Jewish dopers: "A Jew" vs "Jewish"

[Johanna]

The American Heritage Dictionary (4th ed., 2000) has a helpful Usage Note:

It is widely recognized that the attributive use of the word Jew, in phrases such as Jew lawyer or Jew ethics, is both vulgar and highly offensive. In such contexts Jewish is the only acceptable possibility. Some people, however, have become so wary of this construction that they have extended the stigma to any use of Jew as a noun, a practice that carries risks of its own. In a sentence such as There are several Jews on the council, which is unobjectionable, the substitution of a circumlocution like Jewish people or persons of Jewish background may in itself cause offense for seeming to imply that Jew has a negative connotation when used as a noun.

[Really_Not_All_That_Bright]

I was once harangued at length by a surgeon (in the course and scope of my employment, not during a doctor visit or anything), who told me he would stick his “badass Jew lawyer brother” on me.

His brother is both Jewish and a lawyer, and was once disbarred in Florida. I wasn’t sure what he meant to accomplish by mentioning that he was Jewish.