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Ambiguously Jewish: Difference between revisions
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A character who fits "Jewish" stereotypes, possibly played by an actor who is Jewish in real life, but who is never (or cryptically) actually stated to be a Jew on the show. In some cases, the show might present contradictory evidence on both sides. Often this is because it's difficult to establish a character as Jewish without depicting them as walking stereotype, particularly when there's no omniscient narrator to simply [[Informed Ability|say so]].
Note that having [[Yiddish as a Second Language]] is a clue but is not conclusive. As [[Lenny Bruce]] said, all New Yorkers are at least a little Jewish. Having a "Jewish" name ending in -berg, -stein or the like is also evidence but not proof. These names are actually just German names that many [[All Jews Are Ashkenazi|Ashkenazi Jews]] took when required to adopt some type of surname.
It can be very difficult to describe exactly what makes someone seem Jewish - similarly to [[Gaydar]], there's just a sort of Jewdar. [[The Great Gatsby|Jay Gatsby]] is a perfect example of a character who is never hinted to be Jewish, yet comes across as Jewish anyway, thanks to little things like his name change (from Gatz), awkwardness in WASP high society, and connections to the explicitly Jewish character Meyer Wolfsheim.
If the series is set in [[Big Applesauce|New York City]] or its [[No Communities Were Harmed|equivalent]], expect a lot of these. About 12% of New Yorkers are Ashkenazi Jews and they've had a great deal of impact on the culture, which is part of the reason why [[You Have to Have Jews]].
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** 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.
** The Kleins were confirmed by [[Word of God]] as being from Scandinavia, possibly related to royalty or nobility. However, they ironically go in a different direction than most of the examples because their own faction (the coordinators) is treated with about the same respect as WWII-era Jews by the naturals.
* ''[[Code Geass]]'': [[The Everyman|Ohgi]]. His hair, held back by a hairband, looks vaguely afro-ish, but it was [http://media.animevice.com/uploads/0/55/83435-ohgi_comp_large.gif that random Star of David] on his uniform that earned him the name [[Fan Nickname|Jewgi]].
== Comic Books ==
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* Ben Grimm, the Thing in the ''[[Fantastic Four (Comic Book)|Fantastic Four]]'', was created by Jews, has a Jewish name (Benjamin Jacob), resembles the [[Golem]] legend, and grew up in a Yancy Street neighborhood resembling New York's Lower East Side. Grimm was finally confirmed as Jewish in 2002, 41 years after his first appearance. This ended with an immortal "You don't ''look'' Jewish..." That story explains that he'd been hiding as many signs of his Jewishness as he could ever since the accident, due to his monstrous form, not wanting his monstrousness to be anti-semitism fuel.
* The character of ''[[Moon Knight]]'', aka Marc Spector, was [[Retcon|retroactively]] made Jewish several years after his debut when his creators were informed that 'Spector' was a Jewish name (they'd originally chosen it just because it sounded cool).
* [[Superman]], prior to the Byrne reboot in 1986 (which got rid of some of these elements), is a classic example: his origin story is a modern take on Moses (his people faced terrible destruction, and his parents cast him adrift hoping to spare him; Kandor represents the people he came back to save and take to the promised land); his cultural heritage, which he took great pride in, was a distinctly non-Christian monotheism with an emphasis on intellectual achievement; and his Kryptonian name, "Kal-El," has an ending meaning "God," common in Jewish names such as Nathaniel and Israel. (In fact, in Hebrew, "Kal-El" could translate as either "All [that is under] God," as in, "One Nation, Under God," the American Way; or "The Voice of God," as in, Prophecy, Truth, and Justice.) Superman was created by two Jews, Siegel and Schuster in the late 1930s, and given a name which is a rough translation of the German word "[[Ubermensch]]." The Nazis were fond of this concept, as well; a black-haired Ubermensch who fights for "truth, justice, and the American way" might well have been a [[Take That]], or at least some catharsis, for the creators. In one [[The Golden Age of Comic Books|Golden Age]] [[Elseworld|what-if]] story, Supes even delivered a "distinctly non-Aryan sock to the jaw for you, Adolf!" (Compare and contrast to [[Captain America (comics)]], the blonde, blue-eyed Nazi's worst nightmare.)
* [[Elliot S! Maggin]] [http://www.adherents.com/lit/comics/LexLuthor.html stated] that he saw [[Lex Luthor]] as Jewish, and has the character use some [[Yiddish as a Second Language]] in his novel ''[[Last Son of Krypton]]''. It should be noted that A) this was [[Silver Age]] Luthor, who was ''not'' a [[Corrupt Corporate Executive]] whose primary trait is greed, B) Maggin is Jewish, and C) Maggin is very, ''very'' fond of Luthor.
* 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.
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* [[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.
* ''[[X-Men (Comic Book)|X Men]]'' [[Big Bad]] Magneto (real name Max Eisenhardt but known by an assumed name of Erik Lehnsherr) has occasionally had his ancestry cast in doubt like this. It's a well-established part of his backstory that he was in a Nazi concentration camp, but other groups were placed in those as well. Briefly, Marvel claimed he was a Gypsy or just avoided mention of his ethnicity for a while out of fear of being called anti-Semitic, but it was eventually confirmed that he's Jewish.
* The character of G.B. Blackrock from the Generation One ''Transformers'' comic published by Marvel Comics. Blackrock sounds like an Anglicization of Schwarzstein, and creator Bob Budiansky said he based the character's name off that of his friend Gary Bennett Schwartz; both Budiansky and Schwartz are Jewish. Nevertheless, Blackrock's religious or ethnic background is never referred to explicitly in the comic. Also, there was an amusing incident during the scraplet outbreak wherein Goldbug (an alternate name for Bumblebee) telephoned Blackrock for help; Blackrock's secretary mispronounced Goldbug as Goldberg.
== Film ==
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* Eduard Abramowitz, a.k.a. Eisenheim, the titular illusionist of ''[[The Illusionist (film)|The Illusionist]]''. Not only is Abramowitz a Jewish surname, but, well, he's a stage magician in early twentieth century Vienna.
* [[The Three Stooges]] (Jews in real life) drop a lot of Yiddish phrases in their dialogues, and break out into Klezmer-style dancing when one of them injures his foot. The characters' actual religion, however, is never mentioned.
* [[Played for Laughs]] in ''[[Superman II]]''. When Superman saves a boy who was about to plummet into the Niagara Falls, a stereotypical [[Alter Kocker|old Brooklyn lady]] exclaims: "What a nice man! Of course he's Jewish!"
* The film version of ''[[The Devil Wears Prada]]'' is an interesting case. In the book both protagonist Andrea Sachs and the eponymous devil Miranda Priestly are explicitly Jewish, and this is somewhat significant for both characters. In the movie, however, [[Race Lift|this is never mentioned, or even really hinted at much]].
* Aldo Raine in ''[[Inglourious Basterds]]'' is an interesting case. He's placed in charge of a unit of commandos who are all Jewish, but we never learn if he's Jewish himself. Nothing about his name or personality suggests that he's Jewish, but he does seem to have a personal hatred for Nazis that goes beyond simple enemies of war. [[Word of God]] says his hatred of Nazis has to do with his years fighting the KKK. The scar on his neck was likely from a lynching. Whether this is because he's Jewish, part-Native American, or some other reason is unknown.
* Cher from ''[[Clueless]]'' lives in Beverly Hills, has the last name Horowitz, and has a New York-accented litigator for a father, yet no explicit mention is made of her Jewishness. Incidentally, the actress who played Cher and the actor who played her father are both Jewish.
* The character of Lawrence Garfield from ''[[Other People's Money]]'' had the very Jewish-sounding name of Lawrence Garfinkle in the original stage play. Changing it for the film may have been to avoid [[Unfortunate Implications]].
* Played with in ''Friends with Benefits'' with Jaime: her mother, not knowing who Jaime's father is, refers to her as looking ambiguously middle eastern. The actress who plays Jaime, Mila Kunis, is Jewish.
* Screenwriter Daniel Waters gave Max Shreck, the [[Corrupt Corporate Executive]] and tertiary villain of ''[[Batman Returns]]'', some Ambiguously Jewish characteristics, most notably [[Yiddish as a Second Language|a few Yiddish expressions]] [[All There in the Script|slipped into the script]], although these were dropped in the actual film. Max's portrayer, [[Christopher Walken]], is actually a Methodist, although he ''is'' a native New Yorker and reportedly knows some Yiddish (and said that he based his characterization of Max on Meyer Wolfsheim, the Jewish gambler in ''[[The Great Gatsby]]''). Andrew Bryniarski, who played Max's son Chip in that movie, is of Russian descent, so he could easily be Jewish. The novelization, however, mentions that their family celebrates Christmas.
* The two backpackers in ''[[An American Werewolf in London]]'' have Jewish names and come from New York. A nurse says that she thinks one of them is Jewish because he's circumcised, but another nurse counters that lots of gentiles are circumcised these days. It's never confirmed one way or the other.
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== Live Action TV ==
* George and the rest of the Costanza family on ''[[Seinfeld]]''. On the one hand, they have an Italian last name ([[All Jews Are Ashkenazi|though it could be Sephardic]]), Frank is allegedly a member of the Knights of Columbus, and why would they need Festivus as a Christmas alternative if they could have just celebrated Hanukkah instead? Frank also sold statues of Jesus to Koreans. On the other hand, they are all played by Jewish actors and George is the avatar of co-creator [[Larry David]], who is also Jewish. Jason Alexander said he wasn't sure what ethnicity George was meant to have until Estelle Harris was cast as his mother, saying [[Jewish Mother|"She can't be anything but Jewish."]] Wikipedia says that they are a Jewish-Italian mixed marriage, but this is clearly just a [[Retcon]], as David admitted that they didn't really think about any of this, just choosing names that they liked for the characters and casting the best actors and actresses available.
* Paul Buchman and his relatives on ''[[Mad About You]]''. Casting [[Mel Brooks]] as Paul's Uncle Phil was a heck of a clue, though. There was even ambiguity for Jamie Buchman. The closing tag to one episode showed her telling Paul that she had relatives in Israel. When he looks doubtful, she says "Don't assume." Helen Hunt is actually one-quarter Jewish.
* Buddy Sorrell on ''[[The Dick Van Dyke Show]]'' was originally one of these... until they eliminated all doubt by having an episode about his Bar Mitzvah. Also a very early example of [[Very Special Episode]].
* At least some people think that ''[[Jerry And Millie]]'' (especially Millie) were supposed to be Jewish.
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* ''[[In Plain Sight]]'' on USA has a character, Robert "Bobby D" Dershowitz. The name would give it away, except that he's black. The ambiguity is gone now (for those of us who realized Dershowitz was a Jewish last name) as he has now moved to Chicago where he's settling in well because there are so many more synagogues than in Albuquerque, where the show is set.
* Hank and Evan Lawson from ''[[Royal Pains]]''. [[Arrested Development (TV series)|Winkler]] showed up as their father Eddie.
** It's official now. In the episode "Keeping the Faith", Hank's patient mentions needing a "new Faith" (he's referring to his sister/manager, who will no longer be working for him). Evan suggests Judaism as, "we could use a big guy on our side".**
* Kenny in ''[[The War at Home]]'' seems to be Ambiguously Jewish, since his mother has a Hebrew name ("Shirra") and the music that plays during his fantasy of marrying Larry sounds Jewish-theme. Then again, he could also qualify as an "Ambiguously Muslim" since his father's name "Achmed" is a common Muslim name. If so, Kenny was kicked out of the house because homosexuality isn't allowed in the Muslim world and Shirra also had to follow her husband because of the rules (which was rather exaggerated).
** Then again, Kenny's parents might be inter-faith married.
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** 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.
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* In "Dead Luck," an episode of ''[[Lost Girl]]'', Mayer and his family come across as stereotypical Jewish gangsters, although, being that they are fae, this is presumably just an affectation for them.
* In ''Homeland'', Nicholas Brody and his family have a Jewish last name, but no other obvious markers of any kind of Jewish background. Whatever Brody's religious upbringing, a key plot point is that he has since {{spoiler|secretly converted to Islam}}. Interestingly, the show is an adaptation of an Israeli TV series '''''H'''atuphim'', in which the family's last name is not Brody. In any case, episode four shows the family in church, so apparently it was just a name, nothing more.
* In an episode of ''[[Fringe]]'', Walter mentions that William Bell's father taught him Yiddish [[Yiddish as a Second Language|(and proceeds to speak it later in the episode)]]. Bell is played by [[Leonard Nimoy]], who is Jewish, and profession-wise Bell is a scientist, academic, ''and'' business magnate who lived in New York City, which pretty much hits the nail right on the head.
* In Friends, Ross and Monica were originally supposed to be Jewish. It's more overt in the first few episodes, but quickly dropped in favour of more ambiguously neurotic New Yorkers. Later on Ross tries to teach his son about Hannukah, and Monica mentions her Bat Mitzvah, but it's never outright stated.
* Artie Nielsen, born Arthur Weisfelt, of [[Warehouse 13]] has numerous hints dropped throught the first two seasons, but is placed firmly in this category by the [[Christmas Special|Christmas episode]] of Season 2 which reunites him with his father, played by Judd Hirsch. As a sort of retro lampshade to this sudden Judaism, his [[Team Dad|de facto daughter]], Claudia, when invited to say grace at the (gentile) Christmas dinner table, intones "Baruch atah adonai eloheinu melech...", although she is rapidly put right by the two older gentlemen.
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== Theater ==
* ''[[Death of a Salesman]]'' has been seriously analyzed for decades [http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/19/us/on-religion-since-the-opening-curtain-a-debate-is-willy-loman-jewish.html?pagewanted=all (NY Times article)] on the subject of whether the Lomans were Jewish. [[Arthur Miller]] was brought up Jewish and based the character of Willy Loman on his uncle who was a salesman in the Depression. Miller stated in a 1969 interview that Willy Loman's religious or cultural background seemed irrelevant, but acknowledged in the 50th anniversary edition of the play that the Lomans could have been assimilated Jews. Loman lacks any identifying features of a Jewish (or any other) background, but this can be interpreted both ways; either Willy Loman was written without religious or cultural background to act as [[The Everyman]] and represent the broader American experience, or else his conspicuous ''lack'' of these features is a sign of how he abandoned an immigrant past in his drive for the [[American Dream]].
* The Hollanders from ''[[Don't Drink the Water]]''. Woody Allen wrote this one and actually played Walter Hollander in the second movie version.
* Dolly Levi of Thorton Wilder's ''The Matchmaker'' and ''[[Hello, Dolly!]]'' is an interesting case, as she is played by [[Barbra Streisand]] in the film, and the character in the play is presumably Irish-American (her maiden name is Gallagher) and intermarried, but in both cases speaks with a [[Yiddish as a Second Language|"Yiddish" rhythm]] and is a good fit for the stereotypical matchmaker of Jewish humor (compare her with Yente of ''[[Fiddler On the Roof]]'').
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* Bridgette Tenenbaum from ''[[Bioshock]]'' is presumably Jewish, as she has a Jewish name and was a prisoner at a Nazi prison camp.
** Ditto Sander Cohen.
*** Dr. Steinman has a rather Jewish sounding name. Andrew Ryan is [[No Celebrities Were Harmed|clearly based on]] Ayn Rand, who was Jewish (but atheist) in real life and also, like Ryan, a refugee from Communist Russia.
* Otacon from ''[[Metal Gear Solid]]'' has the surname Emmerich, and uses a little Yiddish in ''[[Metal Gear Solid]] 4''.
** Possibly references to Einstein; Otacon designed MG REX and his grandad was part of the Manhattan Project.
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* Not because of stereotypes, but the Hoenn region of the ''Pokémon'' games has a number of legendary Pokémon (which are, for the most part, an indication of the regions's mythology) which are based around Jewish mythology. Kyogre and Groudon, which are based on the Leviathan and Behemoth, respectively, as well as the Regi trio, based on golems, lead one to believe that the denizens of the region practice a rough equivalent of Judaism.
** This might make Rayquaza the Ziz.
* Telltale's ''[[The Adventures of Sam & Max: Freelance Police|Sam and Max Freelance Police]]'' games have mentioned Jewish things like "Matzah" and "Seder" before, and they live in New York. The existence of hell and the devil in the series makes this ambiguous, however.
* [[Professor Layton]] has the first name Hershel, an extremely uncommon name among goyim, let alone British people. It would also explain his insistence on [[Never Bareheaded]].
* Though it's strictly [[Wild Mass Guessing]], many fans speculate that the Medic from ''[[Team Fortress 2]]'' may be Jewish: he was alive in Germany at the time of WWII, but [[Word of God]] confirmed isn't a Nazi.
** A German [[Jewish and Nerdy|intellectual]] with Semitic features born in the 1920s or 30s with no Nazi affiliation? Three strikes, Doc.
* The Baron of Hollywood in ''[[Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines]]'' is named Isaac Abrams, and he both owns a jewelry store and is a major (albeit secret) player in the film industry.
** The Tremere primogen, Maximillian Strauss, also has a fairly Jewish-sounding name.
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* In ''[[Red vs. Blue]]'', either Church or Tex is probably Jewish considering their funeral. {{spoiler|Of course, since they're both AI, it probably isn't all that important to them}}.
* May I present ''[http://www.jewornotjew.com/index.jsp Jew or Not Jew]''.
* As seen [[Twofer Token Minority|here]] on [[This Very Wiki]].
{{quote|* Stephen Fry is openly gay and Jewish.
* Dude, so is half of Hollywood. Well, maybe they're not openly Jewish.
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* Stone, a former member of the titular hero team in the ''[[Global Guardians PBEM Universe]]'', was played this way. It was eventually confirmed by his player that he was a non-practicing Jew whose family name was originally "Stein" until his immigrant father changed it in order to "be more American". And his first name, which had never been revealed in nearly ten years of stories, turned out to be "Herschel".
* Rick Finklestein of ''[[Bowser's Kingdom]]''. He has the German last name, the accent and got in an argument with Paul Hammerbro in episode 10 over how to eat bagels.
* ''[[Lackadaisy Cats]]'' gives us a frigid psychopath named Mordecai Heller. [[Captain Obvious|This is a markedly Jewish name]], especially considering [[Roaring Twenties|the time period.]]
* The German general in Humon's post-WWI "American in Berlin" series was eventually revealed to be named Benjamin. After people criticized her for giving him a Jewish name, she responded by asking when she said he wasn't.
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* The main family on '' [[Birdz]]'' has the last name Storkowitz. They also have huge noses/beaks, which are even referenced as such more than once.
* The Belchers on ''[[Bob's Burgers]]'' are voiced mostly by Jewish actors (Kristen Schaal being the odd woman out) and their dialect has a Yiddish-y cadence to it. On the other hand, mother Linda has referred to her First Communion, and the restaurant is pretty far from Kosher.
* On ''[[Hey Arnold!]],'' [[Dumb Muscle|Harold]] came off this way before it was confirmed by a Bar Mitzvah episode. Also, [[Born Unlucky|Eugene]] has the last name "Horowitz" and [[Geek|Sheena]] can at least recognize Hebrew at a glance.
* Many ''[[Daria]]'' fans think that the title character's surname, "Morgendorffer," sounds Jewish, though [[Word of God]] says that that isn't intentional. The same is true of Tiffany Blum-Deckler, who is Asian despite her commonly-Jewish last names.
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