We often see abnormalities in our website's statistics. A previously unpopular profile will somehow rise to the top of the queries. Has the person been in the news? Are they the subject of some random Reddit thread...?

Who are we kidding. Almost always, it's because the person just died. Nothing inspires questions of Jewish identity more than an obituary.

So, this past weekend, why was Victor David Brenner suddenly so popular? After all, the designer of the Lincoln penny had been dead for 90 years!

Ah! Namesake David Brenner passed away.

Yes, the droves of Brenner-philes who came to our website to find out the potential Jewishness of newly deceased comedian David Brenner, were met with a profile of the man responsible for the design of the US penny... no relation.

So, in case the obituary traffic is still trickling in, let's make it clear: comedian David Brenner, one of pioneers of observational comedy, was a Jew. So was Victor David Brenner... not that you care about that.