She is feared and desired. She is the symbol of a family's failure and a culture's dissolution. She is a courageous ally, a loyal fellow traveler, and a mother struggling for the survival of the same family and culture whose destruction she supposedly seeks. The gentile woman has been all these things and more to the Jewish people. Her almost mythic status has its roots in the dawn of Jewish history and repercussions that extend beyond our own time to shape the Jewish future. It also entails more baggage than any woman could possibly hope to carry. Shiksa: The Gentile Woman in the Jewish World, unpacks that baggage. Shiksa tells the stories of gentile women and women converts living in the Jewish community today, sharing insights from rabbis, Jewish feminists, educators and therapists. The book explores relationships between Jewish and gentile women, particularly Jewish mothers and their gentile daughters-in-law, as well as those between Jewish men and gentile women. And it looks at some of the fascinating Biblical figures whose stories startle with their relevance to today's most intimate issues of Jewish identity. At a time when the Jewish community is rife with concern over intermarriage, Shiksa offers a fearless examination of the gentile and converted women residing within its gates, occupying embattled yet permanent places as partners, daughters, sisters, mothers, friends.

Celebrated playwright and magnetic wit Wendy Wasserstein has been firmly rooted in New York’s cultural life since her childhood of Broadway matinees, but her appeal is universal. Shiksa Goddess collects thirty-five of her urbane, inspiring, and deeply empathic essays–all written when she was in her forties, and all infused with her trademark irreverent humor. The full range of Wasserstein’s mid-life obsessions are covered in this eclectic collection: everything from Chekhov, politics, and celebrity, to family, fashion, and real estate. Whether fretting over her figure, discovering her gentile roots, proclaiming her love for ordered-in breakfasts, lobbying for affordable theater, or writing tenderly about her very Jewish mother and her own daughter, born when she was forty-eight and single, Wasserstein reveals the full, dizzying life of a shiksa goddess with unabashed candor and inimitable style.

The definitive, hilarious guide to why Jewish men make the best dates, where to snag a hot mensch, and how to win his mother's heart After all, she's molded him into the cutest little Oedipus complex you've ever met. Could you show some appreciation? With humor and emotion, Kristina Grish celebrates the terrific intricacies of multilayered, interfaith relationships in this girl-meets-boy dating guide. She waxes poetic about why Jewish men are great boyfriend material: They're smart, entrepreneurial, generous, doting, and funny. They love to eat, and they're passionate in bed. Sure, their neuroses have neuroses. But isn't it nice to know there are guys out there who analyze relationships more than you do? Chapters such as "Why Choose the Chosen Ones?," "The First Shtup," and "Talk Yiddish to Me" detail how a sexy Shiksa can meet, date, and love a nice Jewish boy of her own.

Lights! Camera! Ultimatum! When movie studio publicity V.P. Alexis Manning's fiancé -- Jewish bartender/actor David a.k.a. Deke -- goes home with her for a holly jolly Christmas in Vermont with her family, there's a chill in the air and it ain't just the weather. Overwhelmed by the Christianity of it all, David confesses that he can't marry Alexis unless she converts to Judaism. Alexis might not know exactly what she wants to do with her life...but she knows she doesn't want to spend it pretending to be something she's not. Alexis believes in only one religion -- movies. So with her well-scripted romance on the cutting-room floor, she begins replaying favorite film scenes in her head and breaking down her own life into dramatic clips, searching for the right ending. If only she were Julia, or Demi, or Meryl, things would be different. Get me rewrite! Is Kirk, the hot new director of her latest project, meant to be Alexis's leading man? Or are she and David headed for a dramatic act-three reunion? And what of Andrew Sullivan -- the proverbial One That Got Away? Between film festival dramas, uncontrollable actors, egotistical directors, a heartbroken sister, an ailing, peculiar cat named Little (and her accompanying astronomical vet bills), and fantasies about simpler times back in New England, it's all Alexis can do to keep production on schedule. But surely there's a happily ever after for her -- and hopefully for Little, too -- before credits roll.

Confessions of a Jewish Shiksa is more than an autobiography or a memoir. It's a powerful confession... it is a trip worth taking“Compelled to tell her story and create shows from frantic chaotic moments in her life and relationships, Sheridan created a confes- sional piece that is pithy, involving, sassy and sometimes just a bit rude...a lively inspection of self, life, and the process involved in cultivating good feelings against all odds, shattering old paradigms and patterns of loss, grief, and negativity that inject the descendants of the Holocaust with a form of ongoing PTSD.”

Any nice Jewish girl who follows Ms. Avis advice can catch the Jewish stallion (or near-sighted miniature horse) of her dreams and have a (matzoh) ball doing it. This is a must read for Jewish single gals. Lori Uscher-Pines, PhD,, author of the Get Your Man to Marry You Plan Secrets of Shiksa Appeal is the sultry, no-holds barred guide to Jewish dating in a post-shtetl society. Ms. Avi, the ultimate yenta, will show her naughty tactics to attract your shul-mate before that chick with no knowledge of a kugel gets him first. This sassy guide reveals the secrets to: Dressing like the girl his mother never wanted him to date Piquing the interest of Jewish men in any setting Challenging him more than World of Warcraft Choosing the perfect shiksa gift Keeping him hooked after a good shtup Letting him think he controls the relationship, even though he doesnt Using her no-BS approach, Ms. Avi provides techniques you can use to coerce Jewish men to date within their kind. Discover the dirty secrets to what Jewish men really want...hell never crave Christmas ham again. .

Upset when her stand-up comedian boyfriend dumps her on Christmas, Jewish Manhattan publicist Aimee Albert seeks companionship with a nice Jewish man, and falls for Josh Hirsch, a gorgeous man who mistakes her for a shiksa and who has a different attitude toward Judaism than she does. Reprint.