Mother and daughter behind viral Instagram ‘Crazy Jewish Mom’ talk love, sex and politics
Kate Siegel first had the idea of broadcasting her outrageous text conversations with her mother at a bachelorette party.
“I’ve been screenshotting these conversations since texting was a thing,” Siegel told Yahoo News and Finance Anchor Bianna Golodryga. “I started sharing them on my personal account, and it got such a positive response there that I decided to start Crazy Jewish Mom.”
She had no idea that the account would go viral: @CrazyJewishMom has nearly 1 million followers on Instagram. Siegel receives an average of 111 messages from her mother, Kim Friedman, every day and uses the account to chronicle their often heated and hysterical exchanges.
“When texting came out, it was like my dream come true, because if you yell at someone or you have an argument with them, which we do all the time, you can walk away, you can shut the door,” said Friedman. “I know she at least gets the text. … It’s the best form of communication ever.”
While at times her mother may seem “crazy,” Siegel believes the Instagram account is successful because of its honest portrayal of the relationship between a mother and daughter.
“This could be ‘Crazy Catholic Mom,’ ‘Crazy Asian Mom,’ ‘Crazy Insert Whatever Mom,’ and I think that’s the reason that it’s become so popular is because I think the things that she worries about and her concerns are super-relatable and just more broad than just a Jewish mother,” said Siegel. “I think anyone with a mom can probably relate on some level to our relationship and the things that we talk about.”
Though most of the text messages focus on Siegel’s search for a husband and the prospect of grandchildren, Friedman identifies as a “raging feminist.” She found issue with Gloria Steinem’s statements in February that young women flock to Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders to find young men.
“That is ridiculous and totally an unfeminist statement,” said Friedman. “However, I do think that a lot of young voters — and not just women, young men and young women — don’t know Hillary [Clinton] well enough, you know, to make the decision.”
In fact, one of the reasons Siegel decided to write “Mother, Can You Not?” a new book that shares the stories behind the texts, was to show how her mother’s No. 1 goal for her is to have a successful career.
“My mom gets misconstrued, I think, on the Instagram account as this sort of backward woman that sets women back a million years,” said Siegel. “I was excited to sort of give a little bit more context for that sort of thing in the book.”
The dynamic duo have not made any concrete plans as to what they will do next, but they do want to create an online advice portal and a podcast.
