Tuesday, July 27, 2004

Jewish Super Heroes

Eugene Volokh is pontificating on Jewish Superheroes.

But Spoons points out something more important:

I think you should be able to claim Spiderman. After all, it sounds like a Jewish name, doesn't it? Can you hear it? Federman, Goldman, Grossman, Leiberman, Friedman...

Wow -- how could I have missed that? Maybe that means that all the big -man superheroes are Jewish.

Sounds good to me, but how many Jewish kids do you think there are in Smallville, Kansas? ;)

UPDATE:  Eugene has updated and raises a really good point brought up by his readers.  Most superheroes are Gentiles, but most of their creators are Jews.  Practically the entire Marvel Universe was written by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, both Jews.  Similarly Superman and Batman's creators are Jewish.  Its actually surprising there aren't more Jewish superheroes.

Side Question:  Can Orthodox Jewish superheroes fight crime on Shabbat?  Or use their powers at all?  Would a Jewish Superman still have to walk to synagogue or could he fly?  Would their superhero weakness involve sacramental cleanliness? 

Some people may be wondering if I'm some kind of anti-semite at this point since "Jeff the Baptist" is certainly not Jewish.  Nope, my girlfriend is a Jew and I get along with Jews just fine.  I'll probably talk about Judaism a lot, but my view is as an outsider giving his opinion and I'm sure some of it will not be popular with the yarmulke set.  Eh not like anyone is reading this anyway.

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