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Revealed: Superman’s Real-Life Identity (Plus: Do You Know About the Superhero’s Jewish Roots?)

Jan. 3, 2013 11:25am

For more than seven decades, Superman has entertained the masses. From comic books to television shows and feature films, depictions of the hero from a foreign planet have captivated audiences. But how much do you really know about the Man of Steel? An upcoming event in New York City marking the 75th anniversary of Superman will showcase never-before-seen sketches of a real-life guy who resembled the superhero (we’ll explain), while also delving deeply into the character’s Jewish heritage.

Was Superman Jewish? Sketches Show Real Life Superhero Look Alike

Photo Credit: AP

Now, this latter mention of ethnicity may intrigue you. Some may not be aware that Superman’s features may come, in part, from sketches that were drawn of Stanley Weiss, a real-life individual who resembled the image that Superman co-creator Joe Shuster had conjured in his mind. The comic book artist met Weiss on the street in 1945 and was instantly captivated by his look, so he asked if the young man would pose for some sketches (at the time, he was already illustrating the comic hero). This resulted in pieces of art that have gone widely unseen for the past 70 years.

At the time that the two met, Weiss was only 24. The New York Times reports that the chance meeting happened either in New Jersey or at a resort called Green Mansions in the Adirondacks. The young man was an accountant who later helped run a family furniture and appliance business. Superman, his alter ego (or so thought Shuster), was still in his infancy, appearing in comics and radio shows — but not yet gaining the level of international attention he has garnered today.

Was Superman Jewish? Sketches Show Real Life Superhero Look Alike

One of Joe Shuster’s sketches of Stanley Weiss (Photo Credit: Joe Shuster)

According to Weiss’ son, David, his father found the sketches of him “amusing,” however he did not see them as a big deal. David cited modesty as a family value, although he did note that the sketches were, for a time, hung on the wall in his home. He contended that his mother seemed proud of the sketches.

“It seemed a bigger deal to her, but that still doesn’t mean that either of them considered it a big deal,” he wrote to the Times in an email. “The Jewish and family culture I grew up in had a fundamental modesty.”

When it comes to ethnicity, Weiss isn’t Superman’s only Jewish connection. Larry Tye, author of “Superman: The High-Flying History of America’s Most Enduring Hero” told the Times that Jewish culture played an important role in crafting Superman’s story. Shuster and his co-creator, Jerry Siegel, were both children of European Jewish immigrants — something that likely impacted their formulation of the character.

Was Superman Jewish? Sketches Show Real Life Superhero Look Alike

Photo Credit: AP

“They were planting little hints as to his ethnic heritage and the fact that he was Jewish,” Tye told the Times. “It was not just the creators and the publishers and all the people around them that were Jewish — and I love the idea that the first guy that he comes across, who looks just like Superman, is Jewish as well.”

Among other sentiments that may corroborate this notion is the character’s arrival to planet Earth. While he came as an infant in a rocket ship, Moses arrived as a baby in a basket to the Pharaoh’s daughter in the Old Testament. Plus, Superman’s name on Krypton was Kel-El, which sounds like the Hebrew for voice or vessel of God. So, there you have it. Superman was purportedly Jewish.

On Jan. 27, these sketches of Weiss, the Clark Kent doppelgänger, will be shown publicly at an event at the Center for Jewish History in New York City.

(H/T: New York Times)

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Comments (90)

1 2
  • LIBSALWAYSLIE
    Posted on January 3, 2013 at 3:16pm

    The sketch looks a lot like George Reeves, the TV Superman from the 50′s, and Still my favorite Superman.

    Report this comment

    LIBSALWAYSLIE  
    • toiletclogga
      Posted on January 3, 2013 at 7:07pm

      Ira Superman? Who would have known?

      Report this comment

      toiletclogga  
    • sillyfreshness
      Posted on January 3, 2013 at 10:44pm

      Of course he has to be a Jew. A NY Jew at that. More Juden propaganda. I don’t see a hooked nose, so I don’t see any Jewish heritage in him. Maybe he’s a leftist, Marxist……that might be his Jewish heritage, but no hooked nose, so I’m calling BS.

      Report this comment

      sillyfreshness  
    • G-WHIZ
      Posted on January 4, 2013 at 11:35am

      The PROGS sure hava great time ISOLATING and DESTROYING/ELIMMIMATING anything of the FREEWORLD!!

      Report this comment

      G-WHIZ  
    • Cesium
      Posted on January 4, 2013 at 10:30pm

      As a raised jew, I’ve known for a long time of superman’s jewish roots. Part of their inspiration for creating superman was a fantasy to combat their feelings of weakness insecurity in a world of antisemetism. Clark Kent was the least jewish name they could imagine. Superman is who they wanted to be in their fantasy.! He is the antithesis of an awkward immigrant Jew who is immune to antisemetism and awkwardness.

      Siegel and Shuster’s status as children of Jewish immigrants is also thought to have influenced their work. Timothy Aaron Pevey has argued that they crafted “an immigrant figure whose desire was to fit into American culture as an American”, something which Pevey feels taps into an important aspect of American identity.[12]

      Report this comment

      Cesium  
    • jcldwl
      Posted on January 9, 2013 at 11:07am

      He’s a fictional comic book character so who cares.

      Report this comment

      jcldwl  
  • thegreatcarnac
    Posted on January 3, 2013 at 2:57pm

    Superman is from Krypton. He was not Jewish. He was a Kryp. They always fought a planet called ‘thabloodz’.

    Report this comment

    thegreatcarnac  
    • Twobyfour
      Posted on January 3, 2013 at 11:34pm

      You owe me for a new monitor! There is coffee all over it! Next time issue a coffee alert!

      Report this comment

      Twobyfour  
  • yanki161
    Posted on January 3, 2013 at 2:35pm

    This should come as good news to Jerry Seinfeld.

    Report this comment

    yanki161  
  • Kregneva
    Posted on January 3, 2013 at 2:33pm

    Anyone who worships heroic COMIC Books and uses Cartoon Hero Character script texts as “quotes,” and who is so obsessed that they can argue and defend the morals and sexuality of these fictional scripted “histories” deserves to be ridiculed.

    Unless of course, they are Aussies. Then, it’s more like compensation for not having real lives.

    Report this comment

    Kregneva  
    • Thomas
      Posted on January 3, 2013 at 4:43pm

      Anything limited by time and space is illusory for it has a beginning and end. Sad that people don’t know THE TRUTH (Reality) but always need a image to cling to. Anything that is limited by time is not real but can give us a glimpse of Reality. Life is real for He is Spirit but the vessels that contain life are illusion but even illusion had a point. Sad many peoples words are only rooted in illusion and therefore they deal with a delusion which results in mental ,eventually physical illness and then death.

      Report this comment

      Thomas  
    • toiletclogga
      Posted on January 3, 2013 at 7:09pm

      What the hell are you babbling about? Are you speaking Klingon?

      Report this comment

      toiletclogga  
    • Kregneva
      Posted on January 3, 2013 at 9:50pm

      The only things worse than Comic-book back-story “historians†are the obsessive devotees of MOVIES about comic book characters who argue about the “reality†of the script – and how it obviously “fails to preserve the truth and fidelity†of the “real interpretation†of the storyboards – whatever that means. Chalk up another frosted vanilla cappuccino, Cobber.

      Report this comment

      Kregneva  
  • TROONORTH
    Posted on January 3, 2013 at 2:19pm

    As an interesting aside, Joe Shuster was born in CANADA. So America got Superman AND basketball from us . . . . … . .. . oh yes, and William Shatner.

    Report this comment

    TROONORTH  
    • Eastinfection
      Posted on January 3, 2013 at 2:32pm

      Let’s be fair. You have to take “credit” for Bryan Adams and Nickleback, too ;)

      Report this comment

      Eastinfection  
    • RabidPatriot
      Posted on January 3, 2013 at 2:40pm

      That is kind of our thing. We get stagnate, listless ideas from other cultures and countries and do great things with them. Your welcome.

      Report this comment

      RabidPatriot  
    • TROONORTH
      Posted on January 3, 2013 at 9:24pm

      I am sure that Brian Adams and Nickleback are using stolen Canadian Passports!

      Report this comment

      TROONORTH  
    • TROONORTH
      Posted on January 3, 2013 at 9:26pm

      Rabidpatriot – it’s called ‘a sense of humour’. You really should try it some time.

      Report this comment

      TROONORTH  
  • 00100111
    Posted on January 3, 2013 at 2:00pm

    Considering he’s from Krypton, not Earth, I’m going to go on a limb here and say he’s not Jewish.

    Report this comment

    00100111  
    • G-WHIZ
      Posted on January 4, 2013 at 11:39am

      oOH…I thought he was from DRUIDDIA!! That would make him….DRUISH!! :>)

      Report this comment

      G-WHIZ  
  • Beachmastermax
    Posted on January 3, 2013 at 1:57pm

    Maybe he is a weak cousin of the Creator of the Universe, who is also Jewish.

    Report this comment

    Beachmastermax  
    • ChrisDiamond
      Posted on January 4, 2013 at 11:44am

      Actually, Jehovah/Yahweh, Addonai/Elohim/That I AM/God/YHWH is not Jewish. He made a covenant with the Jews, yes, but that does not make Him Jewish. It is perplexing to me, when I see people make posts so drenched in primordial tribalism as to reek of it.

      Report this comment

      ChrisDiamond  
  • pacard33
    Posted on January 3, 2013 at 1:45pm

    His father’s name is Jor-El. He is the son of Jor-El (named Kal-El). Pretty obvious this is more of a Christ motif, than anything–comes down to earth to save it, can perform “miracles” in essence, interested in JUSTICE. Smallville is like Nazareth, with Superman being a diaspora Jew come down from Heaven to save the world. “Superman was the secularisation of the Judeo-Christian mythos with American nationalism” (Anton Karl Kozlovic). Pretty intentional–writers have been doing this for centuries. Why? BECAUSE IT ALWAYS WORKS.

    Report this comment

    pacard33  
  • civdab
    Posted on January 3, 2013 at 1:27pm

    Which explains why he denounced his American citizenship in disdain of America and it’s values to be a “global citizen”.

    Report this comment

    civdab  
    • Call2Action
      Posted on January 3, 2013 at 4:25pm

      The Superman of the 50s would never do that. Comics, like many things in our society have been infected with liberalanoma. The only cure is to cut it out.

      Report this comment

      Call2Action  
  • Timmy_NorthWest
    Posted on January 3, 2013 at 12:47pm

    @RJJ don’t knock the name due, it’s real not fake like most screen names.

    Report this comment

    Timmy_NorthWest  
  • Timmy_NorthWest
    Posted on January 3, 2013 at 12:41pm

    @RJJ; did read it dude. Apparently you are out of the loop as to the new origins of DC’s superheroes. At one point they had killed superman off. Did it about 6 or 8 years ago.

    Report this comment

    Timmy_NorthWest  
  • truthnstuff
    Posted on January 3, 2013 at 12:37pm

    The Blaze is quickly becoming the new “National Enquirer”.

    Report this comment

    truthnstuff  
  • Eastinfection
    Posted on January 3, 2013 at 12:17pm

    “Clark…. Clarky…
    When are you going to meet a nice girl and settle down?
    And i’m not talking about that tramp, Lois Lane..
    You know what they call her at Temple, don’t you?
    “Loose Lane”. Yup that’s right.. You don’t need that kind of baggage!
    And when are you going back to Law School?
    You know how embarrassing it is for me to tell the ladies at Bingo that my son’s a Reporter?
    I lie. I tell them you own the NewsPaper.. & you schlepp on the News floor because you’re filming an episode of ‘Undercover Boss’…
    Are you giving me a look? Don’t you give me that look!
    Wait till your father get’s home from the bank!
    You won’t be giving him looks like that…….”

    Report this comment

    Eastinfection  
  • Metallicat
    Posted on January 3, 2013 at 12:17pm

    I’ve always hated Superman. even more since he renounced his American citizenship. I’ve never liked DC comics,except for Batman,the rest look like gay circus rejects. I see in the near future,Superman will be killed off by a rightwinger with an assault rifle firing a high velocity kryptonite round. Make mine Marvel.

    Report this comment

    Metallicat  
    • Cavallo
      Posted on January 3, 2013 at 12:38pm

      Marvel killed Captain America. Marvel is rife with leftist wennie social commentary. The entire X-Men series went from racial to homosexual. Although I do like Magneto; especially the movie version in which he is ready to go to war to prevent more fascism. Although I don’t think the authors understand what the application of fascism entails and the banality of evil that it uses as its tools. The Jews weren’t stuffed into the gas chambers overnight. That was the end result of years of slow progressive maneuvering.

      Report this comment

      Cavallo  
    • Metallicat
      Posted on January 3, 2013 at 1:00pm

      @Cavallo
      I agree that both are polluted with leftist ideals,but I always preferred Marvels art style. I havent read a comic in a while and not currently up to date with all thats happened. I fear to read them now and see what theyve done to my favorite heroes. Whats great about comics is that they cant take away who Captain America is in my mind,even though they might ruin him on paper. We know who the real Cap is,and what he fought for. His ideals are my ideals,even though they are no longer Americas ideals.

      Report this comment

      Metallicat  
    • civdab
      Posted on January 3, 2013 at 1:35pm

      I have to agree with Cavallo here, Metallicat. Ever since that progressive piece of work, Joe Quesada took root at Marvel and then Red Skull, Ed Brubaker got hold of ol’ Cap, they have done their best to show how ashamed they are of America and her values. Marvel is as much an anti-american propaganda machine as is D.C. and the rest of the MSM these days. I mean, as much as I loved Whedon’s Avengers, he was lamenting the fact that he couldn’t include a commercial for Obamacare by the first Avenger himself! sigh

      Report this comment

      civdab  
    • Tarantulas
      Posted on January 3, 2013 at 1:44pm

      I’m submitting your name to the Guardians of the Universe for further processing. In the meantime, enjoy your Marvel comics, such as the Rawhide Kid in “Slap Leather.”

      Report this comment

      Tarantulas  
  • MAULEMALL
    Posted on January 3, 2013 at 12:14pm

    Read Manga… Better Art ,Better stories… More selection…

    supe sux… batman sux… spiderman sux…..

    Hasn’t been an original storyline in 50 years.

    Report this comment

    MAULEMALL  
  • GUYFROMMAINE
    Posted on January 3, 2013 at 12:10pm

    Does this make Lex Luther a Muslim?

    Report this comment

    GUYFROMMAINE  
  • Eastinfection
    Posted on January 3, 2013 at 12:01pm

    Now, instead of being defeated by Kryptonite, he will be be highly allergic to Pyrite!

    Report this comment

    Eastinfection  
  • MCON29
    Posted on January 3, 2013 at 11:58am

    Apparently, we are all patiently awaiting THE_JERK’s arrival

    Report this comment

    MCON29  
  • Eastinfection
    Posted on January 3, 2013 at 11:58am

    Faster than a speeding Uzi bullet!
    More powerful on the open market than a Silver Shekel!
    Able to eat large Pierogies in a single mouthful!
    It’s a Bird of Paradise!..
    ..an El-Al plane!…
    It’s “Super-Ish” !

    Report this comment

    Eastinfection  
  • Timmy_NorthWest
    Posted on January 3, 2013 at 11:36am

    WTF with the comic book charcaters? The ols silver age Green lantern is now gay, new age Green Lantern is Islamic, plus other changes. Why? To garner more readers? News flash! Comic book buyers are not kids anymore. They are middle aged white guys who buy ‘em now. Don’t think they care for the new diversity in their old favorites.

    Report this comment

    Timmy_NorthWest  
    • Cavallo
      Posted on January 3, 2013 at 11:44am

      Don’t forget that they killed off Peter Parker and Captain America, and had Superman renounce his citizenship. Although now that Bobo the wonder marxist is in charge I wonder if they’ll have superman come back and bend knee to the Messiah?

      Report this comment

      Cavallo  
    • RJJinGadsden
      Posted on January 3, 2013 at 11:47am

      TIMMY, I think Lassie is calling you. Not stuck in the well again, are you?
      This is nothing about a new age of comic book characters. Rather, this is the revelation of the origins of one particular comic icon. May I suggest that you try reading the article.

      Report this comment

      RJJinGadsden  
    • barber2
      Posted on January 3, 2013 at 11:50am

      Time to bring back Bozo the Clown…..in radical red !

      Report this comment

      barber2  
    • Cavallo
      Posted on January 3, 2013 at 12:01pm

      @RJJ Timmy is merely taking a tangent that is related but not directly referenced to the events in the article to criticize the current direction of iconic traditional comic heroes (at least the way I read his post). They did something similar at the end of the Silver Age of comics with the death of Gwen Stacy and the emergence of the dark heroes of the 80s and early 90s. Now days they seem to be making heroes more anti American, anti capitalistic, and anti traditional American. Green Arrow with his super left wing ideology doesn’t need much changing in the new world.

      Report this comment

      Cavallo  
    • RJJinGadsden
      Posted on January 3, 2013 at 12:09pm

      CAVALLO, I get it now, and my exposure to these comics was mostly in the late fifties through the sixties. Stopped reading them decades before all of these new age changes, and glad that I did.

      Report this comment

      RJJinGadsden  
    • Metallicat
      Posted on January 3, 2013 at 12:19pm

      yeah,they are killing off the traditional heroes to be replaced by minorities. thats how they do affirmative action in the comics world.

      Report this comment

      Metallicat  
    • Todd P
      Posted on January 3, 2013 at 3:22pm

      I used to love reading Superman and Batman in the 1960′s and early 1970′s – Spiderman too, and a few others. I’ve heard of some of the strange things they’ve done to them since – but I prefer to remember them as they were. Some things are just better left alone.

      Report this comment

       
  • SimpleTruths
    Posted on January 3, 2013 at 11:36am

    I can’t wait to hear from THE JERK on this one. Right in his wheelhouse.

    Report this comment

    SimpleTruths  
    • RJJinGadsden
      Posted on January 3, 2013 at 11:45am

      SIMP, This is one of those extremely rare times that many of us here will agree with you. Spot on for once.

      Report this comment

      RJJinGadsden  
    • Fubared
      Posted on January 3, 2013 at 12:14pm

      Jihad Jerk will not see the irony of even garden variety trolls mocking him/it/her with his mediocre nazi-ism. He will get belligerent, cite wiki, bring forth the vast Rothschild conspiracy and fume even more. SillySallyrefreshener will hopefully stand with him as he seems very lonely without the other nazi-Techengineer11 or some such crap. Nazis suck like lefties and they cannot see it for the hatred.

      Report this comment

      Fubared  
    • Gonzo
      Posted on January 3, 2013 at 5:29pm

      The_Jerk is busy scouring the internet for a Kryptonite source.

      Report this comment

      Gonzo  
  • AUsername
    Posted on January 3, 2013 at 11:35am

    lights camera Jerk

    Report this comment

    AUsername  
  • Cavallo
    Posted on January 3, 2013 at 11:34am

    He’s international now, though, right? Renounced his American citizenship? Does that make Clark Kent an illegal alien? Working in violation of the law? So.. the lost tribe of Israel are Kryptonians? At least they didn’t make him queer… yet.

    Report this comment

    Cavallo  
  • RJJinGadsden
    Posted on January 3, 2013 at 11:33am

    Just great! Next, THE_JERK will post links to all sorts of other wild assertions revealing just how evil Superman really is, and how the comics rot the brains of our children. Must explain my ability to get along with other people since I grew up reading Superman, Batman, Sergeant Rock, The Haunted Tank and such.

    Report this comment

    RJJinGadsden  
  • Fubared
    Posted on January 3, 2013 at 11:32am

    Jihad Jerk is fuming and grinding it’s teeth.

    Report this comment

    Fubared  
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