Superman Jewish? His 'ancestors' were

Jerry Siegel (Photo by Alan Light)

As much as superheroes (or anyone else for that matter) can be created by mere mortals, Superman was created by two Jewish "parents."

His "fathers" were Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, two children of Jewish immigrants to North America.  Wikipedia tells us that Siegel's parents were from Lithuania and Shuster's were from Rotterdam and Kiev.  Siegel grew up in Cleveland, Ohio and Shuster in Toronto, Canada.  After Shuster's family moved to Cleveland, Superman's "parents-to-be" met in high school there.

Larry Tye, writing for The Miami Herald, describes Clark Kent, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster in this manner:  All were classic

nebbishes.  What better way for Siegel and Shuster to outshine the dominant culture than to have their counterpart Kent morph into the quintessential Anglo-Saxon ("perfect pug nose, electric blue eyes" and all) superhero.

Although as Tye points out, "Who ever heard of a Jewish strongman?" – evidence of Superman's true heritage begins with his original Kryptonian name:  Kal-El.  "El" in Judaism means "God."  Tye reports that "Kal" is similar to the Hebrew words for voice and vessel.  Put that together, and what have you got:  "Voice of God."  Downright prophetic…

Next there are the parallels between Moses being rescued and raised by Egyptians and Kal-El being rescued and raised by Americans. Tye goes so far as to say that "Kal-El's escape to Earth was the story of Exodus."  He also explains that the language of Kal-El's birth story was very much the language of Genesis.

Who knew?  Apparently the Third Reich did.  A 1940 SS article accused Jerry Siegel of working in cahoots with Superman to sow "hate, suspicion, evil, laziness and criminality" in American youth.

Resources

http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/06/14/3452014/supermans-jewish-roots-inspire.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Shuster

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerry_Siegel

Copyright July 5, 2013 by Linda Van Slyke   All Rights Reserved