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Marvel’s Troubling History of Erasing Jewish Characters
Marvel Studios, which was founded by various American Jews, recently released the first trailer for Captain America: Brave New World.
Amid the excitement for the legendary Captain America saga to continue with Sam Wilson at its helm, Jewish and Israeli Marvel fans noticed something odd: Sabra, Israel’s Captain America, will be portrayed as a former Black Widow instead of the superhuman Mossad agent she was originally intended to be.
However, erasing a character’s Jewish identity is not something that is entirely new to Marvel.
Although a recent Wrap report indicates that Sabra will retain her Israeli background in the film following a backlash from fans, Marvel’s approach to dealing with Sabra highlights a complex relationship between the studio and its portrayal of Jewish characters. In short, Marvel has a history of minimizing Jewish representation in its works.
In Captain America: Brave New World, the Israeli-born Mossad super-agent Ruth Bar-Seraph, known as Sabra, has been reimagined as a Russian spy. Her powers include super strength, speed, regenerative healing, and the ability to transfer her life energy to others.
Sabra, an Israeli cactus that’s prickly on the outside and sweet on the inside, is symbolic of the Israeli mindset. This significant reinvention intentionally deprives her of her full Israeli identity and the deeply rooted Jewish trauma embedded in her story, replacing it with a more convenient narrative.
By sidestepping these crucial elements of Sabra’s heroism, Marvel chooses to sanitize complex identities rather than embracing their power. In light of the ongoing war in Gaza, this erasure is particularly painful, as Israelis and Jews worldwide continue their struggle for authentic representation in the media.
Marvel’s deliberate decision to whitewash Sabra’s identity ignores the genuine, contemporary trauma and historical persecution faced by the Jewish people. The decision underscores that the delegitimization of the Jews and their homeland cannot even be escaped on the big screen.
Marvel’s latest attempt at a Jew-free superhero lineup doesn’t begin with Sabra. It has roots in the X-Men, Avengers, and Moon Knight — all major Marvel movie standouts.
Magneto and Hydra
Magneto, born Max Eisenhardt to a Jewish family, was taken by Nazi soldiers to Auschwitz alongside his family. Surviving due to his mutant ability to control metal, he later assumes the identity of Eric Lensherr and befriends Professor Charles Xavier.
In one of the most poignant Jewish scenes in Marvel movies thus far, X-Men: First Class depicts Magneto drawing strength as he remembers lighting candles with his mother before the Nazis uprooted his life and sent his family to Auschwitz. In X-Men: Apocalypse, Magneto returns to the concentration camp and uses his powers to destroy it.
As arguably the most famous Marvel character visibly rooted in his Jewish identity, Magneto exemplifies meaningful representation.
However, he is also one of the most infamous villains in comic book history. Jews have a long history of being demonized and scapegoated, and Marvel’s choice to perpetuate this narrative rather than challenge it is troubling.
Magneto’s mutant legacy lives on in his two children; Wanda and Pietro Maximoff. Wanda possesses intense telepathy and telekinesis, while Pietro can move at superspeed. In the Marvel comics, their Jewish heritage is integral to their identities. With a Romani mother and Jewish father, both Holocaust survivors, the twins are armed with a powerful legacy of resilience. Having fought both with and against the Avengers, the Maximoff twins are among the most compelling characters in the Marvel universe.
However, in X-Men: Days of Future Past, devout fans debate Wanda’s blood relation to Magneto. The fact remains that the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) has presented Wanda and Pietro without a religion, hailing from the fictional country of Sokovia, and devoid of any connection to their Jewish identity.
In the MCU, Wanda and Pietro’s powers result from experiments by the evil Hydra scientist, Baron von Strucker. Originally, Hydra served as the advanced technology and weaponry arm of the Nazi regime during World War II. Hydra soldiers share the fascist red and black, the straight-armed salute (performed with both arms), and an eerily familiar “heil Hydra” chant with their mainstream Nazi counterparts.
Beginning with Captain America: The First Avenger, Marvel has largely downplayed Hydra’s Nazi roots, transforming it into a generic, timeless evil organization. By downplaying or outright ignoring Hydra’s origins as a Nazi faction, Marvel seeks to avoid the disturbing historical implications and instead focuses on Hydra as a broader symbol of tyranny and corruption.
This revisionist approach not only dilutes the gravity of Hydra’s origins but also conveniently sidesteps the uncomfortable reality of depicting true historical atrocities, thereby diminishing the impact of the narrative and the lessons it could impart about the dangers of fascist ideologies.
The ongoing conflict between Captain America and S.H.I.E.L.D. with Hydra, persisting throughout the MCU, is presented as a battle between American strength, embodied by Captain Steve Rogers, and a vague evil represented by Hydra and its endless heads, minimizing the profound impact of Nazi ideology on World War II.
Considering Marvel’s popularity among young audiences, this depiction misleads impressionable viewers into believing that World War II was merely a struggle between America and a technologically innovative bad-guy. Hydra persists throughout the MCU, threatening the forces of good in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Captain America: The Winter Soldier.
Yet, as the technology arm of the Nazi party continues fighting, its despicable origins are conspicuously absent. If a young fan beginning their Marvel journey learned lessons about the war from these movies, they would identify a fictional Hydra, not the very real Nazis, as the primary antagonist, thereby doing a disservice to the depravity of the Third Reich.
Kitty Pryde
Kitty Pryde, another mutant in the X-Men universe with repeated movie appearances, is another revealing example of Marvel entirely revising a Jewish character’s identity to be more palatable for the big screen.
Kitty has remarkable phasing abilities, meaning she can pass through solid matter. Various websites, including fan sites and her official Marvel biography, emphasize her commitment to Judaism (see here, here, and here).
In the comics, she has been seen wearing a Star of David, reciting blessings, and drawing parallels between her experiences of being marginalized as a Jew and as a mutant. These sometimes invisible identities deeply influence her worldview.
However, Kitty appears in four X-Men feature films, and her rich cultural and religious background is consistently absent, leaving a void where her Jewish identity should be. This omission not only strips away a layer of her character’s depth but also underscores Marvel’s pattern of erasing Jewish identities to fit a more generalized narrative, thereby failing to represent the nuanced experiences of Jewish characters on the big screen.
I’m Jewish. I don’t have a quote unquote Jewish-sounding name. I don’t look or sound Jewish, whatever that looks or sounds like… So if you didn’t know I was Jewish, you might not know … unless I told you. Same goes for my mutation. I don’t have to wear a visor or have blue fur all over me. I can walk around. Just a young woman of the world. But … I’m not.
— Kitty Pryde, All-New X-Men Vol 1 13
Moon Knight
Unfortunately, Marvel’s belittling of Jewish identity endures on the small screen as well. One of the most highly anticipated TV series on Disney+ was Moon Knight, centered around the titular character, Moon Knight. In the show, Steven Grant is a goofy museum gift shop employee who struggles with dissociative personality disorder. His other identity is Marc Spector, a retired mercenary who becomes the Earthly representative of Khonsu, the Egyptian god of the moon.
Marc’s family embodies the American dream. Having fled Nazi persecution in Europe in the 1930s, Spector’s rabbi father sought a better environment to raise his Jewish family – a story many are familiar with today.
The show switches between Steven and Marc’s perspectives, but hones in on Spector in episode 5, “Asylum.” Spector is immersed in the memory of a shiva from his childhood as a means of confronting his abusive mother. In the scene, mourners can be seen wearing Jewish prayer shawls, and Spector himself is even wearing a kippah.
Given that Oscar Isaac, the non-Jewish actor playing Moon Knight, confirmed Spector’s Jewish identity would be evident in the show, there is no mention of his father’s work, his family’s history fleeing antisemitic persecution, or any significant exploration of his Jewish identity beyond surface-level nods.
This neglect strips away a layer of depth from Marc Spector’s character, reducing his heritage to mere background decoration rather than an integral part of his identity and motivation. Furthermore, it deprives Jewish fans of the same representation Marvel eagerly awards to other minority groups.
Despite its Jewish origins, Marvel continues to sanitize and diminish the Jewish identities of its characters, both on the big screen and in streaming series.
From reimagining Sabra as a Russian spy to neglecting Marc Spector’s rich Jewish heritage in Moon Knight, Marvel consistently misses opportunities to genuinely represent Jewish experiences and identities.
This pattern not only strips characters of their depth and authenticity but perpetuates a troubling erasure of Jewish culture and history as characters ascend from comics to movies. Marvel has demonstrated their commitment to representation as they bring their characters to life on the big screen, so why do they have a Jewish problem?
HonestReporting is a Jerusalem-based media watchdog with a focus on antisemitism and anti-Israel bias — where a version of this article first appeared.
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Northwestern University Police Charge Four Individuals for Role in Pro-Hamas Demonstration
Signs cover the fence at a pro-Palestinian encampment at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill. on April 28, 2024. Photo: Max Herman via Reuters Connect.
Three Northwestern University faculty members and one graduate student have been charged with misdemeanors for interfering with law enforcement’s efforts to clear an unlawful pro-Hamas demonstration which took place on the Deering Meadow section of campus during the final days of spring semester, The Daily Northwestern reported earlier this week.
The individuals were charged by the Northwestern University Police Department, which said that they allegedly engaged in “obstructing a police officer during the protests,” a crime for which they could, if convicted, spend a year in jail and pay a $2,500 fine, The Daily Northwestern said. They have already appeared before a judge and will do so again in August.
“While the university permits peaceful demonstrations, it does not permit activity that disrupts university operations, violates the law, or includes the intimidation or harassment of members of the community,” Northwestern University spokesperson Jon Yates said in a statement shared with the paper.
Northwestern University has struggled recently to correct an impression that it coddled pro-Hamas protesters and acceded to their demands for a boycott of Israel in exchange for an end to their protest, which included their setting up a “Gaza Solidarity Camp” — a cluster of tents in which the students lived and from which they refused to leave unless their conditions were met.
Northwestern president Michael Schill denied during a congressional hearing held in May that he made any concessions. As part of the deal to end the encampment, he agreed to establish a scholarship for Palestinian undergraduates, contact potential employers of students who caused recent campus disruptions to insist on their being hired, create a segregated dormitory hall that will be occupied exclusively by Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) and Muslim students, and form a new advisory committee in which anti-Zionists students and faculty may wield an outsized voice.
“It’s striking that you decided to negotiate a sweetheart deal with pro-Hamas students and professors who denied Oct. 7, either denied it, celebrated, or simply don’t care. I look at that as pure evil,” US Rep. Burgess Owens (R-UT) told Schill during the hearing, which was titled “Calling for Accountability: Stopping Antisemitic College Chaos.”
Following Schill’s testimony, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) called for his resignation, noting that he confessed to appointing accused antisemites to a task force on antisemitism that ultimately disbanded after its members could not agree on a definition of antisemitism.
The Northwestern University protesters are not the only ones facing consequences for alleged actions taken during the “Gaza Solidarity Encampment” demonstration, which exploded on college campuses across the country.
The University of Florida (UF) handed down severe and potentially life-altering punishments to seven pro-Hamas rioters earlier this month, going over the heads of a school disciplinary body that was set on slapping their wrists and sentencing most to probation. The individuals were issued full suspensions for as many as four years.
The suspensions may not be the only punishments that the students will face.
According to Fresh Take Florida, the students were part of a group of nine that were arrested by local law enforcement for trespassing and resisting arrest, charges that are being prosecuted by the Alachua County State Attorney’s Office. They are taking their chances at trial, the news service added, noting that all nine have rejected “deferred prosecution,” an agreement that would require them to plead guilty, or no contest, in exchange for the state’s expunging the convictions from their records in the future so long as they abstain from committing more criminal acts.
One of the nine, computer science student Parker Stanely Hovis, 26, — who was suspended for three years — has proclaimed that they will contest the state’s cases.
“We did not resist arrest, and we are prepared to fight our charges,” Hovis said in a statement. “We’re standing in solidarity with each other, and collectively demanding that the state drop the charges against us.”
The University of Texas at Austin has also meted out lengthy suspensions to pro-Hamas protesters who violated school rules.
Three students have been sentenced to deferred suspensions, a form of probation which allows them to continue their studies so long as they comply with school rules going forward, according KUT News, a National Public Radio (NPR) affiliate. As part of their punishment, they must pass an exam testing their knowledge of school policies on free speech and protests and formally declare their awareness of the harsher, full suspensions they will receive should they violate school rules again.
One student, KUT added, was given a “full” two-year suspension during which he is banned from campus. The suspension effectively disenrolled him from the university, but he can reapply for readmission in 2026.
“The University of Texas at Austin provided a world-class learning environment where every student can thrive,” said a letter, as quoted by the outlet, sent to one of the students who was placed on deferred suspension. “At this juncture, suspension appears to be the appropriate consequences for these serious infractions.”
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
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Trump Demands Release of US Hostages, Vows to Resolve Israel-Hamas War in RNC Speech
Republican presidential nominee and former US President Donald Trump raises his fist from the stage on Day 4 of the Republican National Convention (RNC), at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, US, July 18, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Andrew Kelly
Republican presidential nominee and former US President Donald Trump called for the release of all American hostages around the world during the final night of the Republican National Convention (RNC) in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on Thursday.
While accepting the Republican Party’s presidential nomination, Trump vowed to make foreign countries pay “a very big price” if American hostages are not returned before he enters the White House.
“To the entire world, I tell you this: We want our hostages back, and they better be back before I assume office, or you will be paying a very big price,” Trump said.
Eight Americans — Edan Alexander, Itay Chen, Sagui Dekel-Chen, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Gadi Haggai, Judith Weinstein Haggai, Omer Neutra, and Keith Siegel — remain in captivity in Gaza after they were taken hostage by Hamas during the Palestinian terrorist group’s rampage across southern Israel on Oct. 7.
The parents of Neutra addressed the RNC on Wednesday night, telling the audience that Trump “stands with the American hostages.”
Trump also stated during his speech that multiple ongoing wars — including the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza — would not have occurred if he still occupied the White House. The Republican nominee and former president vowed to resolve these global crises upon his return to the Oval Office.
Trump also promised to “end every single international crisis that the current administration has created, including the horrible war with Russia and Ukraine — which would have never happened if I was president — and the war caused by the attack on Israel, which would have never happened if I was president.”
“Iran was broke. Iran had no money. Now Iran has $250 billion. They made it all over the last two and a half years,” Trump said.
When Trump was president, he withdrew the US from a nuclear deal with Iran that was brokered by the former Obama administration, reimposing harsh economic sanctions on the Iranian regime. Current US President Joe Biden has attempted to restart negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program, allowing sanctions waivers which, critics argue, benefit Tehran and allow it to spend more money on supporting terrorism.
From 2018 to 2023, for example, the US State Department allowed Iraq to import energy from Iran under the condition that all payments were kept in an escrow account out of the Iranian government’s reach. In the summer of 2023, however, the Biden administration changed the sanctions waiver to allow Iraq to transfer $10 billion to Iran.
The US intelligence community has consistently labeled Iran — which provides funding, weapons, and training to Hamas — as the world’s foremost state sponsor of terrorism. Republicans have argued that the Biden administration’s decision to ease certain sanctions on Iran will allow the regime to give more support to its terrorist proxies, such as Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Meanwhile, Iran has been ramping up its nuclear program without a nuclear accord in place.
“Now Iran is very close to having a nuclear weapon, which would have never happened,” Trump said.
Trump also promised to build an Iron Dome air defense system on US soil similar to the one that Israel has.
“Why should other countries have this and we don’t? No, we’re going to build an Iron Dome over our country, and we’re going to be sure that nothing can come and harm our people,” Trump said.
It was unclear what threats Trump had in mind to thwart with Iron Dome, which was designed to stop short-range rockets and missiles — not a danger the US has ever faced along its borders.
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Anti-Israel UN Special Rapporteur Calls for UN to Expel Jewish State
Francesca Albanese, UN special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories, attends a side event during the Human Rights Council at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, March 26, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Denis Balibouse
The United Nations’ notoriously controversial special rapporteur on the human rights situation in the Palestinian territories has called for the UN to expel Israel as a member state of the world body, once again raising questions of her impartiality.
“Time to #UNseatIsrael from the UN,” Francesca Albanese wrote on X/Twitter on Thursday.
Albanese was responding to a tweet from Balakrishnan Rajagopal, the UN special rapporteur “on the right to adequate housing,” who wrote it was “high time to take action against Israel including through unseating from the UN, as was done with apartheid South Africa.”
The outrage came after Israeli forces struck a UN facility in Gaza which, according to the military, was being used by Hamas terrorists as a command center. Hamas, the Palestinian terrorist group that rules Gaza, notoriously embeds its fighters within Gaza’s civilian population and commandeers civilian facilities like hospitals, schools, and mosques to run operations and direct attacks.
The UN facility hit in Gaza belonged to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), the UN organization dedicated solely to Palestinian refugees and their descendants. UNRWA has been accused of aiding Hamas, and Israel has said employees of the agency participated in the terrorist group’s Oct. 7 onslaught across southern Israel. UN officials deny the allegations, arguing their mission in Gaza is critical to ensuring humanitarian aid gets to the civilian population.
“Our troops found UAVs, war rooms used for surveillance operations, and large quantities of weapons, including tactical drones, rockets, machine guns, mortars, explosives, and grenades in a compound near UNRWA’s HQ in Gaza City, following intelligence that Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists and infrastructure were embedded inside,” the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement regarding its operation targeting the facility. The IDF also said there were tunnel routes near the compound.
In response to Albanese’s tweet, Hillel Neuer — the executive director of UN Watch, a Geneva-based NGO that monitors the UN — lambasted the special rapporteur for what he described as an anti-Israel bias.
“You are violating your duty to act with impartiality. Under no circumstances is a UN mandate holder entitled to call for the removal of a member state,” he wrote.
Albanese’s call to expel Israel is the latest chapter of her extensive history of using her role at the UN to denigrate Israel and seemingly rationalize Hamas’ attacks on the Jewish state.
The UN recently launched a probe into Albanese’s conduct over allegedly accepting a trip to Australia funded by pro-Hamas organizations.
In April, Albanese issued public support for the pro-Hamas protests and encampments on US university campuses, saying that they gave her “hope.” Earlier that month, she accused Israel of destroying Gaza and committing genocide in the Hamas-ruled Palestinian enclave, from which the terrorist group launched the current war by invading the Jewish state on Oct. 7, massacring 1,200 people, and kidnapping 250 others as hostages. At a public hearing at the European Parliament on April 9, the UN rapporteur devoted much of her time to accusing Israel — but not Hamas — of lying about its conduct in Gaza.
That hearing came about two weeks after Albanese released a report accusing Israel of carrying out “genocide” in Gaza, continuing a pattern of the UN official singling out the Jewish state for particularly harsh condemnation. Albanese’s report did not mention any details about Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre across southern Israel. Israeli officials lambasted her findings, arguing they were misleading and excused terrorism.
In February, Albanese claimed Israelis were “colonialists” who had “fake identities.” Previously, she defended Palestinians’ “right to resist” Israeli “occupation” at a time when over 1,100 rockets were fired by Gaza terrorists at Israel. Last year, US lawmakers called for the firing of Albanese for what they described as her “outrageous” antisemitic statements, including a 2014 letter in which she claimed America was “subjugated by the Jewish lobby.”
Albanese’s anti-Israel comments have earned her the praise of Hamas officials in the past.
In response to French President Emmanuel Macron calling Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel the “”argest antisemitic massacre of the 21st century,” Albanese said, “No, Mr. Macron. The victims of Oct. 7 were not killed because of their Judaism, but in response to Israel’s oppression.”
Video footage of the Oct. 7 onslaught showed Palestinian terrorists led by Hamas celebrating the fact that they were murdering Jews.
Nevertheless, Albanese has argued that Israel should make peace with Hamas, saying that it “needs to make peace with Hamas in order to not be threatened by Hamas.”
When asked what people do not understand about Hamas, she added, “If someone violates your right to self-determination, you are entitled to embrace resistance.”
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