He is a bad looking Eurasian woman. 

To antisemites, he is proof of Jewish smartassery.

To some Jews, he is just plain offensive.

To other Jews, he is a bearer of home truths — but I wish he wouldn’t.

To me, he is all the above, but at least he’s got people talking about things other than football, and that can’t be bad.

I thought that had an amazing simultaneous mix of genuine sadness and hilarity.

You had the great sadness of  man trying to come to terms with the loss of his mother and the feeling that important aspects of life have passed him by, while at the same time the comedy derived from the absurd situation that this Japanese woman he had never met was standing in for his deceased Jewish mother, and playing the part with as much dignity as she could muster.

Henry Herzog, I await your disagreement

PS Love your work.

I don’t think it is a question of which group has more racism directed at it – I certainly was not arguing one way or the other. Rather, I was arguing that the racism directed against African-Americans is manifested quite differently to the racism directed against Jews etc.

Still, I am reminded of a quote by Herman “Hesh” Rabkin (a complex Jewish character from the Sopranos, who when accused of exploitation by an African-American adversary, remarked: “You’re talking to the wrong white man, my friend. My people were the white man’s nigger when yours were still painting their faces and chasing zebras.” (Discuss amongst yourselves!)

With regard to Safran, I haven’t heard or yet seen those incidents you refer to, so I cannot comment.