Transported to South Florida, I contend with racist bullies and kosher wine. A portal to an enchanted world opens, and I cavort through various promised lands with Mel Brooks and other 2,000-year-old men. We conclude with a drama entitled “Death in the Catskills.”

What follows the family to America at the end of Fiddler on the Roof? In this discussion of tradition, precariousness, and the mystical concept of the pintele yid, we consult such sacred texts as The Jazz Singer, Abie’s Irish Rose, and the work of the Marx Brothers.

Come with me to Bloomfield, Connecticut in 1980-something, to attend a Passover seder at the home of my great aunt and uncle, Sarah and Joe Brody. Then, stay for some after-dinner perspective on the Exodus story, and thoughts on the future.

In the second chapter, we ask big questions: Is there a god? How can we discuss Jewish identity if nobody knows what it is? And what if Jesus had been a Borscht Belt comedian? Also, Red confronts Sarah about religion, and I recall being the only Jewish kid in school.

We begin with the story of how I found my identity in great American musicals. Then we return to the Pale of Settlement, follow my great grandmother across the ocean, and begin to explore the relationship between Judaism and Jewishness, as represented by her two daughters.

Great Books with the Same Title Dept.