Jewtopia: The Chosen Book for the Chosen People

by: Bryan Fogel & Sam Wolfson

Published by: Warner Books

Reviewed by Ernest Dempsey

Before you start reading, check out the back-cover quip by Fogel and Wolfson, and you will get a sense of why Jewtopia has been called the chosen book. This book by Bryan Fogel and Sam Wolfson, has scribed the essence of their theatrical success, Jewtopia, lightly flashing back into the history of western religious traditions, zooming in on Jews as the 'chosen people.'

Much in this book will throw you in a hilarious craze: the modern versions of how religious icons (Adam, Eve, Moses, Abraham, Jacob, and others) felt and expressed their situations; games and fun quizzes mocking at the reader and the stereotyped ways of thinking about things--especially about Jews; bits of ice-breaking reality; political, social, and geographical roundup of the world through the eyes of a sweet cynic; the American daily parade across the corners of food and health; and much more. The book's mania never stops.

While Fogel and Wolfson masterfully diffuse the boundaries between serious address and tickling humor, Jewtopia emerges as a unique book that questions the misconceptions and gross generalizations about Jews as a nation. Why the buzz that Jews are people with big noses who should be proud of their nomadic past and easily come to terms with their neuroses? Why the irrational envy that Jews control the world's banks and mass media?

After reading this glossy, hardbound book with high-quality photos, sketches, and colorful graphs, you feel like merging the habits of a typical American person and those considered peculiar to a Jew. And if you have a questioning mind like the two guys who created the book, you may well ask yourself, "Is there really something called a Jew?"

Armchair Interviews says: An interesting look at stereotypes.