# Any cites proving Superman isn't jewish? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 1, 2014, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-cites-proving-superman-isnt-jewish/694593 "2014-08-01T18:23:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![dstarfire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dstarfire/32/5762_2.png) [@dstarfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dstarfire)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2014, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-cites-proving-superman-isnt-jewish/694593/1 "2014-08-01T18:23:21Z")
Supposedly, back in WWII, Hitler called Superman a jew. While this is an obvious load of BS can anybody give me a cite (from before Hitler’s comment, obviously) proving Superman is NOT Jewish? ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2014, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-cites-proving-superman-isnt-jewish/694593/2 "2014-08-01T18:24:53Z")
Would it be hard to perform a circumcision on the man of steel? ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2014, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-cites-proving-superman-isnt-jewish/694593/3 "2014-08-01T18:26:09Z")
Who says he wasn’t? We know at least that he identified as “[strictly non-Aryan](http://helterskelter.in/wp-content/uploads/supermanstalin.jpg).” 😃 ---
**Author:** ![DrCube](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a3d4f5/32.png) [@DrCube](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrCube)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2014, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-cites-proving-superman-isnt-jewish/694593/4 "2014-08-01T18:35:10Z")
Well [his](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerry_Siegel) [creators](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Shuster) were both Jewish. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2014, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-cites-proving-superman-isnt-jewish/694593/5 "2014-08-01T18:37:19Z")
He’d have to be a convert, because he’s definitely not a ben Avraham. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2014, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-cites-proving-superman-isnt-jewish/694593/6 "2014-08-01T18:38:50Z")
Anybody raised by Ma and Pa Kent in Smallville USA is not Jewish. ---
**Author:** ![lawoot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/35a633/32.png) [@lawoot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lawoot)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2014, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-cites-proving-superman-isnt-jewish/694593/7 "2014-08-01T18:44:58Z")
> [@Procrustus](#): > > Would it be hard to perform a circumcision on the man of steel? Depends - If he had his bris before leaving Krypton. Jor-El may have been a ‘Moh-El’. > [@RivkahChaya](#): > > He’d have to be a convert, because he’s definitely not a ben Avraham. How do we know Krypton isn’t one of the Lost Tribes? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2014, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-cites-proving-superman-isnt-jewish/694593/8 "2014-08-01T18:46:54Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Anybody raised by Ma and Pa Kent in Smallville USA is not Jewish. Dunno about that. The Kent family name was taken from actor Kent Taylor, whose birth name was Louis Weiss. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2014, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-cites-proving-superman-isnt-jewish/694593/9 "2014-08-01T18:50:24Z")
> [@lawoot](#): > > How do we know Krypton isn’t one of the Lost Tribes? 🙂 Makes sense. So are the Vulcans. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Antinor01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecae2f/32.png) [@Antinor01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antinor01)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2014, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-cites-proving-superman-isnt-jewish/694593/10 "2014-08-01T18:51:23Z")
Superman would be a Raoist most likely. [Raoism | Superman Wiki | Fandom](http://superman.wikia.com/wiki/Raoism) ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2014, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-cites-proving-superman-isnt-jewish/694593/11 "2014-08-01T18:57:47Z")
> [@Procrustus](#): > > Would it be hard to perform a circumcision on the man of steel? That was my first thought, but will kryptonite take an edge? ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2014, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-cites-proving-superman-isnt-jewish/694593/12 "2014-08-01T18:58:20Z")
As a person from another planet, in an age where the human race can’t feasibly travel the stars, it’s a reasonably safe assumption that he is not ethnically Jewish at any rate. ---
**Author:** ![Blaster\_Master](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/cab0a1/32.png) [@Blaster\_Master](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blaster_Master)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2014, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-cites-proving-superman-isnt-jewish/694593/13 "2014-08-01T19:01:28Z")
As was pointed out upthread, his creators are Jewish, and they very deliberately included a lot of Messianic prophecy and imagery into the character. Hell, his origin story is basically a copy/paste of Moses’s. I’d say that if Hitler called him a Jew in the comics, he’d clearly be incorrect, as it’s a given that he’s Kryptonian in the comics. If he said that historically, I think that would actually be reasonably accurate; he’s pretty much the embodiment, or at least his creator’s perspective of, Jewish ideals. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2014, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-cites-proving-superman-isnt-jewish/694593/14 "2014-08-01T19:02:20Z")
> [@Sage\_Rat](#): > > As a person from another planet, in an age where the human race can’t feasibly travel the stars, it’s a reasonably safe assumption that he is not ethnically Jewish at any rate. You think the ancient astronauts that build the pyramids came here on a bus? They call them “Ancient Astronauts”, not “Ancient Commuters”. ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2014, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-cites-proving-superman-isnt-jewish/694593/15 "2014-08-01T19:07:35Z")
As a countercite, I offer a scene in the classic Superman II. While visiting Niagara Falls with Lois Lane, Clark sees a boy fall over a railing to his doom. Superman rescues the boy in front of a crowd of cheering onlookers. Amongst the cheers, you can hear a lady clearly say, “Of COURSE he’s Jewish!” We had this movie on video tape when I was young. We watched it FAR too often. I can quote more of it than is healthy. ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2014, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-cites-proving-superman-isnt-jewish/694593/16 "2014-08-01T19:09:40Z")
Wait - it isn’t accepted that Superman IS Jewish? Dude named Kal-El, a Hebrew name, abandoned like Moses, but ultimately the hope of his people? I thought that was just a given at this point. His story is a two-dimensional, fabulist rendering of an immigrant’s story to America. ---
**Author:** ![Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/prof.pepperwinkle/32/13627_2.png) [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prof.Pepperwinkle)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2014, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-cites-proving-superman-isnt-jewish/694593/17 "2014-08-01T19:30:23Z")
He’s a [Methodist.](http://www.adherents.com/lit/comics/Superman.html) ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2014, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-cites-proving-superman-isnt-jewish/694593/18 "2014-08-01T19:53:46Z")
> [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](#): > > He’s a [Methodist.](http://www.adherents.com/lit/comics/Superman.html) Yeah, that article gets it right. No matter how Jewish Siegel and Shuster were, no matter how many hints and allusions they dropped, no matter that he was a symbol of the immigrant and assimilation, the fact was that no comics character in the 1930s could be introduced as Jewish. Especially one who was soon made into a symbol of American values. Ma and Pa Kent probably still believed that Jews had horns in 1938, just like all their neighbors in Smallville. Superman is not Jewish. He’s American. And this is a Christian country. Still. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2014, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-cites-proving-superman-isnt-jewish/694593/19 "2014-08-01T20:06:13Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > And this is a Christian country. Nope, separation of Church and State. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2014, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-cites-proving-superman-isnt-jewish/694593/20 "2014-08-01T20:12:15Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > You think the ancient astronauts that build the pyramids came here on a bus? > They call them “Ancient Astronauts”, not “Ancient Commuters”. So Superman is ethnic Egyptian? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-cites-proving-superman-isnt-jewish/694593.md?page=2)