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the history of the Jews is one of the longest and most intricate in the world. Going back, some say, more

than 4, years, covering large parts of the world and encompassing hundreds of different populations, any attempt at summarizing it into a few lines will be inherently inadequate. Even though Jews have been dispersed across the globe for most of their existence, the history of the Jews still centers around the hotly contested land called Caanan, Palestine, or Israel, placed in the Middle East on the eastern shores of the Mediterranean Sea.

The traditional beginning of Jewish history is based on the stories in the Hebrew Bible, even though this is supported neither in archeological finds nor in other corroborating texts. The Israelites were nomadic peoples who grew into a kingdom, with a unifying culture and beliefs. The kingdom was, however, repeatedly conquered—by Babylonians, Persians, and finally Romans—dispersing Jews across the world.

During the Middle Ages, Jews in the Diaspora divided into two distinctive, geographical areas, forming two differ-

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ent groups: the Ashkenazi Jews of Northern and Eastern Europe and the Sephardi Jews of Iberia, North Africa, and the Middle East. Despite differences, Jews maintained a common culture based on Rabbinic authority. For much of the time during the Diaspora, Jews were subjected to persecutions, culminating in the Holocaust of World War II, when six million Jews were murdered. After the war, the State of Israel was created, giving Jews a land of their own, even though the majority of the world’s Jews still live in other parts of the world.

Much of the Jewish tradition and history has, as with so many other parts of human culture, found its way into popular culture, including comics. As can be seen in the pages of this chapter, allusions to Jewish history can be found in everything from history books—using the comics format to communicate their didactic messages, to hateful propaganda—used as anti-semitic tools, to humorous trifles like the Simpsons Comics.

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he Jewish calendar starts at the equivalent of 3761 BCE, based on calculations as to how long ago the world was

created according to the texts in the Tanakh, the central canon of the Jewish holy books. This way of counting, often called AM, i.e. Anno Mundi, literally “in the year of the world,” is used mostly in Jewish official ceremonies but also frequently alluded to in comics relating to Jewish history—apparently not only to give the stories an authentic quality but also, since it sets something happening in the th or 1st century in the 57th or 58th century, giving it an otherworldly quality. In the story “The Cup of Knowing” (1995) by Rachel Pollack and Ted McKeever, published in the comic book Doom Patrol #86, this is but one of many references to Jewish culture and history. Here an “evil” rabbi creates a golem using a severed head as its starting point, at the same time as the “good” rabbi uses the “truest divination method [he] know[s]. The invisible Torah. Fragments of the law of HaShem… written on kosher parchment in invisible ink.” And yes, it is every bit as weird as it sounds.

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he ancestor of all Jews is said to be Abraham, whose story is told in the holy texts of Judaism, Christianity, and

Islam. Isaac and Ishmael were two sons of Abraham. The former is said to have started the line which became the Jews, and the latter became the ancestor of all Arabs. The image was taken from the pamphlet Love the Jewish People (1998), published by Jack T. Chick. Chick is a Protestant evangelist with a Christian fundamentalist view and his tracts, small black-and-white comics pamphlets, spread in more than 75 million copies all over the world, are some of the worst hate literature to be found in the comics format. So then, why love the Jewish people? The answer lies in the line quoted at the bottom of the panel to the left, which has been interpreted by many Christians, especially in the U.S., as a command to support Jews in general and Israel in particular, no matter what, or risk facing the wrath of God. The tract in itself is full of overreaching historical conclusions, bizarre claims, racist remarks, etc., bringing to mind the old proverb: “With friends like these...”

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seemingly unlikely place to find references to the story of Abraham is the Simpsons Comics, but there

it is, in the anthology title Simpsons Bible Stories (1), by Ian Boothby, Luis Escobar, and Tim Bavington. In the story “Abraham’s Sacrifice,” we are treated to the stories from the Bible, as told by the ever-irreverent Bart Simpson. The role of Abraham goes to grandpa Simpson, who in true Simpsons style actually follows the original command of God to sacrifice his son, pretends not to hear God’s last-minute regrets and sends his son (played by Homer, of course) into the fire to be sacrificed. Another delightful story in the same comic book retells the early days of the violent and anarchic character Krusty the Clown—who, as it turns out, started his life as an obedient and over-achieving Jewish boy named Herschel Krustofski, but was turned to the dark side by the antics of the young-rascal version of the Simpsons’ later servile and ultradevout Christian neighbor Ned Flanders...

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tale from the Hebrew Bible that thematically con-nects the stories of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in

Canaan to the story of the Exodus is that of Joseph, son of Jacob and Rachel. Joseph was sold into slavery to the Egyp-tians by his jealous brothers; he then became the Pharaoh’s second-in-command when he correctly interpreted his dreams of seven fat cows and seven meager cows, thus saveing-the Egyptian people from starvation, met his starved brothers as an Egyptian nobleman, and finally revealed himself to them and his aging father, who had long since given him up for dead. They really did know how to write epics in those days. This captivating story has been retold countless times in all kinds of media, including comics. A surprising version is that of Robert Crumb (b. 1943), known for his provocative underground comix of the late 196s and early 197s. In The Book of Genesis (9) Crumb retells the story of Jacob in a very literal way, using the exact wording from the King James Version. Crumb is not Jewish himself, but has many inroads into the Jewish tradition, and I will return to him several times throughout this book.

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he most riveting tale of the Hebrew Bible must be that of Moses, considered the most important prophet in Judaism.

The story of Moses being hidden when all Hebrew children were to be executed by order of the Egyptian Pharaoh, only to be adopted as a foundling by the Egyptian royal family, is in itself the stuff of a major motion picture. That was of course only the beginning, as he would rise to become the great leader of his people, having God send the Ten Plagues on the Pharaoh for not letting the Israelites go, parting the Red Sea, leading the people on the Exodus, receiving the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai, and finally dying just before reaching the Promised Land at the ripe age of 1... Phew! Although much in the texts that comprise the basis for Judaism, Christianity, and Islam is under scrutiny from archaeologists and historians, there is no denying it is a ripping story and that the Ten Commandments is one of the most important and influential documents in the history of mankind. This irreverent version of the scene at Mount Sinai can be found in the book The Cartoon History of the Universe (1979) by Larry Gonick (b. 1946).

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nother riveting story from the Hebrew Bible is that of David, the young man who against all odds kills

the giant Goliath and grows up to be king of the United Kingdom of Israel. Although not supported by archeological or other historical evidence, David’s reign over a united kingdom in this area is said to have occurred during the 1th

century BCE. According to the Hebrew Bible, the Jewish tribes had united under a king, Saul, in 1 BCE, but it was David who would truly unite the Israelite tribes, embark on successful campaigns against Israel’s enemies, establish Jerusalem as a national capital, and usher in the Golden Age of ancient Israel. A beautiful retelling of the story of David can be found in the graphic novel King David () by Kyle Baker (b. 1965). Baker combines different artistic techniques in this book, creating lush illustrations with sharp penmanship enhanced with computer colors. The image to the left is the dramatic ending of the most action-laden part of the book, a 17-page, silent sequence in which David fights Goliath. The posture and composition indicate that Baker has studied Gustave Doré’s classic illustrations of this passage in the Bible.

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at the time when Jesus is said to have walked the Earth, the United Kingdom of Israel was no more,

and the Jewish people, having suffered through civil wars and conquering armies, were under Roman rule as the Province of Judea. The Romans at first allowed for considerable self-rule, but slowly tightened their grip, supplanting Jewish kings with a Roman prefect and subjugating the Jews to callous and brutal treatment. This resulted in revolts, the siege of Jerusalem, and the destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem. A beautiful story set in this pivotal time is the three-albums-long series Les Olives noires (“Black Olives,” 1–3) by the French cartoonists Joann Sfar (b. 1971) and Emmanuel Guibert (b. 1964). Sfar tells a story of the tensions of the oppressions Jews were subjugated to, but using a lot of humor. Think of it as a poetic version of Monty Python’s Life of Brian. The hero of the book, a little Jewish boy, has lost his mother, just like the scriptwriter Sfar lost his mother when very young, giving the story yet another dimension.

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after devastating wars with the Romans, Jews were dispersed into the Diaspora and settled in various

parts of the world, starting Jewish communities that both assimilated local culture and kept a Jewish culture and identity through shared literature. A pivotal figure in establishing this common ground was Moses ben-Maimon, also known as Maimonides or Rambam (the Hebrew acronym for Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon) who was born in Córdoba in what is now Spain in 1135 and died in Egypt in 14. He was a rabbi and a physician, recognized as the head of the Jewish community in Egypt, and one of the foremost rabbinical arbiters and philosophers in Jewish history, establishing with his 14-volume Mishneh Torah a canonical codification of Talmudic law. The life of Maimonides was told in the graphic novel Rambam: The Story of Maimonides (5) by R. J. Avrech, Aryeh Mahr, Svetlana Pekarovsky, and Vladimir Solop. This is a book with clear didactic intent, but the strange and interesting life of this man shines through and nonetheless makes it an interesting read.

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n Europe, anti-Judaism grew in the Middle Ages. Jews, who used to be respected merchants, artisans, and shop-

keepers, were deemed dangerous heretics by the Christian Church, which became increasingly powerful, often overshadowing the power of the kings. Jews were among other things made to wear a special kind of clothing and headgear to distinguish them from other people, and forced to move into either ghettos, isolated and often walled-in sections of European cities, or shtels, small separate towns or villages in Eastern Europe and Russia. Church and state did unite in the common notion of blaming many problems on the Jews (not least the bubonic plague that repeatedly ravaged Europe) as envisioned in the image to the left, taken from the book The Story of the Jews: A 4,000-year Adventure (1998) by the Jewish cartoonist Stan Mack. Mack uses a combination of prose, illustrations, and comics sequences to tell, as the title indicates, the whole of Jewish history in less than 3 pages. The book is interesting, albeit clearly written and drawn from a Jewish perspective.

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n the 18th century, the Haskalah, or Jewish Enlightenment movement, was triggered by the German Jewish philos-

opher Moses Mendelssohn (179–1786), also known as the father of Reform Judaism. Mendelssohn, who was a respected cultural figure in Germany at the time, strove to end the isolation of Jews and pave the way for those who wanted to be fully assimilated into Christian society. Mendelssohn deemed this necessary, as persecutions of Jews were taking place all over Europe and Russia at the time. The panel to the left comes from a biography of a young Jewish girl who lived through these times, having to dress up as a boy to avoid being persecuted. Actually managing to make a living as a Catholic man for several years, she made it all the way to New France, i.e. modern Canada, before her disguise was revealed. Brandeau was officially the first Jew in New France, but since the colony was legally Catholic, she was coerced to convert. Resisting this, she was deported back to France. The story was published in the anthology No Girls Allowed—Tales of Daring Women Dressed as Men for Love, Freedom and Adventure (8), by Susan Hughes and Willow Dawson.

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any Jews emigrated to the U.S. in order to avoid persecution. This started as early as in the 17th cen-

tury, although large-scale immigration did not occur until the late 19th century, following severe pogroms in Eastern Europe. The immigrant Jews did indeed find a society more welcoming than most in Europe, even though anti-Semitism was still present. One of the first Jewish Americans to gain national prominence was Mordecai Noah (1785–1851), born into a family of Portuguese Sephardic ancestry. He grew up to become a playwright, a journalist, and a diplomat, revered all through the U.S. In a pre-Zionist move, Noah tried to found a Jewish refuge at Grand Island in the Niagara River in 185. Though highly visible in media, this move did not gain momentum, and Noah eventually gave it all up. This part of Noah’s life was the starting point for the book The Jew of New York (1998) by the Jewish American Ben Katchor (b. 1951). In this densely told yet whimsical portrait of New York, we meet one-legged actresses, wandering Jews, and masked anti-Semites, together giving a sense of Jewish life in 19th-century America.

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devastating period for Jews comprised the so-called pogroms (what today would be called ethnic

cleansing) in the 19th and early th centuries, when Jews were persecuted and executed throughout the Russian Empire as well as in Europe. A famous depiction of the pogroms, Fiddler on the Roof, started out as a book, Tevye and his Daughters by Sholem Aleichem. But it is as a musical that it captured the imagination of the world—a musical that has been continuously performed all over the world ever since its creation in 1964 by Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick. Set in Tsarist Russia in 195, the story follows the Jewish paterfamilias Tevye as he struggles with the challenges of supporting and marrying off five daughters, even as the Tsar evicts Jews from their villages. The image was taken from the 1993 comic book Cud, by Terry LaBan. This story starts out as a pastiche of Fiddler on the Roof, but soon turns into a critique of Israeli politics, with God sending anachronistic help in the shape of “Yossi Ben Moshe of the elite Israeli com- mandos!”—a Rambo-esque character who executes cossacks with a machine gun, despite the main character’s protests that this act of violence will only make things worse.

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he so-called “Kristallnacht” (the Crystal Night), the major precursor to all the atrocities against Jews that

would ensue during Nazi rule in Germany, was an especially vicious pogrom, with attacks on Jews and Jewish property throughout Nazi Germany and parts of Austria during November 9–1, 1938. Almost 1,7 synagogues were ransacked, many of them burned; about 7,5 storefronts of Jewish shops and businesses were smashed (hence the name Kristallnacht); and 3, Jews were arrested and sent to concentration camps. This incident has been depicted in comics form several times, but never as interestingly as in The Adventures of Crystal Night (198) by Sharon Rudahl (b. 1947). The idea of the story stems, according to Rudahl, among other things, from “…a mild interest in [her] Jewish ethnic heritage—the words ‘Crystal Night’ seemed too transcendently beautiful to only refer to an atrocity.” Rudahl uses science fiction to tell a story of a Jewish future, where women and heritage are key concepts and the roles are switched as Jews are on top, harassing the “lower people.”

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n the early part of the th century came a phenomenon in America that has writers and thinkers divided: the

Jewish gangster—criminals rivaling their better-known Italian and Chinese counterparts in New York. The Jewish gangsters have been called the Kosher Nostra (a pun on the Italian Cosa Nostra), the Jewish Mob, or the Jewish Mafia. The divide in the interpretation of these criminal individuals stems from the fact that they didn’t exactly live life as ordained by Jewish ethical codes, but at the same time they have been seen as a historical alternative to the stereotypical suffering Jew. The images are taken from the graphic novel Jew Gangster (5) by the Jewish artist Joe Kubert (b. 198), a veteran in the field of comics, having worked on such classic comic books as Tarzan, Sgt. Rock, and Hawkman. He was the creator of the graphic novel Yossel, which I will get back to (see p. 151). As Kubert was born in the 19s, he is well prepared to tell this story, having lived in the era he depicts, and Jew Gangster does feel authentic, even though the main story is fictitious.

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or many Jews, the U.S. became a safe haven from the persecutions in other parts of the world, even though

there were for a long time widespread prejudices against Jews in America as well. The situation is much better today, compared to just 5–6 years ago. Jewish culture is now respected and Jewish names need no longer be changed in order to get ahead. All is not golden, though. The striking image to the left was taken from the comic “JEWBLACK” (199) by the Jewish artist Eric Drooker (b. 1958), published in World War 3 Illustrated #18. Drooker compares the situation for Jews and Black people in the U.S., among other things talking about “the American Holocaust,” making a comparison between the persecution and extermination of Jews in World War II and the treatment of Black slaves in America. Drooker’s ending comment, “Will we see each other as potential allies—or be blinded by race?” was published one year after the Crown Heights riot, when tensions between Jewish and Black communities in a neighborhood in Brooklyn turned into outright violent hostilities.

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