Ambiguously Jewish: Difference between revisions

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== Anime ==

* Spike Spiegel on ''[[Cowboy Bebop]]'' is considered Jewish by some fans because he has a Yiddish family name, a stereotypically Jewish haircut, and carries an Israeli-made Jericho 941 pistol. Obviously he is not played by a Jewish actor, since he is an animated character, and his Japanese voice actor isn't either. ([[Steve Blum|His American voice-actor]], on the other hand...) When asked, the series creators said he was modeled after actor [[wikipedia:Yusaku Matsuda|Yusaku]] [http://i.imgur.com/nf8cQ.jpg Matsuda], and they just thought the name sounded cool.

* The ''[[Gundam]]'' metaseries has a few characters with Jewish-sounding names (which might merely be [[Foreign Sounding Gibberish|German names]]) whose background is never really elaborated on. Notable examples include ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket|0080]]'''s Bernie Wiseman, ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory|0083]]'''s Deitrov Kosel and Anavel Gato, ''[[Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam]]'''s Jamitov Hyman, and ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam SEED]]'''s Seigal Klein. What's particularly strange about these examples is that all of them, with the possible exception of Klein, come from factions that had an unfortunate tendency toward [[Putting on the Reich]]. Sure, it's a political divide, not ethnic, but it's still odd to see possibly-[[Ambiguously Jewish]] characters goose-stepping.

* The ''[[Gundam]]'' metaseries has a few characters with Jewish-sounding names (which might merely be [[Foreign Sounding Gibberish|German names]]) whose background is never really elaborated on. Notable examples include ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket|0080]]'''s Bernie Wiseman, ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory|0083]]'''s Deitrov Kosel and Anavel Gato, ''[[Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam]]'''s Jamitov Hyman, and ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam SEED]]'''s Seigal Klein. What's particularly strange about these examples is that all of them, with the possible exception of Klein, come from factions that had an unfortunate tendency toward [[Putting on the Reich]]. Sure, it's a political divide, not ethnic, but it's still odd to see possibly-Ambiguously Jewish characters goose-stepping.

** In some circles of Gundam fandom, hero Amuro Ray and Captain Bright may or may not be Jewish.

** Speaking of Gundam, presumably Louise Halevy of ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam 00]]'' has Jewish ancestry, as Halevy is a generally Sephardic Jewish surname and Louise's family is from Spain.

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* Some suspect ''[[Ultimate Spider-Man]]'' is Jewish, mostly because he has [[Yiddish as a Second Language]] and dated Kitty Pryde, Marvel's Jewish poster girl. He's modeled after Stan Lee, who is Jewish, but it's probably just the [[Big Applesauce]] effect.

* [[Batman]]. His maternal grandfather is Jewish, which is why his mother has a Jewish last name, Kane. Because ''her'' mother wasn't Jewish, however, she would not have been considered Jewish. The name is probably a [[Shout-Out]] to Bob Kane, co-creator of Batman, who was Jewish. Current [[Batwoman]] and distant-relative Kate Kane, however, actually is Jewish.

* From ''[[Watchmen (comics)|Watchmen]],'' Dan Dreiberg (Nite Owl), Jonathan Osterman (Dr. Manhattan), and Rorschach, son of Sylvia Glick, and Sally Jupiter (the original Silk Spectre), who changed her last name to hide Polish ancestry. Given Alan Moore's interest in the history of the comic-book medium and the history of superheroes, it is not hard to imagine that he might have made many of his superheroes [[Ambiguously Jewish]] as a deliberate allusion to the religious background of so many of the creators of the superhero-comic form.

* From ''[[Watchmen (comics)|Watchmen]],'' Dan Dreiberg (Nite Owl), Jonathan Osterman (Dr. Manhattan), and Rorschach, son of Sylvia Glick, and Sally Jupiter (the original Silk Spectre), who changed her last name to hide Polish ancestry. Given Alan Moore's interest in the history of the comic-book medium and the history of superheroes, it is not hard to imagine that he might have made many of his superheroes Ambiguously Jewish as a deliberate allusion to the religious background of so many of the creators of the superhero-comic form.

* Shilo Norman was shown consulting a rabbi in the 2006 [[Grant Morrison]]-written ''[[Seven Soldiers|Mister Miracle]]'' miniseries. This background makes him perhaps the only comic superhero who is [[Twofer Token Minority|both]] black and Jewish. It might also be noted that Norman has escaped death after dying, much like [[Jesus Saves|another Jewish celebrity]].

* [[Word of God]] said that Wiccan of the [[Young Avengers]] was Jewish long before this was mentioned in passing in the actual comics. Given that his real name is Billy Kaplan, it's not exactly a surprise.

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{{quote|Look, you and Jack may be Jewish, Italian, or whatever you've got going on. But I'm a WASP from Upstate. We didn't talk about these things.}}

* When ''[[Law & Order|Law and Order]]'' started airing in Israel, many thought that Sam Waterston was Jewish (Waterston->Waterstone->Waterstein, etcetera). Despite over a decade to get wiser, people haven't.

** Hilarious since the actor Steven Hill (playing Schiff) is actually an Orthodox ~~Jew -- he~~ had a "no work on Sabbath" clause in his contract.

** Hilarious since the actor Steven Hill (playing Schiff) is actually an Orthodox Jew—he had a "no work on Sabbath" clause in his contract.

* Isaac Jaffe on ''[[Sports Night]]'' has a ''very'' Jewish name (Isaac is from the Biblical patriarch, and the last name Jaffe comes from the Hebrew word for beautiful), and frequently uses Yiddish expressions. On the other hand, everyone who knows him insists that his use of Yiddish expressions doesn't work for him, which is probably connected to the fact that he is black, suggesting that if he is Jewish, [[All Jews Are Ashkenazi|his background is not Ashkenazic]]. His wife also has a Jewish name, Esther. On the other hand, in the episode "April is the Cruelest Month," Will tells Jeremy that the two of them, plus Elliot and Will "pretty much represent the Jewish population around here," which implies, but does not state outright that Isaac is not Jewish.

* Pavel Chekov on ''[[Star Trek: The Original Series]]'', portrayed by Jewish actors [[Walter Koenig]] in the original series and [[Anton Yelchin]] in the reboot, has some fandom support for this. [[Leonard Nimoy]], also Jewish, adapted the famous Vulcan hand salute from Jewish religious tradition. [[William Shatner]] is also Jewish, but Kirk doesn't seem to get this quite as often from the fandom.

* [[The Muppets]]:

** Oscar the Grouch from ''[[Sesame Street]]'', since he's a cousin to Moisha the Oofnik, an Israeli-Jewish Grouch. Also the Count... no one really knows why someone would make ''vampire'' seem Jewish, but they did.

** Fozzie Bear from ''[[The Muppet Show]]''. Frank Oz, who is himself of Jewish ancestry, performed him as a callback to the [[Borscht Belt]] vaudevillians of old; as a result Fozzie has done gags like [[Pull a Rabbit Out of My Hat|pulling a ]]''[[Pull a Rabbit Out of My Hat|rabbi ]]''[[Pull a Rabbit Out of My Hat|out of a hat]].

** Fozzie Bear from ''[[The Muppet Show]]''. Frank Oz, who is himself of Jewish ancestry, performed him as a callback to the [[Borscht Belt]] vaudevillians of old; as a result Fozzie has done gags like [[Pull a Rabbit Out of My Hat|pulling a]]''[[Pull a Rabbit Out of My Hat|rabbi]]''[[Pull a Rabbit Out of My Hat|out of a hat]].

** Marjorie the Trash Heap on ''[[Fraggle Rock]]''.

* Miranda Feigelstein in ''[[Mysterious Ways]]'' is an in-universe example: early in the first season, Declan says that he assumed she was Jewish because of her last name. She replies that she's not Jewish and [[Its Pronounced Tropay|her name is pronounced FeigelSTEEN]], and gets upset at how little he seems to know about her.