Although it initially received poor reviews—with the notable exception of The New York Times, which reviewed it favorably[1]—the Broadway play was a commercial hit, running for 2,327 performances between May 23, 1922, and October 1, 1927.

At the time, this was the longest run in Broadway theater history, surpassing the record 1,291 performances set by the Winchell Smith and Frank Bacon 1918 play, Lightnin'.

However, in Nichols v. Universal Pictures Corp.,[5] the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit found for the defendant, holding that copyright protection cannot be extended to the characteristics of stock characters in a story, whether it be a book, play or film.

[7] Others in the radio cast include: Charme Allen (as Mrs. Mueller),[8] Richard Gordon, Roger DeKoven and Martin Wolfson (Rabbi Samuels, aka Dr. Samuels),[9][10][11][12] Walter Kinsella (Patrick Murphy), Menasha Skulnik (Isaac Cohen), Anna Appel (Mrs. Cohen), Ann Thomas (Casey), Bill Adams (Father Whelan), Amanda Randolph (maid) and Dolores Gillenas (the Levys' twins).

and finally "Hebrews 13:8," a Biblical passage that reads, “Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and today, and forever.”[13] He also held a contest for an outsider to contribute the capsule review, which Harpo Marx won with "No worse than a bad cold.

"[14][15] In a generally favorable review, the New York Times noted the positive audience response, and closed with: “Personally, we hope to be present at little Rebecca Rachel and Patrick Joseph Levy's second birthday, if not their Hudson-Fulton centennial.”[16] Writing in The New Yorker about the 1937 revival, Wolcott Gibbs said that "it had, in fact, the rather eerie quality of a repeated nightmare; the one, perhaps, in which I always find myself in an old well, thick with bats, and can't get out."

The Anti-Defamation League protested the use of Jewish stereotypes in the 1946 film version, claiming it "will reinforce, if it does not actually create, greater doubt and keener misconceptions, as well as outright prejudice.

The show was attacked by a broad range of Jewish groups for allegedly promoting inter-faith marriage,[20] and it was cancelled at the end of its first season, despite being the fifth-highest-rated series of the 1972–1973 year on USA broadcast television.

[21] Two decades later, with social attitudes changing in the U.S., CBS ran another television series, Brooklyn Bridge (1991–1993), the quasi-autobiographical childhood memoir of its Jewish creator, Gary David Goldberg.

Goldberg previously created another quasi-autobiographical television series, Family Ties, inspired by his adult life, in which the female lead, the alter-ego of his real-life Irish Catholic partner, is portrayed by Meredith Baxter, the actress who starred in the ill-fated Bridget Loves Bernie.