J.D. Salinger, reknown author, dies at 91 - Was he Jewish?

Author J.D. Salinger died at 91.  He was best known for writing, “The Catcher in the Rye.”

According to the Associated Press:

Salinger died of natural causes at his home on Wednesday, the author’s son said in a statement from Salinger’s literary representative. He had lived for decades in self-imposed isolation in the small, remote house in Cornish, N.H.

But was Salinger Jewish? 

Jewish Virtual Library explains his complicated Jewish background:

J.D. (Jerome David) Salinger was born on January 1, 1919, in Manhattan, New York. He was born to a Jewish father and an Irish Catholic mother. His mother changed her name to Miriam and passed as Jewish when she married; J.D. did not find out that his mother was not Jewish until just after his bar mitzvah.