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Obituaries
January 28, 2010
J.D. Salinger, reknown author, dies at 91 - Was he Jewish?
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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.
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in “franny & zooey”, the first section (zooey)clearly illustrates that ‘zooey’ was born to an irish/catholic vaudvillian woman and a jewish man. his short story ‘down at the dinghy’ addresses the antisemitism toward his family when the servants discover they are even marginally ‘jewish.’ halachically, he was NOT jewish but has always been categorized as jewish.
- Comment by andrea simantov on 1/29/10 at 2:53 am
this article is asinine.
- Comment by aaron on 1/29/10 at 2:55 am
Who cares?
- Comment by john lvicek on 1/29/10 at 4:34 am
Enough to cause people to malign the fact.
- Comment by John on 1/29/10 at 6:40 pm
His mother was not jewish so he was not racially pure enough.
- Comment by Rabbi Ashkenasi on 1/30/10 at 1:31 am
Blog entry fail. Seriously? You’re using Salinger as the momentum to start yet another stupid discourse about something that in many respects tears members of our community apart. Ugh.
- Comment by amy on 1/30/10 at 3:09 am
To Andrea: If a servant insulted the boss’ nationality, he could expect to be an ex-servant in the near future. If Salinger’s parent’s put up with bigoted employees, then that one is on them.
- Comment by SB on 1/30/10 at 5:32 am
I second John Ivivek’s comment. Yes, what exactly is the point of this article? Is the author hinting that since Salinger’s mother was not Jewish, this means Salinger wasn’t either? And why is his Jewishness (or not) so important?
- Comment by Eowyn on 1/30/10 at 3:01 pm
Another reason to be a proud JEW!
And to the Jewish anti-semites, eat your heart out!!!!!!
- Comment by Jerry ram on 1/31/10 at 12:28 pm
So his mother was Irish, his (jewish) father a ham importer, he was bar mitzvahed, he didn’t marry jewish, he liked to go to church suppers in Cornish. In other words, he lived his life as most Americans with “a little bit of this, a little bit of that”.
- Comment by Henrik on 2/02/10 at 11:41 am
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