Prohibited Love

Is laughter essential to Jewish identity? Do Jews possess special radar for recognizing members of the tribe? Since Jews live longer and make love more often, why don't more people join the tribe? "More deli than deity" writer Nancy Kalikow Maxwell poses many such questions in eight chapters—"Worrying," "Kvelling," "Dying," "Noshing," "Laughing," "Detecting," "Dwelling," and "Joining"—exploring what it means to be "typically Jewish." While unearthing answers from rabbis, researchers, and her assembled Jury on Jewishness (Jewish friends she roped into conversation), she—and we—make a variety of discoveries.

Donna Kaz was 24 years old when she moved to New York City in the fall of 1977 to pursue a career in theatre. She rented a spacious loft apartment on gritty Fifth Avenue in Chelsea and landed a job serving beers and burgers at the classic bar, Jimmy Day's, in Greenwich Village.