Mamaleh Knows Best Cover

In a 2016 starred review, Publishers Weekly called Mamaleh Knows Best “an insightful and humorous guide to being a better parent…a comedy routine that’s full of chutzpah and pizzazz.” The review concluded, “Ingall’s engaging guide will help parents, Jewish and not, navigate the jagged terrain of child-rearing with a hearty dose of confidence and laughter.” The New York Times also loved the book, calling it “rich, insightful,” and noting, “If there’s one overarching lesson of the book, it’s that Jewish-style child rearing, at its best, is about raising a mensch — a person of true goodness and integrity — which is less of a discrete value than something like a master password that unlocks all the rest.” 

“Mar­jorie Ingall’s Mamaleh Knows Best: What Jew­ish Moth­ers do to Raise Suc­cess­ful, Cre­ative, Empa­thet­ic, Inde­pen­dent Chil­dren is a book of par­ent­ing advice that seam­less­ly com­bines crit­i­cism, con­tem­pla­tion, comedic mem­oir and research — includ­ing tid­bits from Hasidic teach­ings, obscure psy­cho­analy­sis, old proverbs, new sci­ence, Ger­man ety­mol­o­gy, and ped­a­gog­i­cal pol­i­cy (New York State class size caps are based on Tal­mu­dic rec­om­men­da­tions!) — writ­ten in an ener­gized, com­pelling voice. With wit, wis­dom, humor, and a tri­umphant use of par­en­thet­i­cal asides, Ingall fights her case: Jew­ish moth­ers have long been rais­ing ​moral kids who can thrive in a com­pli­cat­ed world,’ by hon­ing their spir­i­tu­al­i­ty, hon­esty, cre­ativ­i­ty and chutz­pah, and teach­ing them how to live among oth­ers while main­tain­ing a strong sense of self.” (The Jewish Book Council)

Where to buy: 

Penguin Random House

Amazon 

Barnes & Noble

Bookshop.org

Or check your local library!