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Mensch in Tights Superman is a Super Jew: Rabbi
New York Post ^ | June 19, 2006 | Andrea Peyser

Posted on 06/19/2006 9:26:54 AM PDT by presidio9

American icon - tall, built, brave. And hot. But now, as Superman is set to fly onto the big screen next week, bringing truth, justice and rippling muscles to a new generation of moviegoers, there comes word that the Man of Steel has a secret.

The man behind the red cape is a Yeshiva boy.

Superman - Jewish?

"Only a Jew would think of a name like Clark Kent," says Brooklyn Rabbi Simcha Weinstein.

"He's the bumbling, nebbish, Jewish stereotype. He's Woody Allen. Can't get the girl. Can't get the job - at the same time, he has this tremendous heritage he can't express."

Weinstein has just published "Up, Up, and Oy Vey!" (Leviathan Press), a work that concludes, with scholarly authority and voluminous footnotes, that beneath Supe's form-fitting tights, there lurks a circumcision.

In the book, and on his Web site, www.rabbisimcha.com, he outs the Jewish roots of other superheroes who conceal their true identities - an undoubtedly Jewish trait - such as Batman, the Hulk and Spider-Man.

Weinstein grew up in England as Simon, a boy who worshipped the pop-culture gods of Indiana Jones and James Bond.

After a career as a film-location scout, he married and moved to New York, where he learned that the history of his comic-book heroes and American Jews are intertwined.

"So I'm claiming Superman for the Jews," laughed the now-Chabad-Lubavitch rabbi of Pratt University.

Superman was dreamed up in the 1930s by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster of Cleveland, who wrote for the comics at a time when art and publishing outlets didn't want to hire people with Hebrew surnames.

The boys' influences are strictly Old Testament: Superman comics begin with Planet Krypton about to explode. Desperate to save his baby son, Superman's father, Jor-El ("El" is ancient Hebrew for "God"),

(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Israel; Miscellaneous; US: New York
KEYWORDS: comic; comicbook; comicbooks; comics; everybodyisjewish; pointlessstudy; popculture; superman
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1 posted on 06/19/2006 9:26:56 AM PDT by presidio9
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To: veronica

Yea, fat chance. Hey, do you know what the literal Yiddish translation of OY VAY means?


2 posted on 06/19/2006 9:30:04 AM PDT by Hildy ("Whenever someone smiles at me all I see is a chimpanzee begging for its life." - Dwight Schrute)
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To: presidio9

Keeping in mind that Superman's creators were Jewish, Mad Magazine many years ago did a really funny parody of Jewish Superman, including a very humorous anecdote of how tough his circumcison was, what with invulnerability and all.

The story went, what if Superman's Kryptonian rocket had landed near a nice Jewish couple's house in Cleveland?


3 posted on 06/19/2006 9:30:37 AM PDT by BaBaStooey (I heart Emma Caulfield.)
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To: presidio9

This will require an emergency reunion and production of "Seinfeld" episode!


4 posted on 06/19/2006 9:31:48 AM PDT by Jumpmaster (Teddy is all wet.)
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To: presidio9

Here we go again. Superman is fictional.


5 posted on 06/19/2006 9:31:49 AM PDT by mtbopfuyn (I think the border is kind of an artificial barrier - San Antonio councilwoman Patti Radle)
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To: presidio9
"Kryptonite, Shmyptonite, you couldn't pick up the phone and call your mother?"
6 posted on 06/19/2006 9:33:11 AM PDT by andy58-in-nh
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To: presidio9

Jor-El and Lara were Jewish? Oy! Who knew?


7 posted on 06/19/2006 9:34:24 AM PDT by cloud8
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To: BaBaStooey

In answer to the question...

He'd be a married doctor living in Beachwood or Shaker Heights.


8 posted on 06/19/2006 9:34:33 AM PDT by Bikers4Bush (Flood waters rising, heading for more conservative ground. Vote for true conservatives!)
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To: presidio9

Hitler said the same thing.


9 posted on 06/19/2006 9:34:44 AM PDT by Defiant (The new KKK--the Koo Kleft Klan.)
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To: Hildy

"Oh Woe"


10 posted on 06/19/2006 9:34:47 AM PDT by The Red Zone
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To: presidio9
For the big time superman freaks, DC actually has a lineage about the Kent family that goes back to the civil war right down to them helping runaway slaves and such.

Somebody at DC had way to much time to write up that family history like that.

and no, his family wasn't jewish.

It should also be noted, that Clark Kent isn't human, so he isn't going to have an ethnicity, period.

11 posted on 06/19/2006 9:35:08 AM PDT by Sonny M ("oderint dum metuant")
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To: presidio9
He's Woody Allen. Can't get the girl. Can't get the job

Wrong on all three counts.

Not Woody Allen in the slightest. He's Charles Atlas.
He can get all the girls he wants. He chooses not to. Note: this doesn't make him gay, either. He could get a Brian, if he wanted to. He choose not to do that either. Also, he's had girlfriends in the past, and has pined for more than the fjords.
Dude has a job. And he does it better than Peter Parker. For a while in the 70s and 80s, he has a network anchorman.

TS

12 posted on 06/19/2006 9:35:15 AM PDT by Tanniker Smith (I didn't know she was a liberal when I married her.)
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To: presidio9

Where's Supie's yarmulke, anyhow?


13 posted on 06/19/2006 9:36:02 AM PDT by The Red Zone
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To: presidio9

From SNL: What If Superman grew up in Germany


Joan Face: Good evening, I'm Joan Face. Welcome again to "What If?" Each week on the show, we ask a hypothetical question about a specific historical event. Tonight's question, like all our questions, comes from a Mr. Kevin O'Donnell, age 10, a paperboy from Alton, Illinois. Kevin asks, "What If Superman grew up in Germany, instead of America?" With us to help answer this question is our panel of experts: Brigadier General Kevin Temple, and Eileen Houton, Professor of Modern Histroy at Wellesly College, and owner of one of the largest comic book collections in the United States. Professor Houton, what if Superman grew up in Germany instead of America?

Eileen Houton: Well, Joan, as you know, Superman's father, Jor-El, sent the infant Superman from Krypton toward the planet Earth, where he landed in Kansas, sometime around 1930. Superman adopted the philospohies of his new parents, the Kents: truth, justice, and the American way. Now, if he had landed in, say, Prussia, he would have adopted entirely different values.

Joan Face: So, what you're saying is that the young Superman may well have become a Nazi?

Eileen Houton: Exactly!

Joan Face: Well, of course, we should remember that at the time Superman was reaching manhood, Germany was at war with the United States. General, what would have happened if the Man of Steel had fought for the Third Reich?

Kevin Temple: Wait a minute, why didn't Superman fight for us?

Joan Face: This is a hypothetical question, General.

Kevin Temple: Oh.. oh, yes.. I'm sorry.. Um..

Joan Face: Well, here's tonight's dramatization of: What if Superman had grown up in Germany instead of America?

[ dissolve into presentation ]

[ SUPER: Berlin, 1943 - The Chancellory Headquarters of the Third Reich ]

[ open on Hitler giving a speech ]

Hitler: The Russians are swine! Just one step above the Poles! Two steps above the Gypsies! Four steps above the Homosexuals! Five steps above the Negros! Nine steps above the Dwarves! Fifteen steps above the Gypsy Homosexuals! Twenty-seven steps above the Negro Gypsy Homosexual Dwarves! And forty-three steps above the Jews! Did I mention the Homosexual Jews? [ is assured he has ] Right! The meeting is over!

Generals: Heil, Hitler!

[ the Generals rise from their chairs and exit the Chancellory Headquarters.. except for one General who pauses to leave a ticking briefcase on the counter ]

Hitler: [ presses intercom ] Frau Guston, who is waiting to see me?

Voice on Intercom: Colonel Klink, and those three reporters from the Daily Planet.

Hitler: Send in the reporters!

[ the reporters are shown in ]

Reporters: Heil, Hitler!

Hitler: Well, I wish to praise your propaganda work in the newspaper! [ points to Lois ] Your must be..?

Lois Laneoff: Lois Laneoff, Mein Fuhrer. Und this is Jimmy Olstein.

Hitler: Olstein?!

Jimmy Olstein: E-Y-N, Mein Fuhrer! Dutch ancestors on my father's side!

Lois Laneoff: Und this is Klaus Kent.

Hitler: Klaus Kent! Aren't you the man who beat Jesse Owens in '36?

Klaus Kent: Ya.

Lois Laneoff: You, Klaus? You're such a clumsy bumbler.

Klaus Kent: Yes, Lois. But I was younger then.. now, I'm just a mild-mannered clerk for the Ministry of Propaganda. [ Klaus turns and notices the ticking briefcase sitting on the counter - he uses his X-ray vision to discover a bomb inside ] Excuse me, Mein Fuhrer? Is that a janitor's closet?

Hitler: Ya.

Klaus Kent: Excuse me for a moment. [ Klaus ducks inot to janitor's closet, where he removes a piece of kryptonite and summons Jor-El ]

Jor-El: [ appearing ] My Son. My Son. I am your father, Jor-El. Your mother and I have sent you to Earth the only survivor of Krypton. As you hear this, I will have been dead many centuries, but I will reborn as Charlie Rich. On the planet Earth you have special powers and knowledge, which will separate you from mankind. Use these powers only for good, and above all you must never tamper with the destiny of man. And don't eat junk food. [ disappears ]

[ Klaus uses the kryptonite to summon his Earth father, Mr. Kent ]

Mr. Kent: My Son. When your Vearth mother und I found you in the Black Forest, we raised you as our own. We taught you how to battle at Versailles. How Jews are parasites. And how Germany vill one day bring order to the vorld. Und don't, Son, ever lift those Volkswagens by the bumper - come right off in your hand. [ disappears ]

Klaus Kent: Ya! He's right! I will use my powers for the fatherland. For I am.. [ strips off his Earth clothes to reveal his supercostume ] ..Uberman!

[ "Superman Theme" plays, as Uber-Man crashes through the janitor's closet ]

Hitler: Wha..?

Uberman: Excuse me, Mein Fuhrer! Stand back! There's a bomb in this briefcase! [ thorws bomb to the floor, then dives on top of it. The bomb explodes, smoke rises, and Uberman stands up unharmed. ]

Hitler: You smothered the bomb with your body, and you're not even bleeding! Who are you?

Uberman: I am.. Uberman! I have superhuman powers, and I fight for untruth, injustice, and the Nazi way! And I have X-ray vision!

Lois Laneoff: X-ray vision? Can you see through my clothes?

Uberman: Ya! And through his, too. [ points at Jimmy Olstein ] He's a Jew!

Jimmy Olstein: No! No, it's not true! My parents were just very advanced in hygeine, that's all..!

Hitler: Silence! Guard, take this Jew away!

Uberman: No need! I'll drop him off at the camp on my vay to the Eastern front!

[ Uberman grabs Jimmy Olstein and flies out the window ]

Hitler: What an amazing stroke of luck. We might win this whole war!

[ cut to footage of troops marching - newspaper headline reads: "Uberman Takes Stalingrad in 5 Minutes"; second headline reads: "Uberman Rounds Up 2 Million Jews"; third headline reads: "Uberman Kills Every Person in England, U.S. Next" ]

[ dissolve back to the "What If?" studio ]

Joan Face: Well, that looked pretty grim. I guess we would have lost the war.

Kevin Temple: Not necessarliy, Joan. As you know, Joan.. Superman, or Uberman, is vulnerable to one thing: kryptonite. The U.S. would have put all its energy into creating a kryptonite bomb in time to stop Uberman.

Eileen Houton: And after the war, with the entire British isles wiped out, it may well have become the Jewish homeland, and Israel would be in England today.

Joan Face: Ah. Well, thank you very much, General Temple, Professor Houton. Join us next week when we pose the question: "What if all women had snouzer faces?"


14 posted on 06/19/2006 9:36:43 AM PDT by dfwgator (Florida Gators - 2006 NCAA Men's Basketball Champions)
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To: Hildy

Oy Vay means "woe is me", "oh no" or "Ouch"


15 posted on 06/19/2006 9:36:59 AM PDT by Military family member (GO Colts!!)
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To: BaBaStooey; presidio9
The story went, what if Superman's Kryptonian rocket had landed near a nice Jewish couple's house in Cleveland?

Then he'd be wearing a yarmulke with a big red "S" on it...

16 posted on 06/19/2006 9:37:14 AM PDT by tarheelswamprat
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To: The Red Zone

The whole premise of Superman is Christianity based. Sending his only son to save the world....


17 posted on 06/19/2006 9:37:32 AM PDT by Blue Turtle
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To: presidio9
("El" is ancient Hebrew for "God"),

"El" is the 12th letter of the alphabet. (And, originally, it was Jor-L.)
And it's a train that travels above ground (Hence, the flying ability?)
"El" is also the last two letter of "Seigel", as in "Seigel & Schuster".

18 posted on 06/19/2006 9:38:06 AM PDT by Tanniker Smith (I didn't know she was a liberal when I married her.)
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To: Sonny M
It should also be noted, that Clark Kent isn't human, so he isn't going to have an ethnicity, period.

Unless... when Elijah went up in a whirlwind, G-d redeposited him on Krypton?

19 posted on 06/19/2006 9:38:33 AM PDT by The Red Zone
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To: presidio9

20 posted on 06/19/2006 9:38:41 AM PDT by finnman69 (cum puella incedit minore medio corpore sub quo manifestu s globus, inflammare animos)
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