If you hap­pen to for­get which are the good seats on an air­plane, or when and why the Jews were expelled from this or that land, or even if you only need some hebraio-cen­tric groom­ing tips, you can rest easy now that Bryan Fogel and Sam Wolfson’s hit show ​“Jew­topia” is now avail­able in con­ve­nient book form. 

The cre­ators of the play and authors of the book hand­i­ly breathe new life into an age-old fea­ture of Jew­ish life; the abil­i­ty to laugh at one­self. Abid­ing no sacred cows, the authors lam­poon every aspect of being a Jew — both real and imag­ined — in this attrac­tive vol­ume. The illus­tra­tions and pho­tog­ra­phy car­ry the gags along gam­ing­ly, and the design feels fresh. Some of the bits hit more than oth­ers, and some hit on cer­tain sub­jects that might not be to everyone’s taste, but the gen­er­al atti­tide is one of pro­found affec­tion for every­thing Jewish. 

The authors do a great job of keep­ing the humor cur­rent, which is the key to an under­tak­ing such as this. Pop cul­ture ref­er­ences abound; there are many cite­able exam­ples, but this review­er was wellimpressed by the sub­tle and unat­trib­uted addi­tion of a Big Lebows­ki ref­er­ence (hey — ​“cur­rent” is rel­a­tive!). Also to their cred­it, they don’t shy away from a bit of raunch­i­ness every so often. There are some rather reveal­ing illus­tra­tions that may not be suit­able for younger read­ers, but adult read­ers will find them­selves chuck­ling, groan­ing, gig­gling and guf­faw­ing all throughout.