Judaism and Fandom

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See also:	Race and Fandom, Christianity and Fandom, religion, Buddhism and Fandom, Islam and Fandom, Atheism and Fandom
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cover of T-Negative Tribute Issue, "Shalom, Welcome Aboard, Miss Berman"

There have always been Jews in fandom; and Judaism is periodically portrayed in fannish source-texts, in ways both accurate and absurd.

Recent years have brought a number of related identity issues to the forefront of several fannish communities. Alongside discussions of race and fandom there have been conversations about the intersection of religion and fandom which have sparked growing awareness of some of the places where Judaism and fandom mesh neatly -- and some of the places where Judaism and fandom sometimes collide.

On a meta level

On a meta level, some fans have argued that fandom itself is a quintessentially Jewish enterprise, because fandom is an interpretive community of people who create and strengthen connections with each other through exegesis of shared source texts:

Just as Jews create community through engaging around our shared stories, so do fans. But instead of writing stories or essays or making short films which offer exegeses of Biblical or Talmudic texts, fans write stories and essays and make short films which explore pop culture texts. We respond and re-purpose, turning and turning all kinds of stories to see what might be found inside. Often what we find there -- what we foreground, or what we add -- says as much about us as it does about the book or movie at hand. That's part of the fun.

According to this line of thinking, there's something innately Jewish about the very (f)act of fandom, even if the source-texts around which we gather aren't explicitly Judaic and even if the fans who are discussing them are not Jews. Playing with that idea are catch phrases such as "Next Year in Lansing" (Lansing, where MediaWestCon -- once the center of all gen mediafannishness -- is) deliberately echoing the phrase "Next year in Jerusalem" said at the end of the Passover seder every year.

Within fandom: Is Character X Jewish?

Many shows do not explicitly state the religious background or beliefs of any of their characters, meaning fans must deduce these things from small details of canon. As with all fanon there will be fans who treat it as unassailable canon and other fans who just don't see it. In some cases, "is X Jewish" became incredibly contentious, with some fans considering a certain character's Jewishness to be obvious, and other fans refusing to take even solid indications -- such as the Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode in which "egg babies" are distributed in health class and Willow Rosenberg says hers is Jewish -- as "proof." Some examples would be:

• David Starsky. Was played by a Jewish actor, but was never explicitly stated to be Jewish. In one episode, Starsky was extremely enthusiastic about celebrating Christmas; however, a blue Star of David can be seen among the decorations adorning the dashboard of his beloved Torino, and once or twice a menorah can be glimpsed (very briefly) in his apartment. In a pre-DVD age this was probably missed by many fans. (Fanon often attributes Starsky's fondness for Christmas to his having been partially raised by non-Jewish family friends.) Straight-ahead Reform Jews often celebrate Christmas as a winter festival of gift-giving, even putting up a tree; and it's normal for a lot of families to combine Christmas and Chanukah. There is much fannish discussion of this topic in issues of S and H Letterzine.

• Blair Sandburg. Fanon tends to portray Blair as generally non-observant, due to his being raised by a single mother with New Age beliefs, and no canonical mention of any other (presumably estranged) family members; however, he does make a canonical reference to having had a bar mitzvah.

• Fox Mulder.

• Willow Rosenberg. Despite Willow's statement in season two that her "egg baby" was Jewish some fans refused to take that as conclusive proof that Willow herself was Jewish; perhaps, the argument went, she could have partnered in the class with a Jewish student as the "baby's" father and was respecting his wishes. However, five episodes later, canon did confirm that Willow is Jewish, explaining why she has to hide the crucifixes she is putting up in order to repel vampires. Some viewers have criticized "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" for portraying Willow's family's Jewishness as "[taking] the form of anti-Christianity, rather than of, as far as we can tell, any positive Jewish practice[,]" such as being skipped over by Santa Claus and not being allowed to watch Christmas movies.

• The Eppes family.

• Marvel comics' Ben Grimm of the Fantastic Four. The character was created in 1961 and finally canonically confirmed to be Jewish in 2002.

• Marvel comics' Magneto (Erik Lehnsherr) of the X-Men. Created in 1963, revealed to be Holocaust survivor in the 70s. It was unclear for almost a decade if Magneto was intended to be ethnically Romani or Jewish. See Is Magneto Jewish? for a comprehensive view of the debate circa 1998. This debate ended shortly after the X-Men movieverse debut, as a young Erik is shown wearing a yellow star in the first scene of the film; a comic miniseries called Magneto: Testament has since come out to unify the two backgrounds.
  • In many comic runs, Wanda and Pietro Maximoff are often shown to be Magneto's children, thus making them Jewish as well as Romani (the heritage of their mother Magda).
  • Magneto's other daughter Lorna Dane, from a different mother, would thus also be Jewish.

• A running gag among S.T.A.R. San Diego fans was that "all Vulcans are Jewish" because Leonard Nimoy and Celia Lovsky were, and because the Vulcan hand salute was based on a gesture associated with a Jewish priestly blessing.

• The Rozhenkos, Worf's parents, were played by actors who were not just Jewish, but among the biggest names in Yiddish theater. This, together with a few other subtle hints, led many fans to believe that Worf's adoptive family (and by extension, Worf) are implied to be Jewish.

• Superman was created by two Jewish men, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, who were themselves fans of pulp magazine stories. He has been repeatedly compared both to Moses, for his origin story; and to Jesus, for his father's having sent him specifically to Earth to help and inspire humanity. Harry Brod's 2012 book Superman Is Jewish? How Comic Book Superheroes Came to Serve Truth, Justice and the Jewish-American Way is all about this, and extends it to other superheroes too, suggesting that The Incredible Hulk was a personification of all the rage young Jewish males were expected to suppress.

• Batman, in particular in relation to the 2006 introduction of Kate Kane as Batwoman and as a practicing religious Jew.

• Hal Jordan

• Spiderman
  • Andrew Garfield's Spiderman is often headcanoned as such due to the actor's own interviews on the subject.
  • In Into The Spider-Verse, Peter B. Parker is shown breaking the glass at his wedding. Spiderman Noir is shown fighting Axis goons and sipping egg creams, a type of drink invented in early-20th-century Jewish American delis.

• Jerry Seinfeld

• The Pines Family of Gravity Falls: canon does not clearly address the family's relgious or ethnic background, but there is a shot of Stan and Ford's childhood home that has what might be a mezuzah by the door. Within the fandom, Jewish!Pines family headcanons are popular.
• Bonnie Bennett of The Vampire Diaries, as her actress Kat Graham identifies as Jewish.

Within fandom: story exchanges

Some conversations about Judaism and fandom have been sparked by secret santa and other story exchanges. In 2007 there was a Yuletide-related controversy around the scheduling of the challenge's various dates and its buy-in to the Christian holiday cycle, which seems, to some Jewish fans, like an example of Christian cultural hegemony. mamadeb's initial post questioning the timing of Yuletide signups ultimately made Fandom_Wank. Fan response to her post ranged from disbelief to snark to outrage, and the conversation got ugly. In one representative post, Melymbrosia wrote:

I know Jews and members of other religious minorities in the West who are not bothered by the terms "Yuletide" or "Secret Santa" and who have Christmas trees (and who set up huge fandom-crossing obscure fandom ficathons!) and who distinguish the cultural practice of Christianity from the religious practice of Christianity. I am not one of them, partly because so few Christians seem to have an understanding of Christianity as a cultural practice, or the ways in which they receive the privilege of a cultural default, even when they themselves are not religious or choose atheism or a different religion. Why should they have this understanding? Privilege is the headache they don't know they don't have.

I am going to be very explicit about this: I'm not just talking about this ficathon. I'm not asking for the name "Yuletide" to be changed. I think that would be a huge headache, to begin with, and at this point I even have positive associations with the name, because of my happy involvement with the challenge. But I am saying that "Yuletide"--whether in reference to this challenge or in general--is not nondenominational. It is not religiously neutral. It is not broadly inclusive.

The word Yuletide itself is not Christian. It is the Old Norse word for the winter holiday and the season in which it occurs. What we call "Christmas" is derived partly from these ancient, pre-Christian celebrations.

Other fans argued that an overfocus on feelings of marginalization within fandom can itself be counterproductive, and that we should respond to negativity by creating more positive energy. Out of the often-frustrating conversations about Yuletide et al, some positive developments arose, including the 2008 launch of Purimgifts (a ficathon/story and art exchange scheduled to coincide with a holiday when Jews customarily exchange gifts) and the creation (also in 2008) of Stilljewish.

Within fandom: antisemitism

Some conversations about Judaism and fandom have been sparked by waves of antisemitism within fandom.

• In 2007, there was the aforementioned controversy around the dates of Yuletide, which led to heated discussions about antisemitism in fandom. chopchica posted don we now our flameproof armor and eventually a links round up called links a billion.

• In 2008, there was nasty name-calling. kita0610 was called a kike by an anonymous commentor (see Well that made my day and chopchica's "To Whomever Came Into A Friend's Journal and Like A Fucking Anonymous Coward, Called My Other Friend A Kike")

• That year there was also a flare-up over a Harry Potter RPG called Hexennacht RPG, named and premised after "Kristallnacht." chopchica wrote, in a wrap-up post, "It wasn’t just about the name of the comm and the FAQ. They were offensive and hurtful, yes, but mostly, the were just the tip of a very large - and very ugly – iceberg, and *that* is what I called out in my post..."
• Antisemitism is ignored and overlooked compared to other forms of bigotry, especially on the left due to people not realizing there are other forms of antisemitism than what the far right employs.
• Some Jewish fans of What We Do in the Shadows have taken offense to the memes about Nandor's unintentional antisemitism being portrayed as funny.

Within media sources

Some beloved fandoms handle Judaism really well. The Sports Night episode "April is the Cruelest Month" centers around Passover, one of the most important Jewish holidays. The episode has been praised for placing a Jewish holiday other than Chanukah at the center of an episode, and for offering a depiction of Passover that feels true to many Jewish fans' experiences; and for interweaving the themes of the Passover story into what's happening in the characters' lives. ("On one level, it's the natural progression of what's going on with the characters at this point in time. Isaac, Jeremy, Casey, Dan, Natalie -- all of them are moving through the arc that's been established and that's been in-progress all season. On another level, this is a deeply religious story, and one that plays with themes of Passover all over the place.")

In the Northern Exposure episode "Kaddish for Uncle Manny," "Joel's friends are trying to round up Jews for him in Alaska. Joel is portrayed as a very typical New York Jew, the kind who doesn't think Judaism exists west of Pennsylvania, and so he skeptically asks this total big burly Alaskan logger type to say the Shema. And the logger guy does." In season 4 of House, M.D., the episode "Don't Ever Change" features a Hasidic Jew as patient-of-the-week, and despite House's predictable sarcasm the show treats Judaism, and religious faith in general, with surprising respect.

In The West Wing, Toby Ziegler is a practicing Reform Jew and is shown going to Friday night shul, consulting his rabbi about capital punishment (while a female cantor practices in the background), and in a later episode, observing funeral traditions when Leo McGarry dies. Joshua Lyman is nonpracticing, but culturally Jewish. The pilot episode briefly addresses Jew-hatred on the part of hardcore right wing fundamentalists. Speaking about a fanatical preacher who criticized Josh's "New York sense of humor", Toby snapped "She means Jewish. When she says 'New York sense of humor', she's talking about you and me."

In Ripper Street, Deborah Goren runs the Jewish orphanage in 1889 London. She's a strong, interesting character who visibly draws on Jewish values. In the second episode, she self-identifies as secular, but quotes Talmud -- the central sacred texts of Judaism -- in saying that one who saves a single life, it is as though they had saved the world entire.

Other beloved fandoms handle it less gracefully. Numb3rs features the Eppes family, played by three Jewish actors, yet, three seasons in, there were no canonical mentions of Judaism (although anyone knowledgeable about Jewish tradition probably have picked it up in the pilot, which included a reference to brisket for dinner on Friday night. There were hints off camera that the season opener for season 4 would 'out' the family as Jewish, complete with quotes from the three actors as to whether it was a good idea or not. When the episode finally aired, the plot was about the Holocaust, yet all mentions of the Eppes being Jewish had been removed from the episode. They finally mentioned it overtly ("Is it because I'm Jewish?") in Episode #66.

In the current season, however, as part of the character Don's continued questioning about himself and his role at the FBI, he was shown walking into a synagogue. ("Scan Man," airdate 10/31/08.) He discussed this briefly in the following episode, and his father asked Don if he had failed Don by not giving him more of a religious upbringing.

thirtysomething featured Christmas-Chanukah episodes two years running:

In two separate TV seasons of thirtysomething's Christmas-Chanukah episodes, Michael undergoes crises of religious identity and spiritual soul-searching brought on by the ' 'December dilemma" and his recent fatherhood... [he and his wife] must renegotiate all the rules for a harmonious intermarriage that they had laid down in calmer and simpler times.

(Of course, how television and fandom alike depict intermarriage is a related issue, but one fraught with its own complications in the Jewish and fannish communities alike.)

The release in 2014 of X-Men: Days of Future Past, the film adaptation of a major X-Men storyline, sparked criticism regarding the diminished role of Kitty Pryde in comparison to the original comic book. Some chalked her displacement by Wolverine down to sexism, but others focused on the importance of a her role as a Jewish character in a narrative revolving around Holocaust allegory.

In the Welcome to Night Vale episode "Cassette", Jewish fans were happy to hear that Cecil's full name is Cecil Gershwin Palmer. Gershwin, a derivative of Gershowitz, denotes him as a (probably matrilineal, as "Palmer" is a specifically Christian surname) Ashkenazy Jew. There has been some speculation how the faith is practiced in Night Vale. There is a "Jewish Cecil" tag on tumblr, and a "Jewish Cecil Is Canon" tumblr blog (although it is devoted to more general Social Justice Warrior issues).

The release of the Harry Potter game, Hogwart's Legacy in 2022 resulted in the Hogwarts Legacy Boycott, as a result of transphobic and anti-semitic content. The book series itself features greedy bank-controlling goblins as the analogue to Jews, which upset a lot of Jewish fans.

Within fanworks

Judaism and fannish sourcetexts are like chocolate and peanut butter! Fans have created all kinds of fanworks which combine Judaism and fandom in interesting ways.

• Doctor Who: lannamichaels' Ushpizin, or, We Built This Succah On Rock And Roll, in which several visitors come to the Pond family sukkah, 2011.
• Firefly: Fox1013's Consecration (2007), a Chanukah story featuring a miracle of sorts, out in the black.
• Forever Knight: tolakasa's "Rondeau" (written for Yuletide 2012) looks at Amanda Cohen's Jewish background (given that the character is played by Natsuko Ohama).
• Good Omens: Daegaer's Eight Nights (2004) celebrates Chanukah, angel-and-demon style.
• Harry Potter: Despite the lack of canonical Jewish characters, fans have injected Judaism into the Potterverse with glee. The Heart's Obligations by schemingreader (2005-2007) is an AU in which Hogwarts is a yeshiva; Kaddish is a Jewish-themed story by sam_storyteller, and 25th Day is a Chanukah story by mamadeb.
• Professionals: Dorinda's Festival of Lights (1996) is a Chanukah story of a slightly different sort.
• The Sentinel: Capitalizing on Blair Sandburg's nominal canonical Jewishness, the story Revelations by Kass (2004) shows Blair observing Shavuot.
• Sherlock (BBC): It Would Have Been Enough by cosmicdancer, in which Sherlock takes John home for Passover. Also, ariadnes_string has written a series of Sherlock/Lestrade stories (some for Purimgifts) featuring a Jewish background for Inspector Lestrade.
• Sherlock Holmes (2009): Sherlock Holmes and the Ghost at the Avocado Grove by sabrina_il, a 1980s Israeli Kibbutz AU.
• Star Trek: In the 1981 zine Tales of Feldman, Mindy Glazer wrote a Jewish OFC into the Star Trek universe, marrying her off to Spock (hijinks ensued); and in Star Trek: DS9, Beatrice Otter's Tashlich (2010) makes the Klingon character Worf celebrate Rosh Hashanah, positing that his adoptive parents are Jewish. Kraith has no specific mentions of Judaism, but some Vulcan rituals such as the Affirmation echo Jewish practices.
• Stargate Atlantis: The Pretty Peculiar Pegasus Pesach by Roga (2008) posits an AU version of the show where everyone is Jewish; Kass's A Narrow Bridge (2009) recasts all the characters as students at a yeshiva.
• Supernatural: In Say a Prayer and Light a Candle by tiptoe39, a Jewish Castiel invites his boyfriend Dean Winchester to the family home for Hanukkah. Also, the canonically Jewish minor character Aaron Bass features in a few well-reviewed fics, such as Any Port by Anythingtoasted, and Oscillation by nekosmuse.
• Teen Wolf: Not infrequently, fans headcanon Stiles Stilinski as Jewish, perhaps most notably in the Hanukkah fic My World Is Filled with Cheer and You, by bleep0bleep.
• Ugly Betty: Shayheyred's Chosen Person (2008).
• X-Men: In 2005, The Mo wrote a Passover story called Different from All Other Nights, and in 2007, Mara wrote Yamim Nora'im, in which a rabbi gives a high holiday sermon in favor of mutant rights.
• Game of Thrones: Rededication a Chanukah story by lodessa
• The Little Mermaid (Disney live action film): Wedding Plans (2023, by anonymous). Portrays Princess Ariel and Prince Eric as such, because Ariel is a common Jewish/Hebrew name, and Eric's live-action actor Jonah Hauer-King identifies as that.

There's a list of Passover-themed holiday stories at the Holidayfic page in the subsection titled Passover fic.

There's also a subcategory of fanworks which articulate feelings of alienation from dominant Christian culture, specifically Christmas:

• Laura Shapiro's A Thousand Caraway Seeds (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)
• mamadeb's Blue Christmas (The Sentinel)

Places to find Jewish-fannish goings-on

Livejournal/Dreamwidth communities

• Stilljewish - Originally established on livejournal, this comm has now moved to Dreamwidth; in its new incarnation, moderated by Kass and batdina, the community features locked posting (currently posts are accessible to members only) and each lunar month is marked by a new discussion topic relating to matters of Judaism and fandom.

Challenges, Gift Exchanges, etc.

• Days of Awesome, a multifandom ficathon, 2007-2013 (originally), 2020-present (rebooted)
• Purimgifts, a multifandom exchange running since 2009

Jewish characters in canon

• Kyle Broflofski in South Park
• Harold Berman in Hey Arnold!
• Ross and Monica Geller in Friends
• Farkle Minkus in Girl Meets World
• Howard Wolowitz in The Big Bang Theory
• Fran Fine in The Nanny
• Sam Manson in Danny Phantom
• Abby and Anna Morris in The Babysitters Club
• Nancy Dawes in Babysitter's Little Sister
• Detective Jake Peralta in Brooklyn Nine Nine
• Ron Stoppable in Kim Possible
• Krusty the Clown in The Simpsons
• Tammy Larson in Bob's Burgers
• Kitty Pryde in X-Men (Marvel Comics)
• Casey Calderon in Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur
• Rebecca Rubin and Lindsey Bergman in American Girl
• David, Sarah, and Les Jacobs in Newsies
• Kate Kane and Harley Quinn in DC Comics
• Raven and Zatanna in DC Comics Bombshells
• Leah Ai Tian in Intertwined
• Libby Stein-Torres in The Ghost And Molly McGee
• Miryem Mandelstam and family from Spinning Silver

Further Reading/Meta

• Fan fiction and midrash: Making meaning by Rachel Barenblat (2014)
• DS9: Duet and the Jewish Question by Tamar Wyschogrod (2017)
• Jewish Anime Characters – The Goods, The Bads, The Questionables (2018) and Sandalphon's Journey of Teshuva: Jewish Values in Granblue Fantasy (2019) by Lauren Fellows

Other Links

• AO3: Judaism, Jewish Character, Jewish Identity, Jewish Holidays, more here
• Jews and Judaism in Fanfiction: a Fic List, ^{Archived version} on tumblr (Dec 1, 2012)
• These fics are 100% kosher for pesach, ^{Archived version} by lannamichaels (2013-03-24)
• Tumblr character brackets: The Jewish Guys Competition, Nice Jewish Characters Showdown (both active in 2023)
• Jewish faith and traditions are explained most clearly at Judaism 101.