is David Letterman Jewish?

[Colophon]

As this is a zombie thread long past its Stumble-Haphazardly-In-Search-Of-Brains-By date, could someone explain to a Brit what the big deal is about being Jewish in America?

I notice that if you type in the name of just about any big TV or movie star into Google, one of the first things on the autocomplete list, just under “gay”, is “jewish”, so I assume lots of people are typing in “is so-and-so jewish?” Why?

[Leo_Bloom]

@Colophon

As this is a zombie thread long past its Stumble-Haphazardly-In-Search-Of-Brains-By date, could someone explain to a Brit what the big deal is about being Jewish in America?

I notice that if you type in the name of just about any big TV or movie star into Google, one of the first things on the autocomplete list, just under “gay”, is “jewish”, so I assume lots of people are typing in “is so-and-so jewish?” Why?

Why do you ask?

[DSeid]

@Colophon

As this is a zombie thread long past its Stumble-Haphazardly-In-Search-Of-Brains-By date, could someone explain to a Brit what the big deal is about being Jewish in America?

I notice that if you type in the name of just about any big TV or movie star into Google, one of the first things on the autocomplete list, just under “gay”, is “jewish”, so I assume lots of people are typing in “is so-and-so jewish?” Why?

When I read your question I immediately thought of this recent op-ed. I am not sure if it informs.

IN his novel “Deception,” Philip Roth has the American protagonist say to his British mistress: “In England, whenever I’m in a public place, a restaurant, a party, the theater, and someone happens to mention the word ‘Jew,’ I notice that the voice always drops just a little.”

She challenges him on this observation, prompting the American, a middle-aged writer, to say, yes, that’s how “you all say ‘Jew.’ Jews included.”

This prompted a memory: sitting with my mother in an Italian restaurant in the upscale London neighborhood of St. John’s Wood circa 1970 and asking her, after she had pointed to a family in the opposite corner and said they were Jewish, why her voice dropped to a whisper when she said the J word.

“I’m not whispering,” Mom said and went on cutting up her spaghetti so it would fit snugly on a fork.

But she was — in that subliminal, awkward, half-apologetic way of many English Jews. …

… When Roth’s hero returns to New York, he finds he’s been missing something. His lover, now distant, asks what.

“Jews.”

“We’ve got some of them in England, you know.”

“Jews with force, I’m talking about. Jews with appetite. Jews without shame.”

In any case, Americans tend to be a nations of hyphens and we are often curious about who is part of what hyphen, especially when it may be surprising. I think that most ethnic groups are interested in knowing how members of their group are doing, and want to do their own version of kvelling or shaking our heads. With an Indian or a Chinese American celebrity one less often has to ask. Winehouse was Jewish? Shatner? And so on. Letterman though … no.