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David Corenswet, the next Superman, has deep Jewish roots in New Orleans — where he was married by a rabbi
(JTA) — When David Corenswet was announced as the next Marvel Superman last month, Jewish movie and comic fans rejoiced: He will be the first Jewish actor to portray the hero in a blockbuster.
But one Jewish community in New Orleans has been particularly excited.
“The Corenswet family is well known and loved” in New Orleans, said Daniel Sherman, rabbi of the city’s historic Temple Sinai synagogue. “I have also heard a few groups talking about having some screening events to support David and are thrilled with the prospect of having not only a ‘Jewish Superman,’ but one with local roots.”
The Corenswet clan has long ties to Temple Sinai, Louisiana’s oldest Reform synagogue, founded in 1870. Although David Corenswet grew up in Philadelphia, many members of his family still attend Temple Sinai, including his uncle Jay, a past president of the congregation.
“It’s not the biggest issue in anyone’s life, but we’re very gratified that we’re going to have a Jewish Superman,” said Edward Cohn, a rabbi emeritus at Temple Sinai who is close to the Corenswets.
Corenswet also tapped Cohn when he got married in March. The ceremony took place at the Immaculate Conception church — one of the city’s historic Jesuit houses of worship, first opened in the 1850s — because Corenswet’s wife is Catholic.
Cohn co-officiated the ceremony with a priest — and according to Julie Vanderbrook, Immaculate Conception’s longtime wedding coordinator, “the rabbi kind of ran the show.”
It was the first time in at least two decades (possibly ever, according to Vanderbrook) that the church hosted a ceremony that included a chuppah, or Jewish wedding canopy. Other Jewish rituals, including the breaking of the glass, were combined with Catholic ones. Cohn said that Corenswet had a specific vision for how the day would go, and church staffers were delighted with how he carried it out.
“The bride and groom were just so determined to intersperse the Jewish traditions with the Catholic traditions, which to me just enhanced the beauty and the strength of both faiths,” Vanderbrook said. “I felt I got to know [the Corenswet family] pretty well, because they were delightful people.”
Multiple members of the New Orleans community who know David described him as quietly intense and intellectual, and he has successfully kept most of his personal life — including the details of his Jewish identity, and the very fact that he is married — private, even as the Hollywood spotlight has begun to shine brightly on him. (His publicists did not respond to multiple requests for an interview.)
Corenswet poses with Rabbi Edward Cohn at his wedding rehearsal dinner at Immaculate Conception Jesuit Church in New Orleans. (Courtesy of Cohn)
But Cohn said Jewishness is an important part of David’s private life, even if he doesn’t regularly go to a synagogue. David and his new wife, who is also an actor, have been living in Philadelphia, and Cohn said they are “definitely intending to affiliate with a congregation,” even though they regularly travel to Los Angeles and other filming locations.
In 2020, David spoke at a Zoom event organized by Jewish Pride New Orleans, a group under the Jewish Federation of Greater New Orleans umbrella.
“He was so generous with his time,” said Marc Behar, who founded JP NOLA. “A thoughtful, kind person.”
Cohn also knew David’s grandfather, Sam Corenswet, Jr., who Cohn described as a “bright, worldly, well-educated southern gentleman.” Like his own father, Sam Jr. was involved with the Temple Sinai board — and the New Orleans Mid Winter Sports Association, which runs the college football Sugar Bowl (previously an end-of-year championship game, now part of the annual NCAA football Playoff). The family ran a wholesale appliance distributor business.
An article on the Sugar Bowl website explains the many famous college football figures Sam Corenswet, Jr. met over the course of a 50-year tenure as president of the association: “He’s met many of the legendary college coaches, Bear Bryant, Woody Hayes, Bud Wilkinson, Bob Devaney, Bobby Bowden and Nick Saban, through the years. He’s witnessed numerous Heisman Trophy winners and national championship squads.”
David Corenswet’s father John, who died of cancer in 2019 at 64, was an actor-turned-lawyer. The family did not have cable TV while David grew up, and they instead watched classic movies together. David caught the acting bug early and made his debut at age 9 in a local production of Arthur Miller’s “All My Sons.” He would go on to Juillard; in auditions, he kept an old New York City subway token in his pocket, a gift and good luck charm from his father.
Corenswet, 30, is still far from a household name. He has starred in multiple Netflix series developed by prolific producer Ryan Murphy, including “The Politician” and “Hollywood,” but a turn as Superman will exponentially raise his profile. “Superman: Legacy” is slated for release in 2025 and co-stars Rachel Brosnahan, of “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” fame, as Lois Lane.
It’s unclear whether David will bake anything Jewish into his performance — Superman was originally created by two Jews and the character’s real name, Kal-El, is thought to be a nod to Hebrew — but the rabbi who stood under the chuppah with him said he’s sure the actor will make the role his own.
“For a guy who is an actor, he’s not looking to be on stage all the time,” Cohn said. “He can laugh at himself. He’s got a great sense of humor, which I think will be really important in this role that he’s going to play.”
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The post David Corenswet, the next Superman, has deep Jewish roots in New Orleans — where he was married by a rabbi appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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Treasure Trove explores the curious case of a stamp from an imaginary land
This 1 V. postage revenue stamp from West Refaim was postmarked in Virikoso in South Giantsland 100 years ago. Problem is—none of these places ever existed. There is a second […]
The post Treasure Trove explores the curious case of a stamp from an imaginary land appeared first on The Canadian Jewish News.
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Israel Has Told ICC It Will Contest Arrest Warrants, Netanyahu Says
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and then-Defense Minister Yoav Gallant during a press conference in the Kirya military base in Tel Aviv, Israel, Oct. 28, 2023. Photo: ABIR SULTAN POOL/Pool via REUTERS
Israel has informed the International Criminal Court that it will contest arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense minister Yoav Gallant over their conduct of the Gaza war, Netanyahu’s office said on Wednesday.
The office also said that US Republican Senator Lindsey Graham had updated Netanyahu “on a series of measures he is promoting in the US Congress against the International Criminal Court and against countries that would cooperate with it.”
The ICC issued arrest warrants last Thursday for Netanyahu, Gallant, and Hamas leader Ibrahim Al-Masri, known as Mohammed Deif, for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza conflict.
The move comes after the ICC prosecutor Karim Khan announced on May 20 that he was seeking arrest warrants for alleged crimes connected to the Oct. 7 attacks on Israel by Hamas and the Israeli military response in Gaza.
Israel has rejected the jurisdiction of the Hague-based court and denies war crimes in Gaza.
“Israel today submitted a notice to the International Criminal Court of its intention to appeal to the court, along with a demand to delay the execution of the arrest warrants,” Netanyahu’s office said.
Court spokesperson Fadi El Abdallah told journalists that if requests for an appeal were submitted it would be up to the judges to decide
The court’s rules allow for the UN Security Council to adopt a resolution that would pause or defer an investigation or a prosecution for a year, with the possibility of renewing that annually.
After a warrant is issued the country involved or a person named in an arrest warrant can also issue a challenge to the jurisdiction of the court or the admissibility of the case.
The post Israel Has Told ICC It Will Contest Arrest Warrants, Netanyahu Says first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Jewish Girls Attacked in London With Glass Bottles in Antisemitic Outrage
Shomrim officers at the scene of a hate crime in London in which Jewish girls were struck with glass bottles. Photo: Shomrim Stamford Hill/Screenshot
A group of young Jewish girls were the victims of an “abhorrent hate crime” when a man hurled glass bottles at them from a balcony as they were walking through the Stamford Hill section of London on Monday evening.
One of the girls was struck in the head and rushed to the hospital with serious but non-life threatening injuries, according to local law enforcement.
A spokesperson for London’s Metropolitan Police said officers were called to the Woodberry Down Estate in the city’s borough of Hackney following reports of an assault on Monday evening at 7:44 pm local time.
“A group of schoolgirls had been walking through the estate when a bottle was thrown from the upper floor of a building,” the spokesperson said. “A 16-year-old girl was struck on the head and was taken to hospital. Her injuries have since been assessed as non-life changing.”
Police noted they were unable to locate the suspect and an investigation is ongoing before adding, “The incident is being treated as a potential antisemitic hate crime.”
Following the incident, Shomrim, a Jewish organization that monitors antisemitism and serves as a neighborhood watch group, reported that the girls were en route to a rehearsal for an upcoming event. The community, the group added, was “shocked” by the attack on “innocent young Jewish girls,” calling it an “abhorrent hate crime.”
14-year-old girl rushed to Hospital with head & facial injuries following an attack in #StamfordHill.
Young Jewish girls on their way to a rehearsal were pelted with glass bottles by a male on a balcony at Woodberry Down Estate N4.
This… pic.twitter.com/MzHPHusgyX
— Shomrim (London North & East) (@Shomrim) November 26, 2024
Since then, another Jewish girl, age 14, has reported being pelted with a hard object which caused her to be “knocked unconscious, and left feeling dizzy and with a bump on her head,” according to Shomrim.
Monday’s crime was one among many which have targeted London Jews in recent years, an issue The Algemeiner has reported on extensively.
Last December, an Orthodox Jewish man was assaulted by a man riding a bicycle on the sidewalk, two attackers brutally mauled a Jewish woman, and a group of Jewish children was berated by a woman who screamed “I’ll kill all of you Jews. You are murderers!” A similar incident occurred when a man confronted a Jewish shopper and shouted, “You f—king Jew, I will kill you!”
Months prior, a perpetrator stalked and assaulted an Orthodox Jewish woman. He followed her, shouting “dirty Jew” before snatching her shopping bag and “spilling her shopping onto the pavement whilst laughing.” That incident followed a woman wielding a wooden stick approaching a Jewish woman near the Seven Sisters area and declaring “I am doing it because you are Jew,” while striking her over the head and pouring liquid on her. The next day, the same woman — described by an eyewitness as a “serial racist” — chased a mother and her baby with a wooden stick after spraying liquid on the baby. That same week, three people accosted a Jewish teenager and knocked his hat off his head while yelling “f—king Jew.”
According to an Algemeiner review of Metropolitan Police Service data, 2,383 antisemitic hate crimes occurred in London between October 2023 and October 2024, eclipsing the full-year totals of 550 in 2022 and 845 in 2021. The problem is so serious that city officials created a new bus route to help Jewish residents “feel safe” when they travel.
“Jewish Londoners have felt scared to leave their homes,” London Mayor Sadiq Khan told The Jewish Chronicle in a statement about the policy decision earlier this year. “So, this direct bus link between these two significant communities [Stamford Hill in Hackney and Golders Green in Barnet, areas with two of the biggest Jewish communities in London] means you can travel on the 310, not need to change, and be safe and feel safer. I hope that will lead to more Londoners from these communities using public transport safely.”
Khan added that the route “connects communities, connects congregations” and would reassure Jewish Londoners they would be “safe when they travel between these two communities.”
However, it doesn’t solve the problem at hand — an explosion of antisemitism unlike anything seen in the Western world since World War II. Just this week, according to a story by GB News, an unknown group scattered leaflets across the streets of London which threatened that “every Zionist needs to leave Britain or be slaughtered.”
Responding to this latest incident, the director of the Jewish civil rights group StandWithUs UK Isaaz Zarfati told GB News that the comments should be taken “seriously.”
“We are witnessing a troubling trend of red lines being repeatedly crossed,” he said. “This is not just another wave that will pass if we remain passive. We must take those threats and statement seriously because they will one day turn into actions, and decisive steps are needed to combat this alarming phenomenon.”
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
The post Jewish Girls Attacked in London With Glass Bottles in Antisemitic Outrage first appeared on Algemeiner.com.