MAY 1ST:
25 QUESTIONS FOR A JEWISH MOTHER
BOOK RELEASED!

• "Her fluid writing, engaging and entertaining, balances between poignant and humorous memories."

- Publishers Weekly

• "I loved Judy Gold’s 25 Questions for a Jewish Mother so much that if I didn’t recommend it, the guilt would consume me."

- Bette Midler

For a Jewish girl who remembers the first book ever read to her as a child was the pop-up version of The Diary of Anne Frank, learning how to be a Jewish mother who wasn’t a carbon copy of her Jewish mother wasn’t easy. Nevertheless, Emmy Award-winning comedian Judy Gold dedicates her book, 25 QUESTIONS FOR A JEWISH MOTHER (Voice/Hyperion; May 2007; $ 24.95), to Ruth Gold — her mother, her muse. Based on their Broadway play, winner of the 2007 GLAAD award for “Best Play,” Judy Gold and Kate Moira Ryan embarked on a five-year odyssey across America to find out just what makes a Jewish mother the glorious, yet peculiar creature that she is.

So, what does make a Jewish mother different from a non-Jewish mother? Judy writes, “When we asked the women across the country [this question], I would look deeply into each woman’s eyes and think, Prove me wrong. Please tell me that you’re nothing like my mother.” Gold and Ryan found that Jewish mothers are different for their level of neurosis, guilt, and paranoia. As Judy writes, “… in between B’nai B’rith and bridge, she kept track of her three kids every hour, every minute, every second of every day.” Gold and Ryan asked one woman they interviewed how many times a day she called her children. The answer: “Three, four, five times a day. My daughters are in Israel.”

And, why is it that Jewish mothers are the butt of so many jokes? “Because we’re funny, that’s why.”– mother of six, homemaker, Orthodox.

The culmination of these extraordinary stories confirms that there is ultimately something strong, courgeous, and loving in every mother. 25 QUESTIONS FOR A JEWISH MOTHER is a book that everyone can love – as Judy says, “There’s a little Jewish mother in every mother.”

MORE PRAISE:

• “You don't have to be Jewish, or even a mother, to appreciate this hilarious little book. But since I'm both, it's the humor combined with poignancy that gets me every time.”

- Judy Blume

• “This book is the greatest, even the goyim agree!”

- Joy Behar

• “Honest, poignant, and very real, 25 QUESTIONS reminds us that you never know how you will touch someone's life and how they will affect yours—and that the more you know about history, the more you know about yourself. A great read that keeps you laughing and thinking.”

- Billie Jean King

• “Judy Gold and Kate Ryan reach beyond their confines of their title to talk about—with canny humor and surprising grace—the nature of parenthood, the immigrant experience, the rudiments of faith, and the cathartic function of comedy. The book tickles your funny bone, but it also satisfies your soul.”

- Pulitzer Prize winner Doug Wright

ABOUT THE AUTHORS:

Judy Gold is an Emmy Award-winning writer, producer, and stand-up comic. Gold lives in New York City with her two sons.

Kate Moira Ryan’s plays have been produced by New York Theatre Workshop , the Atlantic Theater, and the Women’s Project. She lives in New York.

VOICE is a new imprint of books for women at the center of life – fiction and nonfiction for smart, educated, busy, curious, and seasoned women for whom reading is a passion. Women who want to read to figure out what they want next. Led by Ellen Archer, Senior Vice President and Publisher, and Pamela Dorman, Vice President and Editorial Director, Voice is an imprint by and for women–as women see themselves. Please visit www.everywomansvoice.com for more information.