“When I do feel that I’m right, I’m not much bothered by criticism,” she added. “Who has ever stood up against injustice without being criticized? If that’s all I have to endure, then it’s very little.”
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A graphic novel of the Purim story, from a Batman comics editor
(JTA) — In 1996, Jordan Gorfinkel launched two series of comics that get at the two sides to his personality and career.
One was “Birds of Prey” — which has since been the basis for several television and film adaptations — that he created while overseeing the Batman franchise as an editor at DC Comics. (Another claim to fame during his tenure from 1991-99 was the creation of “Batman: No Man’s Land,” which served as inspiration for the 2012 Christopher Nolan blockbuster “Dark Knight Rises.”)
The other that he launched 1996 was “Jewish Cartoon,” an ongoing series of comics that poke fun and celebrate aspects of Jewish life and religious observance. To date, he has followed a cast of characters in this series for over 1,000 cartoons.
Gorfinkel’s newest project combines those two passions into a graphic novel version of the Purim story, usually read in what’s called a Megillah scroll. Gorfinkel said “The Koren Tanakh Graphic Novel Esther,” which is illustrated by Yael Nathan, is a “Batman-style” adaptation.
It’s not his first collaboration with the Jewish publisher — three years ago, he published a graphic novel haggadah with the Israeli artist Erez Zadok.
He and Nathan spoke to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency about their latest creation and what’s next in the Jewish graphic novel world.
JTA: What does the book provide beyond the normal Megillah story text?
Gorfinkel: The Koren Esther graphic novel is 100% kosher to bring to your Megillah reading because alongside the sequential art pages is the full, unabridged Hebrew text. The mitzvah is to listen to the Megillah in Hebrew and the tradition is to read it in the language you understand. That’s why this book presents the English translation in the captions and word balloons embedded in the fabulous art by Israeli illustrator Yael Nathan in a stunning package designed by Tzipora Ginzberg.
Why a graphic novel?
Nathan: From a visual perspective, this story has everything. Emotions, action, intrigue, great characters, battles and redemption. It really allowed me to flex my storytelling muscles and try to convey complex scenes and ideas in a limited space.
Gorfinkel: Esther/Hadassah is the O.G. Wonder Woman! Ripped away from her family, her land and her people to serve in a foreign court, keeping a secret identity until the moment comes to step up and be a savior. Megillat Esther is tailor-made for a graphic novel.
Is this book just for kids? Who do you want to reach?
Gorfinkel: I want to reach everyone. With Esther and the Passover haggadah graphic novel that preceded it, readers can return to the material at every age and gain new and deeper insights out of the experience. Think of it like a good “Simpsons” episode, or Pixar movie: kids enjoy the surface meaning while teens and adults experience the same material at deeper levels. The Jewish graphic novels that I produce are child-friendly but decidedly not childish. This is because I acknowledge that Western readers presume that if a book has pictures, it has to be for kids. I’m going to need a few more books to educate the masses otherwise!
Nathan: I think this book is for everyone. The style of the characters is purposefully endearing and humorous, to help people connect to them — but what is conveyed in each panel goes much deeper than cute characters. There is a wealth of knowledge and interpretations that are not in the plain text and are portrayed visually so the reader can take them in without reading a whole page of explanations. Both those who know the meaning behind the text would find interesting references, and those who don’t will learn something new.
Jordan Gorfinkel edited the DC Batman franchise from 1991-99. (Courtesy of Gorfinkel)
What comics did you grow up with? And what do comics mean to you?
Nathan: My father was born and raised in the Philippines, the son of Jewish immigrants who fled from Germany before the second World War. So my influences are from all over the world. I grew up looking at European comics, Israeli cartoons, American golden-age comics that my father brought over from the Philippines and Japanese manga. Comics mean the freedom to tell stories from my own viewpoint with no constraints. Unlike movies — where the efforts required to film a person in a room is much less involved than filming a full space scene with aliens and battleships — in comics, the work involved is all the same. It’s just drawing. No big budgets or additional resources needed. Just imagination and storytelling skill.
Gorfinkel: I never grew up. I’m a Jewish Peter Pan (Pinchas Pan?). In my youth, however, I devoured Batman comics, of course. The basic morality tales of extroverted “good guys” vanquishing evil and consistently delivering justice for all complemented the grade school Torah education I was receiving in Jewish day schools of a variety of different denominations. We moved around a lot, and these superheroes were my comfortable and consistent companions. As I got older, I began to lean into Marvel Comics, whose anti-heroes fought internal struggles between their “yetzer hatov” (good inclination) and “yetzer harah” (evil inclination). Teenaged Gorf appreciated how these nuanced characterizations reflected the deeper layers of Torah I was learning in high school and my gap year in an Israel yeshiva. At the same time, I was, and am, a huge fan of newspaper-style four panel comic strips, quite possibly introduced to me by my zayde [grandfather], who always clipped the Sunday funnies for me. My mother continues the tradition to this day. When I was first starting my own newspaper strip, I reached out for advice and “chizuk” to my favorite artists. I received handwritten replies from nearly everyone, from Charles “Peanuts” Schulz to G.B. “Doonesbury” Trudeau. To this day, I treasure Canadian cartoonist Lynn “For Better or For Worse” Johnston as a mentor and friend.
You have done a Passover graphic novel and now a Purim graphic novel. What’s next?
Gorfinkel: Esther is intended as the lead-off for a Koren graphic novel series surveying the entire Bible. We’re just getting underway… I am also conceptualizing a nonprofit Jewish graphic novel initiative as an umbrella organization, to provide further support for the Koren work and moreover, to train and provide support for the next generation of Jewish visual storytellers who reach out to me because they want to do what I do. Jewish people created the superhero medium. Now, I am bringing the medium full circle so that superheroes and graphic novels can benefit the Jewish people. At the same time, I am traveling North America and the world as a scholar in residence and Jewish Cartoon workshop instructor, spreading my core message: Make Judaism your superpower!
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The post A graphic novel of the Purim story, from a Batman comics editor appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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Sally Rooney to Publish Hebrew Translation of Latest Book With Pro-BDS Israeli Publisher
Author Sally Rooney in an interview with “PBS NewsHour.” Photo: Screenshot.
Award-winning Irish author Sally Rooney will publish a Hebrew translation of her latest novel, Intermezzo, through an independent Israeli publishing house that supports the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel, it was announced on Tuesday.
According to its website, November Books aims to “promote the full realization of human rights … and in particular for Palestinians living under all forms of Israeli oppression including the military occupation.” The Israeli publishing house said it is also “committed to the idea, in line with Palestinian and democratic voices in Israel, that Israel should not be a Jewish state but rather a state of all its citizens and recognize the right of return as it was accepted by the UN. We strongly oppose any form of inequality and apartheid.”
November Books will publish the Hebrew translation of Intermezzo in collaboration with +972 Magazine and Local Call, two independent Israeli news outlets. Translated by Debbie Eylon and edited by Asaf Schurr, it will be published in June “in a way that honors the principles of the boycott and stands in solidarity with the Palestinian demand for freedom, equality, and justice,” +972 Magazine executive director Haggai Matar wrote on Tuesday in an op-ed announcing the news. The novel, published in 2024, focuses on two brothers following the death of their father, and it explores themes of grief, love, and family.
In 2021, Rooney announced she would only allow her third book, Beautiful World, Where Are You, to be translated to Hebrew through a publishing house that complies with the BDS movement’s “institutional boycott guidelines” against Israel. The 35-year-old author said she does not want to partner with an Israeli company “that does not publicly distance itself from apartheid and support the UN-stipulated rights of the Palestinian people.”
At the time, Rooney had already published Hebrew translations of two of her novels — 2017’s Conversations With Friends and 2018’s Normal People – with the Israeli publishing house Modan, but refused to let them translate Beautiful World, Where Are You.
BDS seeks to isolate Israel from the international community as a step toward its eventual elimination. Leaders of the movement have repeatedly stated their goal is to destroy the world’s only Jewish state.
Rooney spoke this week to The Guardian and attempted to explain her position.
“For me, the act of translation is in itself a beautiful ideal,” she said. “Though my refusal to work with complicit Israeli publishing houses made the contractual side of things more complex, I was, of course, never boycotting the Hebrew language or any language.”
Last year, Rooney said she would give proceeds from her books and BBC adaptations of them to support Palestine Action, an anti-Israel group designated as a terrorist organization in the United Kingdom.
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For Israel, the Accusation Itself Becomes Proof
People attend the annual al-Quds Day (Jerusalem Day) rally in London, Britain, March 23, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Jaimi Joy
A dangerous shift happens when people stop feeling responsible for verifying what they believe. The accusation itself becomes enough. Once institutions repeat something with enough confidence, many decent people hand over their judgment completely. They assume somebody else has already checked the facts.
That is where real danger begins.
A case is being built against Israel in international courts, and much of the public discussion around it already feels emotionally settled long before most people have examined a single document, testimony, or legal standard for themselves.
The International Court of Justice has no meaningful conflict-of-interest mechanism comparable to what people would expect in many domestic legal systems. UN reports and secondary claims enter public discourse carrying the weight of institutional authority, even when the underlying sources were never cross-examined or independently verified in a courtroom setting.
At a certain point, the accusation itself becomes proof.
That pattern extends far beyond a courtroom. Perception gets taken over before a person realizes his or her thinking has been outsourced. Repetition creates familiarity. Familiarity creates emotional certainty. Eventually people stop asking where the information came from in the first place.
Jewish history carries enough experience with this pattern to recognize it early. A claim repeated often enough starts feeling like an established truth even before evidence exists to support it.
Once institutions absorb the accusation, the public no longer experiences skepticism as responsibility. Skepticism starts feeling like disobedience.
Artificial intelligence is about to accelerate this problem even further. AI systems absorb dominant narratives faster than human beings can examine them critically. Once a version of events becomes widely indexed, cited, repeated, and emotionally reinforced, it enters the system as background truth. The next generation encounters conclusions first and context later.
That matters because most people do not independently investigate history, legal claims, or war. They inherit understanding socially. Search engines shape it. Institutions shape it. Algorithms shape it. Repetition shapes it.
The responsibility for your own safety begins before the threat fully arrives. Physical self-defense taught me that years ago. Cognitive self-defense follows the same principle. A society that loses the ability to question emotionally satisfying accusations becomes vulnerable to manipulation at a scale far larger than any courtroom.
People once understood that serious accusations required serious proof. Today, institutional confidence often replaces evidence in the public mind. That shift should concern anyone who still believes good intentions alone are enough to protect people from participating in injustice.
Tsahi Shemesh is an Israeli-American IDF veteran and the founder of Krav Maga Experts in NYC. A father and educator, he writes about Jewish identity, resilience, moral courage, and the ethics of strength in a time of rising antisemitism.
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Fatah Turned 388 Terrorists Into Its Leaders at Its 8th General Conference
A meeting of the Fatah Revolutionary Council at the Bedouin village of Khan al-Ahmar in the West Bank, July 12, 2018. Photo: Reuters / Mohamad Torokman.
The Eighth Fatah Conference continued to glorify past Palestinian terrorist murderers while building the next generation of terrorist leadership.
PA and Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas decided that all prisoners who were incarcerated for more than 20 years — meaning those who were guilty of murder or attempted murder — automatically would become part of the Palestinian leadership and thus were able to participate and vote at the conference, which took place this past weekend.
The consequence of this is that a total of 388 Palestinians, who as prisoners were presented as role models, just transitioned into becoming PA leaders.
A senior Fatah youth leader described the importance: “We have a great opportunity as Fatah youth … to learn from them.”
Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) has shown repeatedly exactly how the PA and Fatah, as policy, portray murderers of Jews as role models for all Palestinians, and especially youth:
Official PA TV newsreader: “The prisoners [i.e., terrorists] will also have prominent representation in the [Eighth Fatah] Conference, there will be participation of more than 388 prisoners who have served more than 20 years in the occupation’s [i.e., Israeli] prisons…”
Fatah Shabiba Youth Movement Secretariat member Tasami Ramadan: “The participation of the [released] prisoners this time in this conference… is a very qualitative addition... seeing this qualitative and special addition that our released prisoners will contribute, as they are not just released prisoners and we cannot summarize them only as such.
They are also [figures] of national stature and national pillars who have outlined the characteristics of Fatah’s path, and they are also spiritual and organizational pillars. We have a great opportunity as Fatah youth … to learn from them and to be their partners in building Fatah’s political decision.” [emphasis added]
[Official PA TV News, May 8, 2026]
A Fatah spokesman further legitimized the participation of released terrorists in Fatah’s leadership conference as they “precede everything” and are held “in highest regard:”
Fatah Spokesman and Eighth Fatah Conference preparatory committee member Iyad Abu Zneit: “The composition of the [Eighth Fatah] Conference is diverse and rich … Of course, the released prisoners [are also represented], as they precede everything.
I will emphasize that the leadership insisted on there being broad representation for the [released] prisoners at this conference… The group of prisoners that these ones represent from among those in the Fatah Movement also constitutes a significant number [of members], a large number, who have their own role, and we hold them in the highest regard. They have the right to be partners in Fatah, in the [Fatah] Revolutionary Council, in the leadership of the [Fatah] Central Committee, and in any place they can reach.” [emphasis added]
[Official PA TV, Topic of the Day, May 6, 2026]
PMW exposed last week that among the Fatah members at the Eighth General Conference and those running for Fatah leadership positions are released prisoners responsible for the murder of 75 people while some of the most venerated figures at the conference included arch-terrorist murderers Abu Iyad, who planned the Munich Olympics massacre, and Abu Jihad, who was responsible for the murder of 125 people.
The author is the Founder and Director of Palestinian Media Watch, where a version of this article first appeared.