[1][2] The book distinguished itself by how it explained the meaning of the Yiddish words and phrases: almost every entry was illustrated by a joke.

Titled The New Joys of Yiddish, it was revised by Lawrence Bush, with copious footnotes added to clarify passages that had become outdated.

In 1998, Charles Schumer and Al D'Amato were running for the position of United States Senator representing New York.

Harlan Ellison's 1974 science fiction story "I'm Looking for Kadak" (collected in Ellison's 1976 book Approaching Oblivion and in Wandering Stars: An Anthology of Jewish Fantasy and Science Fiction) is narrated by an eleven-armed Jewish alien from the planet Zsouchmuhn with an extensive Yiddish vocabulary.

[5] Dave McKean and Neil Gaiman's 2005 fantasy film MirrorMask includes Rosten's classic riddle, discussed in The Joys of Yiddish as follows:[6] The first riddle I ever heard, one familiar to almost every Jewish child, was propounded to me by my father: "What is it that hangs on the wall, is green, wet -- and whistles?"

[citation needed] This book has a German translation published by Deutsche Taschenbuch Verlag, 11.