Devorah Baum is the author of Feeling Jewish (a book for just about anyone) (Yale, 2017) and co-director of the documentary film The New Man (2016). She is Lecturer in English Literature and Critical Theory at the University of Southampton and also attached to the Parkes Institute for the Study of Jewish/non-Jewish Relations.
This book is funny, clever and, at times, heartbreaking. In other words, Jewish -- David Baddiel [Baum is] intellectually luminous, psychologically penetrating, existentially anxious, and wonderfully funny -- Zadie Smith A Jew and a non-Jew read Devorah Baum's The Jewish Joke. They both found it hilarious and thought-provoking. Because it is -- David Schneider Hers is the book to turn to if you're looking to amuse your friends and has something in common with the joke books we used to pass around as kids ... [Shows] the sorrow that is the dark underside of laughter - sorrow that belongs to everyone -- Erica Wagner * New Statesman * A breezy, accessible meditation on how [Jewish] humour works, and why it is so integral to Jewish identity... There is much for the scholar to enjoy in Baum's erudite but lightly sketched analysis of how humour helps us to deal with ageing, dislocation, impossible families and sexual confusion. Alternatively, you could just read it for the gags -- Matthew Reisz * Times Higher Education *