I composed a prayer I say everyday:

Praise be to our lord our god,creator of the universe, for the existence of truth.

Need guidance? Visit your local planetarium.

Judiaism was created 3300 years ago.

My religion allows you to disagree with the almighty yet to still be part of him.

but what about the great methodist actors?

I'm late to this, and I know it's not exactly an earth-shattering issue, but I feel I must defend Jerry Seinfeld.

Jerry Seinfeld the TV character was, indeed, self-absorbed. What hit home, and what made the show resonate, was that his self-absorbed character reflected many uncomfortable truths about all of us (though not so well as George Costanza). Seinfeld the show was a well-crafted comedy of errors that exposed many common, but often undiscussed, human foibles.

Jerry Seinfeld the real person is a mensch. He is a socially responsible father who married within the faith, and by all accounts, a very nice person.

Oh, woe is me. Let me live by Leviticus and pout in peace. Left behind, my white behind. And here I thought Cool Jew was a bad dance song from 1965. Get. Over. Yourselves.

It's good to know anti-semitism is alive and well, I suppose. I guess I should have read the comments before I posted the first time. Last time I checked Marchese was an Itialian name not (necessarily) a Jewish one, and who said he was Jewish? Everybody's jumped to the conclusion that if it's about jews it must come from a jew, since we secretly run the world, right? You people are retarded; there are several articles done frequently about up-and-coming black actors, or Colin Farrel's Irishness, or what Jackie Chan has done for the image of Chinese people, so why does the jewish version get such scrutiny? What if I protested at an article about the acumen that black actors bring to film? calling it "boring" or "bullschmitz" I'd be a racist, right? Similarly so is everyone else who disparages of people celebrating Judaism. Give it up. Here's the news: Racism is like, SOO, 20th century. Part of a multicultural approach to the world is celebrating distinct cultures like African-American, Irish, Chinese or Jewish. And for everyone who's confused, Judaism has the unique status of being a religion and an ethnicity. Anybody who has a Jewish mother is a jew, a fact that can never change regardless of what religion they assume. Just like an african-american will always be "black" regardless of whether they're Christian, Muslim, or Jewish. Eracism is the crie-de-guere of the 21st century, get with it or be Left Behind.

what about Goldberg? He's a badass, no-holds-barred, jew and one or the most popular wrestlers at the moment. I know the WWE isn't exactly the same brow as dispondant-zen-poet-laureate but it certainly passes for main-stream stardom. Especially considering (unlike cinema) wrestling is disproportionatly represented by a non-jewish audience. If Goldberg can pass as cool in middle-america, there's a bright future for kewl joos. An no one can claim there's a jewish conspiriacy behind the sucess of the WWE (at least I hope not).

How are you defining Jewish? By Jewish law Jason Schwartzman is not Jewish. His mother is Catholic.

forgot about Piven.

...the big debate is whether your article is worse than one written by Ayelet Waldman!!

I agree -- this article was badly written, self-indulgent, self-aggrandizing, and pointless. And frankly, if anyone who was Irish, or Italian, or German, or Catholic, etc. tried to publish similar tripe, it would never make it into Salon.

Get over yourself, indeed. And get over your obsession with your own ethnic group, too. Here's a hint: Everybody has one!!

You say you're Jewish, we say what else is newish, get used to it.

Someone wrote that in the near future discussion of Jewishness would draw blank stares from Americans of the future. From your mouth to God's ear, to use (i think) an old Jewish expression. Nothing would make this Jewboy happier.

The fact is that Asians and Hispanics are just as likely as anybody else to have half-baked opinions about Jews and Jewishness, pro or con, thanks to religion or ideology. In fact, I don't even bring up my ethnicity if I can avoid it, because if I do, I know I'll be treated to the other person's opinion about how fabulous/rich/greedy/aggressive/clannish/loud Jews are. Every one of these opinions I've ever heard has lessened my respect for the persons expressing them, especially the philosemites.

So a blank stare would be welcome, although unlikely, especially with the number of Jews like the authors of this article who get some kind of charge out of playing the Jew card.

wow, you wanna be cool and you're this homophobic? that might be a good trait to nip in the bud really really soon...definitely puts a damper on your hipness, boy. you might be able to hide it every so often to try to get a date, but any cool woman will see right thru you and run for her life.

"Racist"? Jews are not part of a distinct race the last time I checked, though an ex of mine, a Tribesman, wud've argued differently.

All you PC nuts worried about this piece need to wander over to Broadsheet and have your fragile little egos stroked and pandered to, and leave the rest of Salon to the rest of us. Nothing wrong with this piece at all. Geesh.

Sean Penn's father, Leo Penn, was Jewish. He certainly is in the same league as Hoffman and way, way ahead of James Caan. In fact, his situation is exactly the same as Ben Stiller's. The fathers of both Stiller and Penn were/are Jewish while the mothers are Irish and Catholic.

Thanks so much for that trenchant article on ‘Cool Jews’. This is a subject that I’ve lost considerable sleep over in the past few years (Ambien can help, but it doesn’t take away the pain!).

By the way, is David Marcheses’ job title ‘Editorial Fellow’ a euphemism for ‘Intern’? And is the editor that signs off on these articles in a coma or have a nagging substance abuse problem?

Just curious.