Six Problems with the Idea that Superman is Jewish—plus the First Openly Jewish Comic Book Heroes and the 1939 superhero who almost certainly was Jewish
There’s an argument that Superman is Jewish. Its supporters make these points:
- Superman’s creators, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, were Jewish.
- Superman’s Kryptonian name is Kal-El, which sounds something like “Kol-El”, which would mean “Voice of God” in Hebrew.
- Kal-El’s parents sent him away as a baby in a small rocket in the hope he would be raised by strangers. Moses’ mother sent him away as a baby in a basket in the hope he would be raised by strangers.
- Kal-El was sent away from the destruction of his planet. In the mid-1930s when Superman was created, some Jews were sending their children out of Nazi Germany.
- Kal-El passes as an American by taking on a new name, Clark Kent. Some Jews changed their names when they came to the America.
But there are problems with every point:
First, Siegel and Shuster were not religious. Even if they had been, a basic principle applies: the art is not the artist. Fu Manchu and Shang-Chi were created by Christians, but that doesn’t make them Christian. Siegel and Shuster were science fiction fans who believed humanity would someday outgrow tribalism.
Second, Superman’s parents did not have names when the comic began in 1938, as you can see in the first panel of the first Superman story:
A year later, when the Superman newspaper strip began, Siegel and Shuster expanded that panel to create the first version of Superman’s backstory: On a planet named Krypton, Jor-L and Lora have a child, Kal-L.
Since Hebrew does not have a J, “Jor” is meaningless. There is a Hebrew word “Kal”—it means “easy” or “light” and is used colloquially as “yes”. If Siegel and Shuster wanted Superman’s name to mean “Voice of God”, they would’ve named him Kol-El. Since they did not, it’s far more likely that Jor-L and Kal-L are just the generic science-fiction names they sound like.
In 1942, Jor-L and Lora became Jor-el (lower-cased) and Lara in George Lowther’s novel, The Adventures of Superman. I haven’t found Lowther’s religion, but since his last name is Irish, it’s unlikely he was Jewish.
Third, Kal-El makes a lousy Moses figure. A Moses figure leads his people out of hard circumstances to a promised land, then dies within sight of it. That’s not Superman. If you look at the specific details of their stories, the comparison gets worse. Moses is the ordinary child of an enslaved people who is found and adopted by a princess who raises him as a member of the ruling class. He then turns his back on his privilege and leads his people to a new and better land. Kal-El is a superhuman who comes from the heavens, is adopted by common people and raised as a member of the middle class, then becomes humanity’s protector. He’s far more like Jesus than Moses—but it would also be wrong to call him a Jesus figure because he does not sacrifice himself to save others. Superman is a larger-than-life folk hero who, unlike Moses and Jesus, keeps his true identity a secret. He’s a champion, not a savior.
Fourth, the basic Superman story was developed in the mid-thirties, before Nazi persecution became extreme. Krypton in its first version is “destroyed by old age”, which Siegel and Shuster decided meant it was torn apart naturally by earthquakes. There’s no element of hatred or persecution in their story. If they had meant to make a parallel story about Nazis and Jews, Krypton would’ve been destroyed by aliens who hated Kryptonians.
Fifth, Superman did not change his birth name to Clark Kent to become part of a new community. He never learned his Kryptonian name until he was an adult, and because he was adopted as a baby, he never felt like a refugee. He just felt like someone who learns he was adopted. Some comics fans insist Superman’s “real” identity is Kal-El, but I think his real identity is Clark. That’s who his loving parents raised him to be. That was the only name he knew until he took on a second identity as Superman, which is more like a job title than a name.
Further, adopting a new name in a new country is a common experience. Some people do it cynically thinking they’ll do better if they hide their origins. Others do it optimistically to feel more like a member of their new tribe. Some Irish immigrants shortened their names, so an O’Reilly became a Reilly and a MacMurphy became a Murphy. Some Italian immigrants changed their first names, so a Guido became a John and a Maria became a Mary. Name-changing was an immigrant’s experience, not a Jewish experience, so Superman represented every immigrant who left an old world for a new one.
But if Superman is not the first Jewish hero in comic books, who is?
Like many questions, that has several answers. Though many comic book creators were Jewish, the comic book industry did not have any explicitly Jewish heroes for decades. But there were characters who might’ve been Jewish. Of particular note, one of the first comic book superheroes, a descendant of Samson who used that name to fight for the US while wearing as little clothing as he could.
Note that Sam’s mother tells him about his ancestor. That suggests he has a matrilineal connection to the first Samson, and since the son of a Jewish mother is Jewish, Sam is a contender for the first Jewish superhero.
The first unambiguously Jewish hero in comic books was not a superhero. In 1963, Jack Kirby and Stan Lee made master mechanic Izzy Cohen a founding member of Sgt. Fury’s Howling Commandos. As this cover shows, they sometimes gave him a chance to shine:
DC has the honor of creating the first Jewish superhero, the Seraph, though they rarely used him. In 1977, he appeared in Super Friends #7.
In 1980, Marvel debuted its first openly Jewish superhero in X-Men #129. Kitty Pryde joined the team ten issues later.
Since then, new Jewish superheroes have been created and some older heroes have been retconned as Jewish. There is one piece of evidence that Jack Kirby always thought the Thing was Jewish.
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