History Main / JewishMother

* Constance Temple from the GONE series is a "non-observant Jew".

* The Israeli film ''Single Plus'' 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.

* Gender switched in ''Private Benjamin'' with the titular character's parents. Her father in one scene does the guilt tripping and scolds her for "causing" her at the present composed and quiet Mother's nervous breakdown.

* 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 BigReveal (that her parents really want her dead) and she expopunds at length about how big a dissappointment 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.

* In ''Series/CrazyExGirlfriend'', Rebecca's mother is the epitome of the JewishMother -- her very first scene in person (not over the phone) has her singing the song [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJg1zRgkbno "Where's the Bathroom?"]]:

* Although she doesn't have much screentime, the protagonist's mother in ''Next Stop, Greenwich Village'' (played by Creator/ShelleyWinters) somehow manages to dominate the movie (and of course she manages to drive her son up the walls when she drops by)

* 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 [[DeconstructedTrope are down to over-protective parents]]. Mrs Klein also dissaproves 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 her {{Adorkable}} 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.

* 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 BigReveal (that her parents really want her dead) and she expopunds at length about how big a dissappointment 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.

* 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, "And you won't even TRY my rugelach?!"

Oh, sorry, wrong number.

* Shortly before the holidays, a Jewish woman calls her daughter on the other side of the country and tells her she and her father getting divorced as they simply can't stand each other anymore. The daughter, in full panic mode, tells her not to do anything, she'll call her other siblings and they'll be over as soon as they can. After hanging up, she tells her husband the kids are coming over for the holidays after all... [[AllJewsAreCheapstakes and they're paying for their own tickets.]]

* 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 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).

** Averted with Roseanne's mother, who despite showing all the stereotypes is Lutheran.

* Marie Barone, in ''Series/EverybodyLovesRaymond'', is a Jewish Mother in everything but religion and ethnicity (she's Italian-American. Connoisseurs say Catholic mothers of Latin or Irish extraction are their spiritual sisters, though). She counts, as ELR is co-written by Philip Rosenthal, whose Jewish Mother helped inspire the character.

* Although she doesn't have much screentime, the protagonist's mother in ''Next Stop, Greenwich Village'' (played by [[ShelleyWinters Shelley Winters]]) somehow manages to dominate the movie (and of course she manages to drive her son up the walls when she drops by)
* Creator/WoodyAllen's mother in NewYorkStories, who disappears in a magician's [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin disappearing act]]. Her disembodied head appears floating above New York City to drive her son mad.

* 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 ''Discworld/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.

A StockCharacter that makes frequent appearances in Jewish comedy, the stereotypical Jewish Mother is overbearing, emotionally manipulative, and persists on interfering in her children's lives long after they've become adults.

Usually, she'll speak with a [[YiddishAsASecondLanguage Yiddish]] accent (not for nothing do 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]].

** 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 RoadTrip 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]]