Raise a Glass to Freedom
3 min read
And three other Marvel Universe characters you didn’t know are Jewish.
Blue blazes! In addition to Magneto, Quicksilver, Wanda Maximoff and the Thing, here are four characters from the Marvel universe you probably didn’t know are Jewish!
Marc Spector, AKA Moon Knight, wasn't originally created as a Jewish character. When writers realized his name seemed Jewish, they gave him a Jewish backstory as the son of Rabbi Elias Spector, who fled Czechoslovakia when the Nazis came to power. Moon Knight’s father was a Talmudic prodigy before he was fifteen, became an ordained rabbi at eighteen, and became a brilliant scholar in Kabbalah, Jewish mysticism.
On his way to see his dying father, Moon Knight rescues a rabbi struggling to save the Torah of a synagogue on fire. He goes after the neo-Nazis responsible and describes the epic Jewish struggle: “I belong with the decent and innocent folk who can’t find a moment’s peace, not in the streets, not in their own homes so long as punks like you terrorize them. I belong with the persecuted.” You can’t get more Jewish than that! (In Moon Knight #37 (1984))
Curious to see how the new mini-series Moon Knight, starring Oscar Isaacs, treats his Jewish backstory.
In the X-Men, Kitty Pryde’s mutant ability allows her to phase through solid objects. She joins the X-Men team and eventually becomes its leader.
According to her origin story, Kitty’s paternal grandfather, Samuel Prydeman, was a European Jew who was held in a Nazi concentration camp. Throughout the series, Kitty shows pride in being Jewish. In one captivating episode, she defeats a vampire -- and instead of using a cross she vanquishes the vampire withher silver Magen David pendant.
Kitty visits the National Holocaust Memorial in Washington, DC, where she speaks in honor of her grandparents, and lights a yahrzeit candle in memory of her fellow mutant and sometime boyfriend, Colossus.
True to the spirit of the X-Men, Kitty Pryde's story challenges readers to empathize with misunderstood minorities in a world filled with hatred and bigotry.
Because of his long hair Leonard Skivorski, Jr. was given the Biblical nickname "Samson" by his wife. The nerdy Doctor Samson empowers himself through a controlled dose of radiation and becomes Doc Samson, a massively muscled, green-haired superhuman with gamma-boosted strength, sporting long hair like his biblical namesake. Cutting Doc Samson's hair saps his power, too.
Samson's Jewish roots are confirmed in issue #373 when he admits he went to yeshiva and is intimidated by “a very strict rabbi.”
Meet "Sabra, super heroine of the state of Israel." This Hulk side character is a feisty Israeli policewoman with a secret. Sabra's costume is blue and white, and emblazoned with a Star of David, like the Israeli flag.
Turns out Sabra was raised on a special government-run kibbutz, served in the Mossad, and lost a young son named Jacob in an Arab terrorist attack on an Israeli school bus.
Sabra's full name Ruth Bat-Seraph alludes Ruth, the young Moabite woman who became the maternal descendant of King David and the messianic dynasty.
"Sabra" is the word used to describe a Jew born in Israel. A sabra is a cactus that is rough to the touch, but has a sweet interior. On the outside Israelis may at times seem "prickly,” but inside, they’re kind and sweet.
Jewish super heroes seem to be everywhere. What inner super power do you have that’s waiting to be revealed?
