Following up to the AP article on Richards hiring a PR crisis expert, I found two items interesting:
1. Richards called Rev Jesse Jackson to apologize. Jackson told reporters Richards needs counseling. Remember Jackson during his 1984 Presidential run called NYC "Hymietown", an anti-Semitic slur. Ironic, isn't it.
2. His new PR rep indicates Michael Richards is Jewish. Richards' Wikipedia entry had said he was raised Catholic. His middle name is Anthony, an Italian (Catholic), non-Jewish name. His mother's maiden name is Italian (Catholic).
I've always wondered if all four of the Seinfeld main character actors were Jewish, and it is clear that Jerry and Jason Alexander (nee Jay Greenspan) are, but it had never been clear with respect to Richards or Julia Louis-Dreyfus.
Julia Louis-Dreyfus definitely descends from French-Jewish roots on her father's side, but it is not clear regarding her mother, and when asked she has replied that she is not Jewish. My guess is her mother is not Jewish, her father is Jewish, and she doesn't identify herself as Jewish.
The AP article, and an article in the Chicago Defender (an African-American centric periodical) has Richards' new PR rep insisting he is in fact Jewish. The other article is at http://www.chicagodefender.com/page/local.cfm?ArticleID=7668.
My guess is his mother is Catholic, his father is Jewish, and he was raised with influences from both (or Catholic as the Wikipedia article suggests), but now as an independent adult (actually he has been one for a very long time, he is 57 years old), practices Judaism exclusively. So apparently now we know Richards is Jewish, apparently without a doubt.