The list of Jewish superheroes isn’t especially long. There’s Batwoman, The Fantastic Four’s Thing, X-men antihero Magneto and a handful of less well-known characters*.
But now you can add a top flight hero to the list. In the opening scenes of new comic book blockbuster Justice League, The Flash introduces himself to Bruce Wayne (aka Batman) as “a nice Jewish boy.”
While there is no hint of Judaism in the fast-moving crime-fighter’s comic book canon, Ezra Miller, the actor that plays him in Warner Brothers’ current movie series, is “somewhat” Jewish. His father, publishing executive Robert S Miller is Jewish and even though his mother was raised as Christian, Ezra has repeatedly said that he considers himself Jewish.
In 2012 Miller told Haaretz: “My father is Jewish, my mother is not, but I consider myself entirely Jewish even though according to Jewish law I am not. I encourage everyone to understand that the rules were written before anyone could do DNA tests… I know that I am a descendant of Abraham through my father.”
While Miller’s status as a Jew might be open to dispute, it would seem nitpicking in the extreme to question whether a fictional character who had been struck by lightning and could now run faster than the speed of sound was Jewish or not. The Flash is, as long as the hundreds of pizzas he eats a day to maintain his super-speed metabolism are all kosher, now Jewish in the film series canon.
*One additional note. There is also an all-Jewish superhero team called The Jewish Hero Corps who appeared in a one-off comic published by Leviathan press. They include Menorah Man, Yarmulke Youth, Matzah Woman, Driedel Maidel, Magen David, Minyan Man, and Shabbas Queen. We thought you’d like to know.