Was JDSalinger Jewish or A "Jew"?

Here's and excerpt from the New York Times' obituary on JD Salinger:

Jerome David Salinger was born in Manhattan on New Year’s Day, 1919, the second of two children. His sister, Doris, who died in 2001, was for many years a buyer in the dress department at Bloomingdale’s. Like the Glasses, the Salinger children were the product of a mixed marriage. Their father, Sol, was a Jew, the son of a rabbi, but sufficiently assimilated that he made his living importing both cheese and ham.

As it is fairly rare to see someone described as a Jew, unless as in a quotation, in the NYT, one wonders why that wasn't written as "Jewish", the more usual term.