History Main / JewishMother

* Vladek Spiegelman from Creator/ArtSpiegelman's ''ComicBook/{{Maus}}'' is a male example, and since the comic is autobiographical, was probably also a RealLife one. It's not played for comedy, however, and borderlines on downright emotional abuse.
* Alva Strauss Arnheim, the matriarch of Creator/WillEisner`s ''ComicBook/TheNameOfTheGame''. She is the main reason her sons develop like they do, and she is ready to excuse ''any'' behaviour from her eldest son, as long as he keeps the family business up and going. Her attitude gets worse after the death of her husband. Eisner modeled this story on his wife`s family background. There is good evidence Alva has been a RealLife person.
* Ruth Cole from ''ComicBook/BlackPanther''. Creator/{{Christopher Priest|Comics}} designed her as an {{Expy}} of Aunt May from ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'' if May were a stereotypical Jewish mom.
* Played for laughs in ''ComicBook/AstroCity'' with Marta Dobrescu, whose mother continues to nag her to get married ([[IWantGrandkids and have grandkids]]), manipulates her to visit more often, and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking asks about baseball scores]] -- as a ghost. That's one of the drawbacks of living in Shadow Hill...

* Sabra Klein's mother in ''ComicStrip/PreTeena'' is proud, protective, and smothering to [[SicklyNeuroticGeek her daughter]]. It is hinted that Sabra's multiple allergies and food phobias are down to over-protective parents. Mrs Klein also disapproves of her daughter's nickname "Stick", even though ''everyone'' calls her this.

* Sabra Klein's mother in ''ComicStrip/PreTeena'' is proud, protective and smothering to [[SicklyNeuroticGeek her daughter]]. It is hinted that Sabra's multiple allergies and food-phobias are down to over-protective parents. Mrs Klein also dissaproves of her daughter's nickname "Stick", even though ''everyone'' calls her this.

* In ''[[Fanfic/SlippingBetweenWorlds Slipping Between Worlds]]'', Fusilier Jonathan "Tailor" Cohen joined the British Army against his parents' wishes. Born in Wales, he has the right birth qualifications to be sent to a Welsh regiment, where he is accepted by Seven Platoon largely because of his skills with tape measure, needle and cotton. However, his distraught mother fires off a barrage of letters to the Colonel commanding, full of heartfelt questions such as ''Is he keeping well? Does the Army allow him a kosher diet? Is he allowed to respect the Sabbath? Please tell me he hasn't been drinking and smoking and getting involved with the sort of women who hang around Army barracks?" The Colonel passes the letters down the line to Cohen's platoon commander, Lieutenant Philip Holtack, who is curtly told "Deal with this, Philip".
** An OC in the [[Creator/AAPessimal same author]]'s ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' tales comes from a small country in the Circle Sea where the parent religion of Omnianism still tenaciously holds on. The Cenotians respect kosher law, have a religion hedged with taboos and commandments, know the secret of creating golems, and have an origin myth of being exiled from their homeland to the banks of a river in Babylon -- then finding themselves in a different world entirely, led there by a relative of the Witch of Endor called Naomi Ogg. They believe their G-d got ''really'' annoyed and chose to ratchet up the exile factor in a big way. Student Assassin Rivka-ben-Divorah is a typical Cenotian who complains to her best friend about her overbearing and protective mother who appreciates she wants to get a steady job in a prestigious profession, but demands she marries a good Om-fearing Cenotian boy in a profession, and buckles down to [[IWantGrandkids giving her lots of grandchildren]] and keeping a kosher kitchen as soon as can be arranged. ''And promise me that however many people you inhume, you respect kashrut and attend Temple every Saturday!''
** in the continuation tale ''Fanfic/GapYearAdventures'', Rivka has graduated as a [[BadassIsraeli an Assassin who is frighted of almost nothing]]. however, the one thing that terrifies her is the matchmaker Yenta Goldberg, a friend of her mother's who has taken on a ''difficult'' job. Their road trip across [[UsefulNotes/{{Africa}} Howondaland]] has the Yenta popping up everywhere to remind Rivka she is of marriagable age and single, and do you want your mother to die of sorrow, schmoopie? [[note]]Rivka is pursued, in Earth terms, from her home in a place like Tel Aviv all the way across an entire continent to its version of [[UsefulNotes/SouthAfrica Cape Town]].[[/note]]
* Walburga Black from ''Fanfic/TheBlackSheepDogSeries'' looks suspiciously like one, in spite of not being Jewish. Her eldest son running away was a source of complains for her, but it gets cranked up when she learns he's living in a Muggle, low-class neighbourhood. Cue Walburga rearranging the flat, insisting for Sirius to attend family dinners, replacing his clothes and freaking over his possibly dating muggle women since he ought to marry a proper pureblood lady.

* Griselda from ''WesternAnimation/StrangeMagic'' distinctly comes off like this with the stereotypical voice, the nagging, the attempts to get her son to get married and the passive-aggressive nature of her complaints.

* Seymour's mother in ''Film/TheCannonballRun'', who despairs that her son is running around pretending to be "some goy movie star named Roger Moore".

* It's never stated in ''Film/TheFifthElement'' that Korben is Jewish, but his mother is a perfect fit for this trope. All throughout the film she guilt-trips him over the phone for never calling or visiting her. At one point she even berates the ''President of the Federation'' because she thinks he's just some schmuck who's helping her son avoid her.

* The Israeli film ''Film/SinglePlus'' deals with a woman's thorny relationship with a resolutely single daughter in her thirties. Mother resorts to feigning cancer and using this as emotional blackmail to force the daughter to marry and provide the desired grandchildren, as a good Jewish daughter should. Them Mum steps up the emotional pressure by refusing to take the prescribed drugs for the non-existent cancer -- just to get the daughter to buck her ideas up a little.
* ''Film/KissingJessicaStein'': Jessica's mother is a textbook example. She's very emotional, nags her adult kids to do what she feels is best and pushes for "good matches" with other people whether they want these or not (often annoying them).

* Q: What's the difference between a Jewish mother and Palestinian terrorist?\\

--> Gentile: "Mom, unfortunately I can't come to your 60th birthday as I promised, because I have some very important business to do at that time."
--> Mother: "Okay, I'm fine with that."

* A Jewish mother fiercely rebukes and berates her son for his inability to find a nice Jewish girl to settle down with and that he has been with a highly unsuitable series of Gentile women. She criticises their promiscuity, tendency to take too much strong drinks, swear, dress inappropriately and not be Jewish. Her son thinks about this and then informs her about his new girlfriend. His mother gets on the phone to her best friend. "Well, I hold some hope for this latest girlfriend of Nathan's. Apparently she's a ''Goldberg!''" (beat) "But what sort of a first name is ''[[Creator/WhoopiGoldberg Whoopi]]'', already?"

* A Jewish woman turns 90, and her youngest grandson, a young gay man, decides that now is the best time for him to come out to her, as he knows that she could be gone from his life at any minute and doesn't want her to die not knowing who he really is. He comes over to her house for lunch one afternoon. After chatting for a few minutes, the young man takes a deep breath, looks his mother in the eye and say "Bubbe, I must confess, there's a reason I wanted to see you. I wanted to tell you that I'm homosexual." The grandmother looks understandably shocked. "You mean to tell me that you put your mouth on another man's private parts??" she asks, incredulously. "Ehhh, yes I do, grandma," the man replies, clearly uncomfortable. The grandmother is flabbergasted. She replies, "[[SkewedPriorities And you won't even TRY my rugelach]]?!"

* Jesus is defending a prostitute against an angry mob, saying "let whoever is without sin cast the first stone". A two-ton boulder falls out of the sky onto the prostitute. Jesus sighs wearily, looks skyward and says "Mooooom, stop following me to work!"
* There was a Jewish boy who always wanted to try sky jumping. When he turns 18, he goes to an aero-club, but they reject him, claiming he has a weak heart. He goes to another one - rejected again, because of bad lungs. He goes through several more clubs, and it's a no-go every time. After another rejection he cannot take it anymore and breaks down crying. The instructor feels sorry for him, so he takes him aside and quietly tells him: "I see that this is a really big deal for you, so... [[CouldSayItBut You didn't hear it from me]], but there's this small town on the very fringe of the country, with a really tiny aero-club, just a couple of guys running it. No guarantees, but there ''might'' be a chance that your mother doesn't know about it."

* Creator/IsaacBabel usually portraits Russian Jewish mothers (as well as any "mother figure", which includes aunts and grandmothers) as being kind, devoted, conservative and very fat.

* In ''Series/{{Cheers}}'', Lilith's mother Betty Sternin walks in, takes over, and provokes a massive mother-daughter row on Lilith's weding day to Frasier Crane. During the row she bursts into tears and reveals to Lilith that she had ''exactly'' the same row with her own mother on ''her'' wedding day.

** Fran Fine's mother Sylvia is one of the best examples in a modern sitcom. She is very Jewish, has a need to control her daughter and push her into marriage (any man will do at this point, so will almost any woman for that matter) and is keen on using guilt-tripping to get Fran to do what she wants.

** Despite how Fran complains about how overbearing her mother is, she can some times show similar traits herself when it comes to the Sheffield children. It is difficult for her to let Grace go on a play date by herself for the first time, and she also tries to use guilt-trip on Maggie on occasions. Eventually she becomes their Jewish step-mother, at which point Sylvia encourages her to "unleash the power".

* In British sitcom ''Series/SoHauntMe'' a Gentile family moves into a house haunted by its previous owner Yetta Feldman (Miriam Karlin), who treats a Christian exorcism with scorn (''"Gevalt, have you got the wrong sort of ghost!"'') and then becomes Jewish Mother from beyond the grave to the entire family.

* Schmidt's mother in ''Series/NewGirl'' constantly berates him and tries to change aspects of his lifestyle. When she visits him in L.A, he dreads seeing her. He asks for his long-awaited Bar Mitzvah money, but she won't give it to him until he writes thank you letters to everyone who attended.

* ''Series/CallTheMidwife'': The PatientOfTheWeek in Series 3, Episode 4 is Jewish, and lives with her mother. On account of what seems to be a combination of Ménière's Disease and PTSD (the family rode out the Holocaust by living in a cellar), the mother gets physically ill if she attempts to leave her flat. When, in response to Dr Turner's news that her condition can be treated, her daughter and son-in-law announce a plan to move them all to Golders Green, she gets a bit passive-aggressive (understandably, since it's a big shock). However, [[spoiler:once her granddaughter is born, she drums up the courage to leave the house... to nag her daughter about the inadequacy of the baby's clothing.]]

* In ''Series/TheGoldbergs'', the Goldberg family of Philadelphia are AmbiguouslyJewish -- the name fits, the younger son fits the stereotype of being nerdy and bad at sports, the daughter has a sense of spoilt entitlement, but matters of religion are not really hinted at.[[note]]The family take to Chinese food, pork and seafood and all, like ducks to water[[/note]] But mother Beverley Goldberg is a terrifying MamaBear who fits the Jewish Mother persona to a tee.

** Simiarly left ambiguous with Bev's mother, Nana Mary, who is just as stereotypical to her daughter.

* Marco's mother in ''Webcomic/MarcoandMarty''. An entire strip is devoted to her complaining about her son's ex boyfriend, and she visits him at college with blintzes and brisket because he "sounded thin" on the phone.

** While not overtly Jewish, Leela's mother seems to fit this trope, and is very adept at self-deprecation and passive-aggressiveness.
--> Munda: It's good that Leela doesn't love us; she'll be less sad when we die.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheRealGhostbusters'': Although initially established as being descended from a line of Christian Jews, when Egon's mother is eventually introduced, she's revealed as being one of these, to the extent where she'll mother the entire team including the secretary, Janine. Of course, Janine is used to it, given that her mother is one as well.

* Harley Quinn's mother, Mrs. Sharon Quinzel, is strongly implied to be one in ''WesternAnimation/HarleyQuinn2019''. At first smothering and passive-agressive, the mask drops after the TheReveal (that her parents really want her dead) and she expounds at length about how big a disappointment her daughter has turned out to be. Sharon complains that all she wanted was what every Jewish mother wants: for Harleen to marry a doctor, while wiping the blood off a knife pulled from a body. Harley pointing out that she ''is'' a doctor doesn't deter her mother, either.
* Hilariously, ''ComicBook/DoctorDoom'''s mother, Cynthia Von Doom (or, as she prefers to be called, "Coco") is portrayed as this in ''WesternAnimation/TheSuperHeroSquadShow''. She even has sonic nagging abilities. (This is strange considering her mainstream comics counterpart is of Romani heritage. To be fair, she's also usually dead...)

* The hero of ''Film/TheHebrewHammer'' has this.

* Aram's mother in ''Film/TheRebound''.

* Sheila Broflovski, Kyle's mom, from ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark''. She's started wars over [[KnightTemplarParent being protective of her son]]. Well, ''a'' war, with [[CanadaEh Canada]] in [[WesternAnimation/SouthParkBiggerLongerAndUncut the movie]], albeit one that inadvertently led to the [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt Apocalypse]]. Good thing the ResetButton managed to get pressed...

A related StockCharacter is the stereotypical Jewish Grandmother: just as much meddling and interest in the personal lives of her descendants, but more likely to provide them with [[ThroughHisStomach highly caloric snacks]] made with plenty of ''schmaltz'' (did we mention that being a SupremeChef is part of the stereotype?). The Jewish Grandmother is the occasional ally of her grandchildren, as she can use on their mother the techniques of guilt and shame that their mother does on them: "Why don't you let the kids play more? Study, study, study all the time is not good for them! And then they're too tired to even visit their grandmother. Are you trying to keep me from seeing them?" "No mama..." "You be quiet! Now bring me that brisket before you ruin it."

* There was a jewish boy who always wanted to try sky jumping. When he turns 18, he goes to an aero-club, but they reject him, claiming he has a weak heart. He goes to another one - rekected again, because of bad lungs. He goes through several more clubs, and it's a no-go every time. After another rejection he cannot take it anymore and breaks down crying. The instructor feels sorry for him, so he takes him aside and quietly tells him: "I see that this is a really big deal for you, so... [[ICouldTellYouBut You didn't hear it from me]], but there's this small town on the very fringe of the country, with a really tiny aero-club, just a couple of guys running it. No guarantees, but there ''might'' be a chance that your mother doesn't know about it."

* Franchise/{{Discworld}}'s dwarves at least occasionally seem to serve as the setting's FantasyCounterpartCulture for Jewish culture (much as the Klatchians tend to stand in for the Middle East and surrounding regions, Quirm stands in for Italy or France depending on the book, {{Uberwald}} stands in for Eastern Europe, Fourecks "[[BlatantLies is not[...] Australia]]. No, it's[...] [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial somewhere entirely different]] which happens to be, here and there, a bit... Australian. Still... no worries, right?" etc.). The details aren't always identical -- dwarven names are usually Nordic-sounding, for instance -- but there are definite parallels, and when it comes to mothers, this trope is clearly in full force. For context, Carrot Ironfoundersson, a human {{oblivious|Adoption}}ly [[RaisedByNatives raised by dwarves]], delivers the following speech in ''Literature/GuardsGuards'' to a bar full of brawling dwarves, reducing every last one of them to tears. (He is, one might note, also essentially serving as a gender-swapped example of this trope as he does so -- but Discworld's dwarves, with rare exceptions, don't even acknowledge gender, so this isn't actually notable for the setting.) While it's established throughout the series that he has a significant amount of personal magnetism anyway, it's implied that his appeal to their mothers is what really sends them into tears.

* Downplayed in ''{{Literature/Animorphs}}'' with Rachel's mother, a career lawyer who (according to Rachel) is only happy when people are arguing, like trying to hammer out a constitution for a species of aliens who are entirely happy to leave leadership up to the very rare super-intelligent genetic anomalies they call seers. She also once tried to attack a grizzly bear with a ''spice rack'' when she thought it had eaten her daughter alive (before Rachel got it across that she WAS the bear).

* in the Bible, the book of Judges (4:1-31) tells the story of [[MamaBear Deborah]], who leads the men of Israel to victory over the foe, berating and shaming them into picking up weapons and fighting. She explicitly says of herself after the victory: "Village life in Israel ceased, ceased until I, Deborah, arose, arose as a mother in Israel". Never get between a Jewish mother and her children!
* The story of the wedding at Cana ([[https://bible.oremus.org/?passage=John+2:1%E2%80%932:11&version=nrsv John 2:1-11]]) in which Mary informs Jesus that the party has run out of wine. Jesus's response is, essentially, "What do you want me to do about it?" Mary ignores him and tells the servants to, "Do what he tells you." Basically Jesus's first miracle occurs because of this trope which even the ''Son of God Himself'' won't go against.

* The short story "Pushing the Envelope" by Desmond Warzel begins and ends with [[JewsLoveToArgue arguments]] between the protagonist and his JewishMother.

* Creator/WoodyAllen's mother in ''Film/NewYorkStories'', who disappears in a magician's [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin disappearing act]]. Her disembodied head appears floating above New York City to drive her son mad.

* Played for laughs in ''ComicBook/AstroCity'' with Marta Dobrescu, whose mother continues to nag her to get married ([[IWantGrandkids and have grandkids]]), manipulates her to visit more often, and asks [[OddLastItemIndex about baseball scores]] -- as a ghost. That's one of the drawbacks of living in Shadow Hill...

* Played for laughs in ''ComicBook/AstroCity'' with Marta Dobrescu, whose mother continues to nag her to get married ([[IWantGrandkids and have grandkids]]), manipulates her to visit more often, and asks [[TheLastOfTheseIsNotLikeTheOthers about baseball]] -- as a ghost. That's one of the drawbacks of living in Shadow Hill...

* Beattie (Maureen Lipman), the middle-aged London Jewish mother in the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWOhw95IO2s British Telecom TV ads.]]

'''Beattie:''' [''to the photo''] So you can't visit. You can't call round. You can only phone. Never mind. It's a pleasure to hear your voice. [''{{beat}}''] Little more often wouldn't hurt...

Usually, she'll speak with a [[YiddishAsASecondLanguage Yiddish]] accent (it's worth noting that Jews refer to Yiddish as ''mammeloshen'', literally "mother's tongue") and will often be heard boasting about her offspring ("my son, the doctor..."), when she isn't nagging them. The only option in life for her children is college and (for the girls) marrying a {{nice Jewish boy}} (often parsed even more with "A nice Ashkenazic boy" or "A nice Ashkenazic doctor" or "A nice Ashkenazic doctor with an apartment in New York and plenty of frequent flier miles to visit your mother whom you never ''[[FunetikAksent cawl]]'' anymore"). Likewise, a Jewish son is expected to bring home a nice Jewish girl. No matter how nice, however, this girl will not be good enough. Heaven forbid he marries a ShiksaGoddess. And above all, [[IWantGrandkids she'll want grandkids]].

Surprisingly, the otherwise northern European Scots suffer... erm... enjoy a variation on this trope with their own mothers. ''Series/GoodnessGraciousMe'' illustrates that on the Indian subcontinent and diaspora, Hindu and Islamic mothers are also a force to be reckoned with and share many characteristics - overbearing nagging and a recourse to inducing guilt in their adult sons, while stuffing everyone with food. Poles and Russians (and Ukrainians, and Belorussians) are also in the same camp, because, well, Ashkenazi Jews are just as much Poles/Russians as they are Jews - Hell, as mentioned above, this stereotype is considered Polish in Israel. And ''any'' mother of an adult character who hails from UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity will come off this way, whether Jewish or not (after all, in New York, "[[Creator/LennyBruce even if you're Catholic, you're Jewish]]").

-->'''Beattie''' *''sitting next to the phone, talking to a photo of her son''*: So you can't phone. You can't pick up a phone and dial. You got maybe something wrong with your finger. It's a phobia. You're telephobic.\\
[=*=]''the phone rings. Beattie picks up.''*\\
'''Son''' *''through the phone''*: Hello, Mum.\\
* ''Fade out. Fade in on Beattie putting the phone down.''*\\
'''Beattie''' *''to the photo''*: So you can't visit. You can't call round. You can only phone. Never mind. It's a pleasure to hear your voice. *''{{beat}}''* Little more often wouldn't hurt...

** An OC in the [[Creator/AAPessimal same author]]'s ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' tales comes from a small country in the Circle Sea where the parent religion of Omnianism still tenaciously holds on. The Cenotians respect kosher law, have a religion hedged with taboos and commandments, know the secret of creating golems, and have an origin myth of being exiled from their homeland to the banks of a river in Babylon - then finding themselves in a different world entirely, led there by a relative of the Witch of Endor called Naomi Ogg. They believe their G-d got ''really'' annoyed and chose to ratchet up the exile factor in a big way. Student Assassin Rivka-ben-Divorah is a typical Cenotian who complains to her best friend about her overbearing and protective mother who appreciates she wants to get a steady job in a prestigious profession, but demands she marries a good Om-fearing Cenotian boy in a profession, and buckles down to [[IWantGrandkids giving her lots of grandchildren]] and keeping a kosher kitchen as soon as can be arranged. ''And promise me that however many people you inhume, you respect kashrut and attend Temple every Saturday!''

* The Israeli film ''Film/SinglePlus'' deals with a woman's thorny relationship with a resolutely single daughter in her thirties. Mother resorts to feigning cancer and using this as emotional blackmail to force the daughter to marry and provide the desired grandchildren, as a good Jewish daughter should. Them Mum steps up the emotional pressure by refusing to take the prescribed drugs for the non-existent cancer - just to get the daughter to buck her ideas up a little.

* Franchise/{{Discworld}}'s dwarves at least occasionally seem to serve as the setting's FantasyCounterpartCulture for Jewish culture (much as the Klatchians tend to stand in for the Middle East and surrounding regions, Quirm stands in for Italy or France depending on the book, {{Uberwald}} stands in for Eastern Europe, Fourecks "[[BlatantLies is not[...] Australia]]. No, it's[...] [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial somewhere entirely different]] which happens to be, here and there, a bit... Australian. Still... no worries, right?" etc.). The details aren't always identical - dwarven names are usually Nordic-sounding, for instance - but there are definite parallels, and when it comes to mothers, this trope is clearly in full force. For context, Carrot Ironfoundersson, a human {{oblivious|Adoption}}ly [[RaisedByNatives raised by dwarves]], delivers the following speech in ''Literature/GuardsGuards'' to a bar full of brawling dwarves, reducing every last one of them to tears. (He is, one might note, also essentially serving as a gender-swapped example of this trope as he does so - but Discworld's dwarves, with rare exceptions, don't even acknowledge gender, so this isn't actually notable for the setting.) While it's established throughout the series that he has a significant amount of personal magnetism anyway, it's implied that his appeal to their mothers is what really sends them into tears.

* In some ways, Grace's mother from ''Series/WillAndGrace'' is like this - Grace remembers being told "...the classic Dr Seuss story; ''One Fish, Two Fish, Goy Fish, Jew Fish''" by her mother.

* In ''Series/TheGoldbergs'', the Goldberg family of Philadelphia are AmbiguouslyJewish - the name fits, the younger son fits the stereotype of being nerdy and bad at sports, the daughter has a sense of spoilt entitlement, but matters of religion are not really hinted at.[[note]]The family take to Chinese food, pork and seafood and all, like ducks to water[[/note]] But mother Beverley Goldberg is a terrifying MamaBear who fits the Jewish Mother persona to a tee.

''And you still have told me''\\

** Fran Fine's mother Sylvia is one of the best examples in a modern sitcom. She is very Jewish, has a need to control her daughter and push her into marriage (any man will do at this point) and is keen on using guilt-tripping to get Fran to do what she wants.