Edith Wharton

Born Edith Newbold Jones into an old money New York family, Edith Wharton was as WASPy as a Sunday brunch. Her lineage was decidedly Protestant, tracing back to the Dutch and English elite who founded the city. She famously chronicled the decline of this very society, a world where the only 'Jewish question' was whether the Guggenheim's new money could ever truly integrate with the old guard.

Wharton's literary output, however, was anything but old-fashioned. With a sharp eye for social hypocrisy and a pen dipped in acid, she crafted masterpieces like The Age of Innocence and Ethan Frome. She was the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, an achievement that brought immense kvel to... well, probably not us, but certainly to the literary world.

While her characters often wrestled with moral dilemmas and societal constraints, none of them seemed to be grappling with whether or not to attend Yom Kippur services. Her world was one of Newport mansions and European salons, not Lower East Side synagogues. So, despite her keen intellect and impressive literary legacy, she remains firmly in the 'Not a Jew' camp.