowd is a feast for the eye and the heart.  You have to read this book!”
—Mort Walker, creator of the “Beetle Bailey” cartoon

“Bill Gallo is a real talent.  Besides being one of my favorite boxing writers, he’s also a good guy, and that comes through in this book!”
—Muhammad Ali, boxing legend

“Bill Gallo is a sports institution.  What a treat to enjoy his work again and again through this book.”
—Joe Torre, manager, New York Yankees

“If Bill Gallo lived in Spain, he’d be the national writer/artist authority on the bull ring. But his American audience wouldn’t surrender him.”
—Leroy Neiman, renowned artist

“Nobody can lay a glove on him!”
—Newark Star-Ledger

“Bill Gallo is a great artist, a great human being, and now the author of a great book.”
—Mrs. Gil Hodges

“Drawing a Crowd is a gem!”
—Rod Gilbert, former New York Ranger

“Bill Gallo is able to condense a circumstance, a situation, or an event into one frame and make it crystal clear.  He has had a positive impact on countless people across the generations.”
—Dave Winfield, baseball star

“Not only is Bill a great artist, but a better human being….If Bill didn’t invent sports cartooning, he sure did perfect it.”
—Ralph Branca, former Brooklyn Dodger

“Bill Gallo is a unique man who can make you laugh even at yourself.  This book is a must read, even for General Von Steingrabber.”
—George Steinbrenner, owner, New York Yankees

 "It has always been an honor working with the great Bill Gallo at the Daily News.  But I am more than a colleague: Like everyone else, I am a fan, of both his pictures and his words.  He is one of the giants of our business and has been for a long time. He is an artist and a storyteller and has been carrying on this wonderful conversation with our readers for half a century now.  I am sure it will be going on long after I have retired.  I know his pictures will live forever.  I’ve always just assumed Bill will do the same."
—Mike Lupica, sports columnist, Daily News

“Imagine that you sit down for a good time chat with a friend who knows everything about New York sports—not just scores and stats but all the people, how they really are. He starts to talk and suddenly you can see them all, they take shape before your eyes. That’s the magic act Bill Gallo has been running for almost fifty years. And the best of  it all is remembered in this book. Draw up a stool and enjoy!”
—Richard Ben Cramer, Pulitzer Prize-winning author

“My only nagging problem with Bill Gallo’s body of work is that it didn’t appear in our newspaper.”
—Phil Mushnick, sports columnist, New York Post

“Bill Gallo went out and saw people he loved and talked to them, and came back and drew them and wrote about them in his quiet, wonderful, unobtrusive way.  He never phoned it in on a reader once in his life.”
—Jimmy Breslin, journalist and author

“Drawing a Crowd is as brilliant as any Gallo cartoon.”
—Mike Katz, boxing columnist, Daily News

“No one on the sports scene today can capture that scene in words and pictures like Bill Gallo. No one, but no one!”
—Bert Randolph Sugar, boxing writer

About the Authors

Hardcover
ISBN-10: 0-8246-0413-X
ISBN-13: 978-0-8246-0413-4
6 x 9  336 pages
List Price $27.95

A selection of the Book-of-the-Month club

Sun-spangled coral reefs and stark desert canyons. Luxuriant green hillsides and cascading rivers. Hyenas and wolves, otters and ostriches, parrotfish and turtledoves. Pistacias, acacias, date palms, orchids... Israel boasts a natural diversity that rivals most places on Earth.

In Discovering Natural Israel, award-winning nature writer Michal Strutin takes us on a journey through a land where three continents meet, where natural and human history intertwine in often surprising ways. With our spirited guide, we embark on a four-day camel expedition into the heart of the Eilat Mountains, to the ancient copper mines of Timna. We stand enchanted before the shimmering waterfalls of Ein Gedi, where King David once wrote psalms and where visitors now gather to watch ibex and hyrax leap among the cliffs. Together, we climb Israel's northern hills, quilted in spring with the pinks, purples, and blues of anemones, iris, and cyclamen. And at the base of the dazzling chalk-white cliffs of Rosh ha-Niqrah, we explore exquisite grottoes carved by the crashing waves of the azure Mediterranean.

Artfully weaving together ancient history and lore with tales of modern adventure, Michal reveals how the land and people of Israel have changed over the millennia. As we pass gnarled oaks clinging to the sides of forested slopes, giant papyri swaying over cool waters, and brittle artemisias blooming in the desert, she sheds light on the natural wonders of the land where Abraham dwelled among broad pistacia groves and where Elijah, fleeing Queen Jezebel, sought succor under a broom bush. Today, white-blossomed broom anchors canyon floors where hikers wind past pools and caves used by the ancients.

Brimming with passion, intelligence, humor, and grace, Discovering Natural Israel is Michal Strutin's testament to a land where nature and people have interacted since the dawn of civilization. It is an eloquent tribute to a beauteous land whose geography is inscribed upon her heart.

"If there ever is an indispensable guide to take on your next trip to Israel, it is this book."
—The Jewish Week

"Great reading, with a true naturalist’s sensitivity."
—Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel

"A beautiful, thoughtful companion for anyone traveling to the Holy Land."
—Terry Tempest, author of Leap and Refuge

"A wonderful reminder that this remains the place whose landscape moved the hearts of the ancient poets and prophets."
—Carl Pope, Sierra Club

"Discovering Natural Israel is a unique and wonderful natural science book on the flora and fauna of Israel."
—Book-of-the-Month Club

Michal Strutin has been involved with nature writing from her time as an editor at Outside and National Parks magazines. Her books on natural history include two volumes of Smithsonian Guides to Natural America and the award-winning Places of Grace: the Natural Landscapes of the American Midwest, with photographer Gary Irving. Chaco: a Cultural Legacy and A Guide to Northern Plain Indians focus on cultural history. She has worked for Rolling Stone magazine and written for The New York Times, Modern Maturity, and many others. She is an avid gardener, and her love of the outdoors had taken her to backcountry areas across America, the Himalayas, and in Israel. She lives with her husband near the Great Smoky Mountains of Tennessee.

Hardcover
ISBN-10: 0-8246-0434-2
ISBN-13: 978-0-8246-0434-9
5½ x 8½ 488 pages
List Price $24.95

Next to the Bible itself, the Talmud is hailed as the greatest literary achievement of the Jewish people. Composed in Palestine and Babylonia over fifteen centuries ago, the two encyclopedic works that comprise the Talmud contain not only intense legal debates but also discussions on subjects as diverse as astronomy, health, sex, domestic affairs, education, prayer, food, and superstition. In fact, so wide-ranging are its contents that those deeply involved in Talmudic study are said to be "swimming in the sea of the Talmud."

Achieving an understanding of the interpretations and rulings of the biblical text as set forth by the Rabbis of the Talmud requires not only concentrated study of the tractates themselves, but also a degree of insight into those scholars whose opinions are presented. To that end, Rabbi Alfred J. Kolatch, bestselling author of The Jewish Book of Why, has combed the literature and extracted fascinating biographical and other pertinent information about the great thinkers who devoted their lives to the analysis and formulation of Jewish law.

From familial and collegial relationships to methods of argumentation and interpretation, this important work provides both scholar and novice with the perspective necessary to understand the thinking of the Talmudic sages. Startling in its scope, Masters of the Talmud is an essential tool for those interested in truly appreciating one of Judaism’s most treasured creations.

"An aid to any student of the Talmud."
—Publishers Weekly

"Masters of the Talmud provides scholars and laymen alike with an indispensable key to the magnificent treasures of the Talmud."
—Emanuel S. Goldsmith, Professor of Jewish Studies, Queens College of the City University of New York.

Alfred J. Kolatch, a graduate of the Teachers’ Institute of Yeshiva University and its College of Liberal Arts, was ordained by the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, which subsequently awarded him the Doctor of Divinity degree, honoris causa. From 1941 to 1948 he served as rabbi of congregations in Columbia, South Carolina, and Kew Gardens, New York, and as a chaplain in the United States Army.

Rabbi Kolatch has authored more than fifty books, the most popular of which are the best-selling Jewish Book of Why and Second Jewish Book of Why, This Is the Torah, The Jewish Mourner’s Book of Why, The New Name Dictionary, The Complete Dictionary of English and Hebrew First Names, The Family Seder, and The Jewish Child’s First Book of Why. His most recent works are Great Jewish Quotations: By Jews and About Jews, The Presidents of the United States & the Jews, and What Jews Say About God.

In addition to his scholarly work, Rabbi Kolatch has served as president of the Association of Jewish Chaplains of the Armed Forces and as vice-president of the interdenominational Military Chaplains Association of the United States.

THE PRESIDENTS OF THE UNITED STATES & THE JEWS
David G. Dalin and 
Alfred J. Kolatch

Hardcover
ISBN-10: 0-8246-0428-8
ISBN-13: 978-0-8246-0428-8

8½ x 11 320 pages
List Price $35.00

In 1869, President Ulysses S. Grant  agreed to meet with communal leader Simon Wolf and a delegation of Jews at the White House. Upon hearing the group’s  plea that the president demand an immediate halt to the harsh treatment of Russian Jews, the American leader immediately fired off a letter to the czar. Wolf expressed his deep appreciation by inviting the president to be the godfather of his newly born son at the infant’s forthcoming circumcision. Grant accepted, and Simon Wolf named his child Adolph Grant Wolf.

This is but one of the choice morsels of presidential history that David G. Dalin and Alfred J. Kolatch serve up in The Presidents of the United States & the Jews. Rabbi Dalin, a widely published American Jewish historian, and Rabbi Kolatch, bestselling author of The Jewish Book of Why, have meticulously mined the historical record, and here, for the first time, devote an entire work to the interactions between those who have held the most powerful elective office in the land and the relatively small but politically and socially active Jewish community. From Theodore Roosevelt’s historic 1906 appointment of Oscar Straus as secretary of commerce and labor to Bill Clinton’s equally significant 1997 selection of Madeline Albright as secretary of state, this groundbreaking work presents fascinating biographical information on major Jewish appointees to Cabinet and sub-Cabinet positions, to the Supreme Court, as well as to ambassadorships throughout the world. It also documents the sometimes amicable, sometimes stormy relationships between the U.S. Chief Executives and the Jewish community at large. Beyond that, it reveals some of the little-known intimate dealings between U.S. presidents and prominent Jews of their day.

Written in a popular style for the lay reader, The Presidents of the United States & the Jews will inform, inspire, and occasionally amuse.  Most important, however, it will add new perspective to the way in which we view and assess those who have served as leader of the Western world.

Raves for
THE PRESIDENTS OF THE UNITED STATES
 & THE JEWS

"A fascinating, well-organized, and highly readable compendium of little-known information concerning America’s presidents and the Jews. Filled with surprises, the book helps to explain what made America different for Jews, and how, since the days of George Washington, Jews and American presidents have interacted."
—Jonathan D. Sarna,
Professor of American Jewish History, Brandeis University

"This rich book chronicles the connections between Jews and the presidents administration by administration. David G. Dalin and Alfred J. Kolatch have mined the historical record in order to give us a segment of presidential history that has lain, for the most part, untouched. The reward for the reader is the discovery on a large scale of how Jews and those closely associated with them have left a mark on every major epoch in the nation's history. It is a remarkable tribute to the authors’ presentation as well as to their meticulous research that this is a 'reading' book, as well as a work for the reference shelf."
—Henry F. Graff,
Professor Emeritus of History, Columbia University

"This is an amazing collection of facts about American history and Jewish history. From the major events and the small details recounted here, the story of Jewish life in America emerges more clearly. We see Jews go from minor characters in our presidents’ lives, to important positions in our government and politics. Some of the best trivia, and some of the most surprising tidbits, are hidden in these pages."
—Elliot Abrams,
President, Ethics and Public Policy Center

"This book will help make Jewish and non-Jewish Americans aware and proud of a hitherto unexplained dimension of the American saga. It is written with talent, taste, and tact."
—Emanuel S. Goldsmith, 
Professor of Jewish Studies, Queens College, City University of New York

About the Authors

David G. Dalin, a widely-published American Jewish historian, is currently a visiting scholar in Judaic Studies at George Washington University. He received a B.A. degree from the University of California at Berkeley, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa; M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from Brandeis University; and rabbinical ordination, as well as a second M.A., from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America.

Rabbi Dalin is the author or coauthor of five previous books in the field of American Jewish history and Jewish religious thought. His Religion and State in the American Jewish Experience, written with Professor Jonathan D. Sarna of Brandeis University, was selected by Choice as one of the best academic books of 1998.

Rabbi Dalin’s articles and book reviews have appeared in numerous publications, including American Jewish History, Commentary, Moment, Midstream, Conservative Judaism, Journal of Reform Judaism, Modern Judaism, Hadassah Magazine, the Weekly Standard, and the American Jewish Year Book.

Alfred J. Kolatch, a graduate of the Teachers’ Institute of Yeshiva University and its College of Liberal Arts, was ordained by the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, which subsequently awarded him the Doctor of Divinity degree, honoris causa. From 1941 to 1948 he served as rabbi of congregations in Columbia, South Carolina, and Kew Gardens, New York, and as a chaplain in the United States Army. In 1948 he founded Jonathan David Publishers, of which he has been president and editor-in-chief since its inception.

Rabbi Kolatch has authored more than forty books, the most popular of which are the best-selling Jewish Book of Why and its sequel, The Second Jewish Book of Why, as well as The New Name Dictionary, and The Complete Dictionary of English and Hebrew First Names. His most recent works are Great Jewish Quotations: By Jews and About Jews and What Jews Say About God.

In addition to his scholarly work, Rabbi Kolatch has served as president of the Association of Jewish Chaplains of the Armed Forces and as vice-president of the interdenominational Military Chaplains Association of the United States.

With a Foreword by Professor Emanuel S. Goldsmith

Hardcover
ISBN-10: 0-8246-0450-4
ISBN-13: 978-0-8246-0450-9
5½ x 8½ 536 pages
List Price $29.95

Hermann Cohen (1842-1918), the author of Religion of Reason Out of the Sources of Judaism, is the pivotal figure of late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Jewish philosophy and theology. The Jewish thinkers influenced by him include Franz Rosenzweig, Martin Buber, Mordecai Kaplan, Joseph Soloveitchik, and Emmanuel Levinas.

A thoroughgoing rationalist, Cohen was an opponent of mythology and mysticism, which he viewed as cheapening and corrupting religion. Cohen summoned Jews back to the truths of reason, the centrality of ethics, the primacy of humanity in theology, and the moral law as the essence of religious life and thought. What is essential to Cohen is the notion that God can be discovered by the processes of reason itself. It is not necessary to "believe" in God. God can be known through the exercise of reason and the pursuit of the ethical life.

In this important study, Rabbi Jehuda Melber presents a comprehensive reformulation, analysis, and interpretation of Cohen’s philosophy of Judaism for the contemporary reader.

"Of all the works Jews have written that come in any way near to defining the purpose and meaning of Jewish existence . . . few can surpass Hermann Cohen’s Religion of Reason Out of the Sources of Judaism."
— Mordecai M. Kaplan

"Hermann Cohen was undoubtedly the greatest Jewish thinker of the last generation."
—Salo W. Baron

"If emotionalism and thoughtlessness continue to grow in the Western world, if moral permissiveness continues to foster selfishness and violence, Cohen’s pleas for rationality and ethics will increasingly seem self-evident and necessary."
—Eugene Borowitz

"Dr. Melber’s analytical exposition is an important addition to the understanding of Cohen . . . Of great usefulness to students of Jewish philosophy."
— Library Journal

"A solid and invaluable contribution to the revival of interest in Cohen’s thought among English-speaking Jews. . . Completely reliable in presenting Cohen’s liberal views."
—Emanuel S. Goldsmith

JEHUDA MELBER, a native of Germany, was ordained at Poland’s world-famous Hachmei Lublin yeshiva. He was awarded an M.A. in General Philosophy by Tufts University and a doctorate in Modern Jewish Philosophy by New York’s Yeshiva University.

The late Rabbi Melber was a chaplain in the Haganah during Israel’s War of Liberation and subsequently received the Ben Gurion Award for outstanding service. He chaired the Department of Culture of Mizrachi in Israel and later served as vice-president of the Religious Zionists of America in New England. He was rabbi of the Jewish Community in Havana, Cuba; of Young Israel and Congregation Kadimah, in Boston, Massachusetts; and of the Briarwood Jewish Center, in Long Island, New York.

Jehuda Melber is the author of The Universality of Maimonides as well as of an elaborate translation of the talmudic tractate Hagigah. In addition, he contributed numerous articles to English and Hebrew periodicals.

EMANUEL S. GOLDSMITH is professor of Jewish Studies at Queens College of the City University of New York and rabbi of Congregation M’vakshe Derekh in Scarsdale, New York. His numerous publications include The American Judaism of Mordecai M. Kaplan, Thinkers and Teachers of Modern Judaism, Modern Yiddish Culture: The Story of the Yiddish Language Movement, Dynamic Judaism: The Essential Writings of Mordecai M. Kaplan, and Yiddish Literature in America: 1870–2000.

click here for more pictures

Hardcover
ISBN-10: 0-8246-0447-4
ISBN-13: 978-0-8246-0447-9
8½ x 11 24 pages
List Price $14.95

Sarah Leah Jacobs is very upset with her older brother, Aaron. He doesn’t have time to read a story with her, play a board game, even throw a ball back and forth. Aaron is so busy studying for his upcoming Bar Mitzvah, it’s as if Sarah doesn’t even exist.

Hmpf! Sarah will show him! First, she hangs a birdhouse near Aaron’s bedroom window to attract a noisy woodpecker. Then, she encourages Mazel, the neighbor’s puppy, to run off with her brother’s ball and hide it far, far away. And that is only the beginning . . .

In this second volume in the delightfully humorous Growing Up Jewish With Sarah Leah Jacobs series, Sarah eventually comes to realize that although her brother is quickly becoming a young man, she will always be his little sister and hold a very special place in his heart.

Sylvia Rouss is the acclaimed author of twenty-two books, including The Littlest Pair, winner of the 2002 National Jewish Book Award, and Sammy Spider’s First Trip to Israel, winner of the 2002 Sydney Taylor Honor Award for Younger Readers. Even with her success as a writer, Sylvia continues to teach at a Jewish preschool in Los Angeles. Her students, she says, are a never-ending source of inspiration. She also conducts seminars for teachers and does readings at book fairs and festivals throughout the country and in Israel. But of all the things in her life, Sylvia is most proud of her three wonderful children.

Liz Goulet Dubois received her B.F.A. in illustration from the Rhode Island School of Design, and has been illustrating and designing products for children ever since. Her artwork has appeared on everything from plush toys and figurines to greeting cards and picture books. She lives in Scituate, Rhode Island, with her husband, Eric, three lovely daughters, and two lazy cats!

Paperback
ISBN-10: 0-8246-0438-5
ISBN-13: 978-0-8246-0438-7
8½ x 11 360 pages
List Price $22.95

Praise for
NEW YORK YANKEES: SEASONS OF GLORY

About the Authors

GREAT JEWS BOXED SET—Women, Men, Sports
Elinor Slater and Robert Slater

Hardcover in slipcase
ISBN-10: 0-8246-0441-5
ISBN-13: 978-0-8246-0441-7
81/2 x 11 1,136 pages
List Price $86.00

Great Jewish Women, Great Jewish Men, and Great Jews in Sports packaged in a sturdy blue slipcase suitable for gift-giving.

GREAT JEWISH WOMEN
Elinor Slater and Robert Slater

In this popular volume, the Slaters profile more than one hundred Jewish women who have had a great impact on their respective fields of endeavor. Among those featured are Golda Meir, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Nelly Sachs, Barbra Streisand, Betty Friedan, Lillian Hellman, Wendy Wasserstein, Helena Rubinstein, Estée Lauder, and U.S. senators Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein. Their unusual gifts and achievements are interestingly presented and, where relevant, their relationship to Judaism and the Jewish people is highlighted.

GREAT JEWISH MEN
Elinor Slater and Robert Slater

Biographies of over one hundred fifty Jewish men of distinction drawn from a wide range of professions—including literature, sports, the performing arts, science, politics, and business. The esteemed group of personalities includes Abraham and Moses, forgers of the Jewish nation; Rashi and Maimonides, great interpreters of the Bible, Talmud, and Jewish law; Theodor Herzl and Chaim Weizmann, Zionist visionaries; Irving Berlin and Jerome Kern, gifted songwriters; as well as contemporary figures such as Larry King, Stephen Breyer, and Isaiah Berlin. Through personal interviews and direct correspondence, the Slaters have been able to gain insight into the individuals profiled.

GREAT JEWS IN SPORTS
Robert Slater

Replete with facts, figures, and statistics, Great Jews in Sports documents the contribution of Jewish athletes to the world of sports over the past two centuries. From home-run king Hank Greenberg, star of the 1930s and 1940s, to gymnast Kerri Strug, gold-medal winner at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, this new edition of a perennial favorite presents intriguing portraits of sports stars from around the globe. Slater devotes an entire section of biographies to outstanding Israeli sports figures. Also included are lists of the winners of the Maccabiah Games and of members of the Jewish Sports Hall of Fame. First published in 1983, this new edition of Great Jews in Sports will continue to delight seasoned sports lovers while introducing a whole new generation to some of the finest athletes of our time.

Robert Slater and his wife, Elinor, are coauthors of several volumes in the Great Jews series. Robert was a reporter in the Time magazine Jerusalem Bureau from 1976 to 1996. He is also the author of Rabin of Israel and Golda: The Uncrowned Queen of Israel. Elinor has worked for the Hebrew University of Jerusalem as the coordinator for U.S.-sponsored research programs since 1982.

ENCYCLOPEDIA OF JEWISH HUMOR:
From Biblical Times to the Modern Age
Henry D. Spalding

Hardcover
ISBN-10: 0-8246-0439-3
ISBN-13: 978-0-8246-0439-4
6 x 9 480 pages
List Price $24.95

Paperback
ISBN-10: 0-8246-0437-7
ISBN-13: 978-0-8246-0437-0
6 x 9 480 pages
List Price $16.95

Jewish humor mirrors the minds and hearts of the Jewish people. It reflects their joys and sorrows, hopes and disappointments. Perhaps most significant, it demonstrates their willingness to poke fun at themselves, which has no doubt enabled Jews to endure centuries of hardship with head held high and a smile on their collective face.

In the Encyclopedia of Jewish Humor, hailed as a landmark work when first published, Henry D. Spalding presents delightful anecdotes, quips, jokes, and yarns featuring the colorful folk who have added spice and spirit to Jewish life from biblical to modern times. Some of the selections are pungent, many are scornful of deceit and pretense, others are alive with brotherhood. Most are just downright hilarious.

In thirty-nine chapters, Spalding allows forty centuries of Jewish life to speak through characters we have all grown to love. Here, you’ll find the itinerant shnorrer who arrives in a small Lithuanian town late one Friday afternoon with no place to stay; the Yiddishe papa whose task it is to instruct little Mortie in the ways of the birds and bees; the congregant whose life’s goal, it seems, is to make his rabbi miserable; the hypochondriac who complains of ailments as yet undiscovered. The author (re)introduces us to the shlemiels and shlimazls, rebbes and rebbetzins, mamas and papas, doctors and patients, marriage brokers and divorce lawyers, yeshiva students and sisterhood presidents whose peculiar antics never fail to entertain.

In the preface to this classic work, Henry Spalding writes that the surest way to destroy humor is to analyze it. So no more analyzing…Now it’s time to read a little something!

Cheers for
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF JEWISH HUMOR

"Hundreds of witty stories are retold here with care and verve…Every old and tasteful joke is included, in one form or another, with punch lines returning to the reader from jolly memory….Truly memorable…A lively glossary of Yiddish terms is appended…Recommended."
—Library Journal

"A robust compendium of Jewish humor...Spalding chapters his hefty book according to amusingly spelled-out categories: "Schlemiels and Schlimazls, or Such Kinds of Persons You Wouldn’t Want They Should Marry Your Sister"; "Circumcisions and Bar Mitzvahs: Lose a Little Here, Gain a Little There"; "Political Potpourri: If You Don’t Like Political Jokes, You Shouldn’t Vote For Them."…The delight of the book is the generous use of the unvarnished Jewish idiom. Readers ought to buy it like bagels!"
—Publishers Weekly

About the Author

A native of New York City, Henry D. Spalding began his career in journalism as a reporter for the New York Mirror and the Journal. While a member of the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., he was an accredited White House correspondent.

In the 1950s Spalding moved to Los Angeles, where he was active as editor and publisher of Deejay, Disc, and Top Ten—all music magazines—as well as Talent News, a show-business trade journal.

When Encyclopedia of Jewish Humor was first published in 1969, it was received enthusiastically, and has since gone through many editions. That, together with the author’s Treasure-Trove of American Jewish Humor, Encyclopedia of Black Folklore and Humor, Joys of Irish Humor, and Joys of Italian Humor, have established Henry Spalding as one of the world’s leading experts on ethnic humor.