Funny, They Don't Look Jewish!

Brandon and Henry return after a brief hiatus and some special interview episodes with coverage of some heroes we've already covered! What?! Already covered?! Since we've started the podcast there have been more instances of explicit Jewish content for characters we've covered. We'll be revisiting our favs, The Thing and Kitty Pryde! We also have a hot take on John Lennon's Imagine, call out some creators for some bad Jewish representation and point the mirror at ourselves for our podcast title!

Thank you to Mishkan Chicago's Soundcloud for their recording of Debbie Friedman's "Mi Sheberach." Check them out at https://soundcloud.com/mishkan-chicago/mi-sheberach

Thank you Rabbi Aryeh Bernstein for a spicy take!

Comics covered:

Fantastic Four #538 (June 2006)

• “Street Fighting”
  • Written by J. Michael Straczynski
  • Pencilled by Mike McKone
  • Inked by Andy Lanning, Kris Justice, and Cam Smith
  • Colored by Paul Mounts
  • Lettered by VC’s Russ Wooton
  • Edited by Tom Brevoort

Black Cat #4 (Sep 2019)

• “Yancy St. Shuffle”
  • Written by Jed MacKay
  • Pencilled by Travel Foreman
  • Colored by Brian Reber
  • Lettered by Ferran Delgado
  • Edited by Nick Lowe

Immortal Hulk #41 (December 2020)

• “The Man Downstairs”
  • Written by Al Ewing
  • Pencilled by Joe Bennett
  • Inked by Ruy Jose and Belardino Brabo
  • Colored by Paul Mounts
  • Lettered by VC’s Cory Petit
  • Edited by Will Moss

Age of X-Man: Apocalypse & the X-Tracts #1, 2, 4, 5 (Mar-July 2019)

• Written by Tim Seeley
• Pencilled by Salva Espin
• Colored by Israel Silva
• Lettered by VC’s Travis Lankam
• Edited by Jordan D. White

Marauders #11 (Aug 2020)

• “Pour One Out”
  • Written by Gerry Duggan
  • Pencilled by Stefano Caseli
  • Colored by Edgar Delgado
  • Lettered by VC’s Cory Petit
  • Designed by Tom Muller
  • Edited by Jordan D. White

Marauders #12 (Sep 2020)

• “The New Phase”
  • Written by Gerry Duggan
  • Pencilled by Matteo Lolli
  • Colored by Edgar Delgado
  • Lettered by VC’s Cory Petit
  • Designed by Tom Muller
  • Edited by Jordan D. White

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BB: Origin, First Appearance,
Daughter to Carmen and Theresa Pryde, from Deerfield, IL
13-year-old girl
Kitty Pryde first appears #129 (middle of Dark Phoenix Saga), officially joins the team at the very end of #138 (Oct 1980), the epilogue to the same story.

First Appearance: Uncanny X-Men #129 (cover date Jan 1980)
Page 11, in the THIRD panel she appears in, Kitty is wearing a star of David

Henry: Claremont interview

Brandon:

According to tumblr fan site johnbyrnedraws, Byrne said:
Kitty, as many of you probably already know, became Jewish almost accidentally. My “model” for the character was how I pictured a young Sigourney Weaver, but down the hall in my apartment building at the time lived a friend whose sister bore a strong resemblance to Kitty. Altho she was not Jewish herself, the sister wore a Star of David on a chain around her neck, it having been given to her by her Jewish boyfriend. (The Star of David, not her neck.) Kitty somehow looked “wrong” without that necklace, so I added it to my final drawings in her first appearance. This made her Jewish, of course, since there would be no other reason for her to be wearing it in the context of the character.

Uncanny X-Men #143 (1981)
“Demon”
Written by Chris Claremont and John Byrne (co-plotters)
Penciled by John Byrne
Inked by Terry Austin
Colored by Glynis Oliver
Lettered by Rick Parker and Tom Orzechowski
Edited by Louise Jones
Page 6
Kitty uses mistletoe to kiss Peter
Trying to lighten the mood. Clearly interfaith comfortable
Page 8
“I’ve never spent Chanukah away from home before. I wonder how mom and dad are doing?”
Family holiday
Page 21 - Kitty’s parents are visiting, dad responds, “Our visit--your special Chanukah surprise--is as much a gift to us as to her.”
Publication date: March 1981
Christmas Eve 1981 corresponds to 29th Kislev
Xmas Eve 1980 = 18th of Tevet
Later, she refers to herself as a 13-year-old. Bat Mitzvah???
IS THIS A HANUKKAH STORY?
A demonic entity (the N’Garai demon) attacks the central home (TEMPLE?) of the X-Men. The scared underdog Kitty fights back, winning with her wits.
Page 20 - X-Men return, noting the mansion has “no lights”
But the X-Men return to a devastated home they need to fix, rebuild, “repurify?”
Final page - “alone, on Christmas Eve, Kitty Pryde underwent a rite of passage - a supreme test of her abilities, her intellect, her courage. Her...self. She passed.”
WAS THIS HER X-BAT MITZVAH?
Made me think of Hershel and the Hanukkah Goblins (1989)
Written by Eric Kimmel, drawn by Trina Schart Hyman
Hershel of Ostropol - trickster figure

Uncanny X-Men #159 (1982)
“Night Screams”
Written by Chris Claremont
Penciled by Bill Sienkiewicz
Inked by Bob Wiacek
Colored by Glynis Oliver
Lettered by Rick Parker and Tom Orzechowski
Edited by Louise Jones
Kitty goes home to visit her family for the weekend, Storm is “mugged” in an alley - DRACULA
Was she home for Shabbos???
Page 10, Kitty talking with Storm
Storm pulls back in pain
Kitty thinks, “The lamplight flashed on my star of David -- and Ororo flinched! Aversion to sunlight, to religious artifacts, anemia, dreams -- this is ridiculous! What am I thinking?!”
Page 12
Storm goes to see Dracula
Kitty bursts into the room with a cross that doesn’t work
Dracula: “The cross has no power over such as I if the wielder does not believe in it! You are no Christian, but a Hebrew!”
HENRY - how do you feel about that term?
Lunges for her throat, but his hand starts burning
“Around my neck--my silver star of David! That’s what stopped him! Thank God!”
Love at First Bite (1979 horror comedy)
Directed by Stan Dragoti
George Hamilton as Dracula
Susan Saint James as Cindy Sondheim
Richard Benjamin as Jeffrey Rosenberg, grandson of Van Helsing, who changed his name “for professional reasons”
In a dinner scene (Cindy Sondheim, Dracula, Jeffrey Rosenberg), Rosenberg pulls out a Star of David that has NO effect
Vampires in Judaism
There’s a wealth of esoteric and midrashic material on King Solomon raising or summoning demons, including a vampire demon
Lilith, mother of demons, often vampiric
Sefer Hasidim 464
There was once a woman that was a striya and was very sick, and there were two women with her at night - one sleeping and one awake. And that same sick woman stood before her and crackled her hair and wanted to fly and wanted to suck the blood of the sleeping woman. And the one that was awake woke up the one who was asleep, and they grabbed the striya. And the one that slept, slept more and the one that was awake didn’t sleep. And since she couldn’t do harm, the striya died because she needed...