The Half-Jewish Book

The population of half-Jews in America is fast on its way to surpassing the population of full Jews, causing a revolutionary transformation of what it means to be half-Jewish. Sure, some people say that one is either Jewish or not and there's nothing in between, but Daniel Klein and Freke Vuijst emphatically disagree. They say half-Jews are a unique subculture of unusually talented, multifaceted and remarkably attractive people. This book celebrates everything from half-Jewish humor (half-Jewish/half-Catholic Bill Maher: I come from a mixed religious background"”when I went to confession, I brought a lawyer with me) to half-Jewish beauty (Gwyneth Paltrow, Joan Collins and Jane Seymour, just for starters); from half-Jewish writers (Proust, Salinger) to half-Jewish characters in fiction by writers ranging from Philip roth to Robert Stone and including that half-Jewish cartoon phenomenon Tommy Pickles; and from an eye-opening essay on half-Jewish identity to the often misunderstood history of half-Jews in the Holocaust. Original interviews, half-Jewish holiday cards and menus, poetry and song lyrics, and paintings and photographs combine to make this an entertaining, intelligent, exuberant and thought-provoking reading experience.