There are plenty of paradigms in the history of humor for how Jews and non-Jews get along, or don't: as persecutors and victims, as saviors and saved, as allies against a common oppressor.
All these are fraught with the tensions between the powerful and the disempowered, which makes sense: Fear drives humor.
But there is a uniquely American paradigm, one devoid of fear, instead celebrating the Jew as an inextricable part of the national fabric.
Its best exemplar was Mary Tyler Moore, who died Wednesday at 80.
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