I am Jewish, and have so far been fortunate enough not to have close encounters with anti-Semitism. My mother has had problems similar to FLC's, though. Her co-workers often make comments like "but you don't look Jewish!" and at least one of them once asked her if they could ask my dad for financial advice because, you know, we're supposed to be so good with money. (FYI, they were asking to talk to the wrong person: Mom handles most of our insurance, investments and savings.)

Since the subject has come up, I wanted to ask for advice on how to deal with a situation like that, because I'm pretty sure I'm going to encounter it in the future. I don't think Mom's co-workers are really being anti-Semitic or hostile - they are just being kind of insensitive, and not realizing that their comments are inappropriate and based on stereotypes. What's a good way to get people who make these comments to realize that it's not an okay thing to do?

Oh, yes. There's another wrinkle in this situation: a lot of mom's co-workers are African-American, and if mom made the same kind of offhand comments about black people that they make about Jewish people, she'd be in hot water in an instant. She's also worried that if she makes even a polite objection to some of the comments her co-workers make, she'll get a similar reaction. Has anyone else here successfully dealt with this kind of situation?