Goodbye, Columbus is the title story and the only story long enough in the collection to be considered a novella. Although referred to in the title, Christopher Columbus doesn't have anything to do with the story. The plot follows Neil Klugman, who is a Jewish American. Working at the Public Library in Newark, he doesn't make much, but is still considered by his peers to be middle class. He has relationships with several people, but true love is stopped because he is Jewish and doesn't have much money.
Another story in the collection is titled The Conversion of the Jews, which, remarkably enough, also deals with the lives of Jewish people. Ozzie Freedman is the main character of the story, being a Jewish-American boy. He goes to a religious school, and one day asks his teacher if the Virgin Mary could have possibly been a virgin if she had a child. This angers the teacher, as well as Ozzie's mother, but both understand his reasoning.
Ozzie continues to question things, and the three - Ozzie, the teacher, and his mother, get into a fight. Ozzie slaps another one of the students, and runs to the roof of the synagogue they are at. He tells them all that he will jump off of the roof unless they profess their faith the the "better" Christian religion. He jumps, but is saved by a net that was there all along.
The remaining four stories also deal with the Jewish faith. For the most part, Roth is trying to say that there should be freedom of religion, and is remembering times and places where it was absent. After all, we are all human beings, and should be treated equally no matter of our beliefs.
