The Jewish World Of Harry Potter – The Jewish Press – JewishPress.com
Posted By admin on May 4, 2022
The Harry Potter books, a series of seven fantasy novels written by British author J.K. Rowling, chronicle the lives of Harry Potter, a young wizard, and his friends at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Recognized as one of the greatest works of childrens literature of all time and also much beloved by millions of adults its main narrative involves Harrys struggle against Voldemort, the Dark Lord who intends to wipe out the wizards and control the world. Brilliantly incorporating several genres and featuring elements of mystery, thriller, adventure, horror and romance, the world of Harry Potter lends itself to multiple interpretations and analyses, some of which we will discuss below.
In 2014, Rowling announced that there were Jews at Hogwarts, including Anthony Goldstein, one of the original 40 Hogwarts students introduced in the first Potter book; a minor but heroic character, he rarely spoke but always did the right thing. Without being specific, Rowling has suggested that there were other Jewish students at the school. In the first Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them film, a spin-off Harry Potter series set in the New York of the 1920s, the leading characters are Tina and Queenie Goldstein, who are almost certainly Anthonys ancestors.
Analysts bring their own perspectives to suggest interesting, and sometimes unusual, interpretations of the Harry Potter universe. Many have discussed the nexus between the Bible and the Harry Potter books, which have been read in terms of Judaism, Zionism, the Bible, Kabbalah, and Jewish history. Some see the entire Potter dialectic in the context of wizards as Israelis and Muggles as Palestinians; accordingly, there are bad wizards, like Voldemort, Baruch Goldstein, and Meir Kahane, and good wizards, led by liberal Zionist Dumbledore. The bad wizards use their belief as the chosen people to victimize, even liquidate, the Muggles/Palestinians and the good wizards seek to establish a two-state solution where a governmental Ministry of Magic extends rights to both wizards and Muggles but rejects actual coexistence in favor of keeping them strictly separate.
In a particularly interesting Jewish angle, Harry discovers that he is the only known survivor of a killing curse known as Avda Kedavra, one of only three curses strictly forbidden in the world of magic. This curse, which in Aramaic/Hebrew literally means I will destroy as I speak (avda = I will do away with, kedavra = as I have spoken), as opposed to the better-known abracadabra, which means I will create as I speak (abra, from the Genesis word for creation, cadabra, from the Hebrew word for speech). Even the name Potter could be read as Po-tter, the Hebrew word for excuse or acquit.
Dov Krulwich, an Israeli computer scientist who has written about the connections between Judaism and Harry Potter, notes further that, while there is no per se magic wand in the Bible, there are many instances where wand-like implements, including staffs, sticks and rods, are used to create miracles (aka, magic?), beginning with the rod that Moses used to perform miracles in front of Pharoah and to split the Sea of Reeds.
Similarly, much as the house elves in Harry Potter, who loyally serve their wizards and witches, are magical creatures, one could argue that so are the Genesis snake who convinced Eve to eat the apple and Bilaams talking donkey. Moreover, it is interesting to note that, when asked politely, the house elves, who loyally served their wizards and witches, would accommodate the dietary needs of vegetarian students; although Rowling never addresses Anthony Goldsteins dietary needs, Jewish children have grounds to imagine that the house elves prepared kosher food for him.
Krulwich also discusses comparisons between the concept of yichus (lineage from a respected family of high reputation) in some Jewish communities and Rowlings mudbloods, who have at least one human parent. He also compares Voldemorts use of dark magic to create a new body for himself to the creation of the Golem by the Maharal of Prague which, like Harry Potter, is a complete work of fiction and notes that Kabbalistic literature and the Talmud do present instances where magic is practiced and bodies are brought to life.
Other interesting comparisons include Voldemort, the supreme enemy of the wizards, and Amalek, the eternal enemy of the Jews, both of whom represent the ultimate in evil and who must be completely eradicated. Both Jews and Wizards, who live in their own separate, often isolated communities, have special missions to save the world through their practices and rituals and, although events may seem arbitrary at the time, everything that happens, in both the stories and in Jewish history, is guided by a higher power.
Just as Judaism teaches that prayer must be followed by concrete action, professor Lupin instructs his magic class at Hogwarts that you cant just say the words [of the incantations]. You have to do something. Dumbledore frequently says that the wizards must be united as one to have any chance to defeat Voldemort; the comparison to the importance of Jewish unity to the Jewish people is unmistakable. Like Jewish men at eight days old, Harry has a permanent and defining mark on his body, the famous lightning bolt scar. Notably, a 2005 conference at the University of Reading debated whether Harry Potter had a yiddishe neshama (a Jewish soul).
Some commentators claim, persuasively in my opinion, that the underlying structure of the entire Potter universe is the years leading up to the Shoah. A fascist ruler assumes power, promising greatness to all his followers and a better life for everyone, but only if the people cleanse the world of the racially impure minorities who constitute a clear and present danger to the public welfare. He takes control of the entire educational system and, when he rounds up the undesirables and robs and kills them, they go into hiding, where they are sometimes protected by righteous members of the majority.
Thus, we have Voldemort as Hitler. In fact, after visiting a Holocaust museum in 2004, Rowling compared the focus on pure blood and the characterization and treatment of the mudbloods with Nazi propaganda and admitted that Voldemort was modeled in part on Hitler.
According to the American Library Association, the Harry Potter books are among the most banned books in American schools. Leading the censorship efforts are some Orthodox rabbis, who oppose children reading the books for the same reason that they oppose all secular literature in general: because it promotes escapism and fantasy instead of focusing them on learning Torah and living in the real world. More significantly, however, they object to the books on the grounds that they violate the Torahs proscription against witchcraft (see, e.g., Exodus 22:17 and Deut. 18:9-12) and that its pagan content, endorsement of witchcraft, and glorification of magic encourages children to turn to the occult. Following not far behind are the Iranian mullahs, who claim that the Harry Potter books are a Zionist plot designed to rule the world and to encourage Muslims and Christians to worship the devil, as Jews do.
However, many, if not most, Orthodox rabbis support the Potter books as a way to encourage children to read and to think, including notably the late Chief Rabbi Sir Jonathan Sacks, who declared that in a society in which adolescents are precociously adult, and adults are permanently adolescent . . . [Harry Potter] reclaimed the kingdom of childhood, proving that you dont have to betray to enchant.
International excitement was generated when the publisher of the Harry Potter books announced that Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows, the seventh and final book in the series, would be released worldwide on July 14, 2007, at 2:00 a.m. which happened to be Shabbat morning. Israeli stores pledged to participate in the release at this time which, not unexpectedly, caused great angst and furor amongst charedi rabbis and others. Eli Yishai, then Trade and Industry Minister and a leader of the SHAS party, an important member of Prime Minister Olmerts coalition government, announced that he would dispatch inspectors to report and fine booksellers who violated Israeli law and sold books on Shabbat.
The Potter books, which have sold more than 500 million copies worldwide and have become the best-selling book series in history, have been translated into at least 80 languages, including Hebrew. However, in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, translator Gili Bar Hillel decided to make an interesting change: Instead of translating Sirius Blacks parody of G-d Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen, which she determined would not resonate with a Jewish Hebrew-reading audience, she had Black sing the well-known Hanukkah song, Mi Yimallel Gvurot Yisrael, Otam mi Yimneh (who can retell the things that befell us, and who can count them?)
She responded to critics by explaining that she was not trying to convert Harry to Judaism; that, in any event, the characters were not meant to be portrayed as inherently Christian (in fact, Rowling announced publicly that Hogwarts students were drawn from all religions, races, creeds, etc.); and that the point of the original text was simply to express the joy of inventing nonsense lyrics to a familiar holiday song and that nothing was lost by using a Jewish song for Hebrew readers. In any event, the Hebrew edition is not the only version to make changes to the text; for example, the American editions were adapted into American English to make them more understandable to young American readers.
Rowling has been explicit about her opposition to antisemitism, particularly in Great Britain, her homeland. In an angry response to a critic who claimed that, as a religion and not a race, Judaism is wholly irrelevant to defining antisemitism, she wrote Most UK Jews in my timeline are currently having to field this kind of crap, so perhaps some of us non-Jews should start shouldering the burden . . . Antisemites think this is a clever argument, so tell us, do: were atheist Jews exempted from wearing the yellow star? In response to a mother whose son experienced antisemitism in school, she wrote, Know that you arent alone and that a lot of us stand with you.
In a vigorous attack against antisemites, she wrote Split hairs. Debate etymology. Gloss over the abuse of your fellow citizens by attacking the actions of another countrys government. Would your response to any other form of racism or bigotry be to squirm, deflect or justify? Responding to a posting from a British Jew, Rowling wrote: This thread is the perfect litmus test. If you can read it without empathy for the writers pain and fear; if you immediately assume an agenda; if, above all, your response to the distress of a British Jew is to shrug and talk about the Israeli government, then you test positive [for antisemitism].
During his more than four years as Labour Party leader (2015-2020), Jeremy Corbyn, a member of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign who invited Hamas and Hezbollah to Parliament, was broadly recognized as anti-Israel. He was also an antisemite, which was later formally confirmed in an October 2020 report by the United Kingdoms human rights watchdog, which concluded that he and his Labour party did not do enough to prevent antisemitism and, at worst, could be seen to have accepted it. Rowling was out front in condemning his antisemitism. For example, in response to a Corbyn apologist, she wrote Heres a Corbyn fan happily contemplating British Jews fleeing their own country out of fear of a Corbyn government. In another tweet, she sarcastically wrote and there we have it . . . Not a word of human sympathy. The actions of Israels government justify making British Jews unhappy and afraid. Yes, Jews are bringing it on themselves by being Jewish.
In August 2018, mystery writer Simon Maginn challenged a Jewish complainant: Explain it to me, then. Explain your deep and wounding sense of injury. Explain the wrong thats been done to you. Explain your patently synthetic outrage. Explain yourself. Publicly. In response, an angry Rowling wrote:
How dare you tell a Jew that their outrage is patently synthetic? How dare you demand that they lay bare their pain and fear on demand, for your personal evaluation? What other minority would you speak to this way?
When Maginn responded with a defense of Corbyn, claiming that his antisemitic statements were little more than a rather complicated joke (which Jews, apparently, could not understand), Rowling answered citing Jean-Paul Sartres celebrated Anti-Semite and Jew (1945) and excoriated him for thinking that Jews somehow had a duty to account for their feelings to him, particularly when there were already hundreds of reports and complaints about how British antisemitism had affected them. Maginn accused her of libel and demanded that she apologize for a sickening personal accusation against a complete stranger who disagrees with you politically but, notwithstanding British law particularly favorable to plaintiffs in defamation actions, he did not have the guts to sue her. He ended up resigning from the Labour Party after it launched an investigation into his antisemitism.
Rowling was a strong believer in Palestinian rights and frequently criticized Israel for the horrific human suffering it had caused the Palestinians. However, she was bitterly criticized by Palestinian supporters and other antisemites for adamantly refusing to participate in an anti-Israel cultural boycott. She explained that her opposition was because the sharing of art and literature across borders constitutes an immense power for good in this world . . . At a time when the stigmatization of religions and ethnicities seems to be on the rise, I believe strongly that cultural dialogue and collaboration is more important than ever before and that cultural boycotts are divisive, discriminatory and counter-productive. She added that her critics had apparently missed an important theme in all the Potter books: to recognize the humanity in others.
In an October 23, 2015, letter, Rowling noted that Israelis will be right to ask why cultural boycotts are not also being proposed against . . . North Korea. Notwithstanding her opposition to Israels treatment of the Palestinians, she has been highly critical of the double standard applied to Israel and its people. In Lethal White (2018) (written using a pseudonym), in which she includes a character whose obsessive anti-Zionism morphs into antisemitism, Rowling seems to challenge the alleged distinction between anti-Zionism and antisemitism, an argument frequently employed by Israel-haters.
When we are first introduced to Harry in Rowlings first book, we learn that the orphaned and abused child is heir to not only a grand magical tradition legacy but also to a considerable fortune. The guardians of that fortune are a race of bankers a persecuted minority of highly intelligent bald-headed goblins with small, beady eyes who speak a strange foreign language and are preoccupied with gold and wealth. (The hook noses were not described in the book but did appear in the Potter films). Many critics characterized Rowlings depiction of the goblin-bankers as antisemitic, and others went even further, accusing her of being an antisemite. Not surprisingly, some of her bitterest critics were Corbyn supporters, who were thrilled by the opportunity to muddy her with the antisemitism of their beloved fearless leader.
However, while the depiction of goblins almost certainly has its earliest roots in antisemitism, contemporary portrayals in literature and film generally reflect a historic archetype and are not necessarily manifestations of antisemitic animus. I would argue that Rowling, who has openly, repeatedly, and unambiguously condemned antisemitism, was simply using the description of goblins so entrenched in the public consciousness.
Finally, it is interesting to note that Harry Potter is buried in Ramallah obviously not Rowlings fictional character, but a British soldier killed in action while returning to his base near Hebron during the infamous 1939 Arab uprising. Potters headstone has become a popular tourist attraction and, in particular, many Rowling fans undertake an annual pilgrimage to the British Military Cemetery in Ramallah on July 31 to celebrate the fictional Harry Potters birthday.
Continue reading here:
The Jewish World Of Harry Potter - The Jewish Press - JewishPress.com
- ARCHIVES: In early 20th century, sports were measure of 'Jewish manhood' J. - The Jewish News of Northern California - July 6th, 2022
- Rise of anti-Zionist Jews and heretical messianism - The Jewish Star - July 6th, 2022
- Joining, giving and teaching with Susan Kristol - Washington Jewish Week - July 6th, 2022
- CUNY Schools Jews on the New Race Regime - Tablet Magazine - July 6th, 2022
- Chabad Jewish Center of Troy to Open School this Fall Detroit Jewish News - The Jewish News - July 6th, 2022
- How have Jewish summer camps changed throughout the years? Experts explain - Yahoo Canada Shine On - July 6th, 2022
- Boris Nayfeld, the Jewish Gangster-Survivor, and the Birth of the Russian Mob in Brooklyn - CrimeReads - July 6th, 2022
- Meet the student rabbi who will join a New Haven-area pro-Palestinian Jewish group - New Haven Register - July 6th, 2022
- The Definition of the Jew: The Dimension of Freedom - Jewish Journal - June 26th, 2022
- Cha Cha Real Smooth is a charmer but its Jewish characters need some work - Forward - June 26th, 2022
- Meet every Jewish name that has ever been inscribed on NHLs Stanley Cup - Forward - June 26th, 2022
- Mapping Project unveiled by BDS Boston is a roadmap for Jew-haters - The Boston Globe - June 19th, 2022
- A Jew and an Arab walk into Auschwitz - The Times of Israel - June 19th, 2022
- How the Jewish community found a home in Japan - The Japan Times - June 19th, 2022
- Watergate's Jewish 'thing' & Nixon's thing for the Jews - The Times of Israel - June 19th, 2022
- To save the American Jewish community, we must build personal relationships - JNS.org - June 19th, 2022
- Following War, Russian Jews Congregate in Yerevan - The Moscow Times - June 19th, 2022
- Jew or Not Jew: Bill Gates - June 4th, 2022
- Jew-Hater Ayiana Love Accuses 'Israeli' Zoom of Deliberately Sabotaging ... - June 4th, 2022
- Who is a Jew? Israel's renovated Diaspora museum attempts an answer. J. - The Jewish News of Northern California - June 4th, 2022
- Another Jew is murdered in France - JNS.org - JNS.org - June 4th, 2022
- The Problem With Calling a Jew a 'Convert' - Tablet Magazine - June 4th, 2022
- Vanishing Jews and replenishing our numbers - JNS.org - JNS.org - June 4th, 2022
- Building Bridges to Jewish Unity - The Jewish Press - JewishPress.com - June 2nd, 2022
- Fighting Jew-Hatred As Winners, Not Victims - Jewish Journal - May 25th, 2022
- California Jewish caucus' primary endorsements are a diverse bunch J. - The Jewish News of Northern California - May 25th, 2022
- How Jewish is the Queen? - Jewish News - May 25th, 2022
- How Jews push Jews out of the fight against antisemitism - Haaretz - May 25th, 2022
- Dispatches from the Jewish Rally for Abortion Justice | New Voices - New Voices - May 25th, 2022
- J. ARCHIVES: Bay Area Jewish delis of yore gone but not forgotten J. - The Jewish News of Northern California - May 25th, 2022
- It's not about you: Why the Forward's article on the anti-Jewish elements of the Buffalo shooter's screed was offensive - Forward - May 25th, 2022
- Antisemitic Vandalism Is a True Threat to the Jewish Community - Algemeiner - May 25th, 2022
- WATCH: Lufthansa ADMITS They Targeted Jews Who Did Nothing Wrong - VINnews - May 8th, 2022
- Jewish gangsters once took on Nazis in the streets of NYC - New York Post - May 8th, 2022
- Spanish Jews take the spotlight in Heirs to the Land, a Netflix series set pre-Inquisition - JTA News - Jewish Telegraphic Agency - May 8th, 2022
- The Speech President Lawrence Bacow of Harvard University Needs to Give - Algemeiner - May 8th, 2022
- The Jewish community must stand with Ukraine - The Jewish Standard - May 8th, 2022
- Israel refusing to let me immigrate, Iranian Jew says - May 4th, 2022
- Reviving the Renaissance Temples of Venices Jewish Ghetto - The New York Times - May 4th, 2022
- A Russian Jew's Insights on the War in Ukraine - jewishboston.com - May 4th, 2022
- How an observant Jew became the mother of Jesus and Christianity itself - Forward - May 4th, 2022
- This Black Jewish filmmaker is the spouse of New Yorks new lieutenant governor - JTA News - Jewish Telegraphic Agency - May 4th, 2022
- "God of Vengeance": A Seminal Script in the Fight to Reclaim Jewish Identity | New Voices - New Voices - May 4th, 2022
- Yemeni Academic Dr. Abd Al-Wadud Muqasher: Muslims Must Exterminate The Jews; Allah Transformed Jews Into Apes And Pigs, They Are The Filthiest Of... - May 4th, 2022
- Putin wants to de-Nazify Ukraine thats ludicrous, say the countrys Jews - POLITICO Europe - April 25th, 2022
- 'It was paradise at the time': the little-known story of the Jews of Indonesia - Haaretz - April 25th, 2022
- New exhibit opens on history of Jews and cannabis - New York Post - April 25th, 2022
- Germany's Largest Newspaper: Jew-Hating Muslims Should Be Treated like Nazis - The Jewish Press - JewishPress.com - April 25th, 2022
- Remembering the only Jew on the first Freedom Ride 75 years ago - Forward - April 25th, 2022
- Report: Jewish Convert to Christianity to Lead March of the Living - The Jewish Press - JewishPress.com - April 25th, 2022
- Muna El-Kurd: Jews are Zionist Dogs, and 'Palestine' Should Be Ethnically Cleansed of Them - Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in... - April 25th, 2022
- Do you know this Jew? An actress known for her scandalous personal life and revolutionary activism - St. Louis Jewish Light - April 20th, 2022
- Arab Incitement to Violence Against Jews, Then and Now - The Wall Street Journal - April 20th, 2022
- It's time for Houston Jewish community to challenge antisemitism in the media - Jewish Herald-Voice - April 20th, 2022
- Jesus the faithful Jew: How misreadings of the Christian Gospels miss this and fuel anti-Judaism - The Conversation - April 20th, 2022
- The usefulness of Jewish amnesia - Haaretz - April 20th, 2022
- Mini-film fest to honor Gay Jewish Icon Harvey Milk this weekend in St. Louis - - St. Louis Jewish Light - April 20th, 2022
- Jew-Hater Ariyana Love Claims She Had the UN at Her Beck ... - April 11th, 2022
- German dictionary changes definition of 'Jew' after outcry ... - April 11th, 2022
- Amy Schumer is more Jewish than she thinks - Religion News Service - April 11th, 2022
- Blacks and Jews: Fifty-Five Years After James Baldwin's Negroes Are Anti-Semitic Because They're Anti-White - Literary Hub - April 11th, 2022
- Mayim Bialik assembles a very Jewish cast in her directorial debut J. - The Jewish News of Northern California - April 11th, 2022
- I am a Ukrainian Jew. I have lost my mother to Russian disinformation J. - The Jewish News of Northern California - April 11th, 2022
- Jew-Hater Captain Dan Hanley Digs Himself a Deeper Hole ... - April 7th, 2022
- For a Polish Jew Like Me, the War on Ukraine Is About Our Shared Futures - Jewish Exponent - April 7th, 2022
- How a conversion split and then strengthened Kenyas Jewish community - JTA News - Jewish Telegraphic Agency - April 7th, 2022
- Ezra Furmans new song is inspired by her experience as a Jew and as a trans woman - JTA News - Jewish Telegraphic Agency - April 7th, 2022
- Despite 10 years of promises, Jewish leaders have failed to make space for Jews of color - Forward - April 7th, 2022
- Jews Of Iran: A Community On Borrowed Time - I24NEWS - i24NEWS - April 7th, 2022
- Remembering the Jews of Mostyska - The Jewish Standard - April 7th, 2022
- "I'm the Jew!" - Jewish News - April 7th, 2022
- 'We are that united family': Russia's war uproots Ukrainian Jews amid false Nazi claims - USA TODAY - March 28th, 2022
- THE DEFINITIVE RAP: Jew Hatred Rising Interview With Richard Cravatts, PhD - VINnews - March 28th, 2022
- Zelensky Is a Jewish Hero. Some Jews Worry the Acclaim Won't Last. - Religion & Politics - March 26th, 2022
- Jew in the City Launches Hollywood Bureau for Jewish Representation: We Want to Be Seen as Individuals - Variety - March 26th, 2022
- The Surprising, Fraught History of the Texan Jewish Experience - Texas Monthly - March 26th, 2022
- Jewish stories were excluded from a new movie museum. Is Hollywoods push for diversity leaving them behind? - JTA News - Jewish Telegraphic Agency - March 26th, 2022
- Could Ryan Turell become the first Orthodox Jew to play in the NBA? Scouts say its a long shot. - JTA News - Jewish Telegraphic Agency - March 26th, 2022
- Milwaukee Jewish Federation audit finds a near-record high of antisemitic incidents in Wisconsin - WUWM - March 26th, 2022
- The surprisingly Jewish history of the Rorschach inkblot test - Forward - March 26th, 2022
Comments