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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.
The post Marvel’s Troubling History of Erasing Jewish Characters first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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US Clamps Sanctions on Israel-bashing UN Rights Monitor Albanese
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 Trump administration has imposed sweeping sanctions against Francesca Albanese, the United Nations Special Rapporteur for the Occupied Palestinian Territories, citing the UN official’s lengthy record of singling out Israel for condemnation.
In a post on X, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the sanctions under a February executive order targeting those who “prompt International Criminal Court (ICC) action against U.S. and Israeli officials, companies, and executives.” He accused Albanese of waging “political and economic warfare” against both nations and asserted that “such efforts will no longer be tolerated.”
“Today I am imposing sanctions on UN Human Rights Council Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese for her illegitimate and shameful efforts to prompt [International Criminal Court] action against U.S. and Israeli officials, companies, and executives,” Rubio announced on X/Twitter.
“Albanese’s campaign of political and economic warfare against the United States and Israel will no longer be tolerated,” declared the Trump administration’s top foreign affairs official. “We will always stand by our partners in their right to self-defense.”
Rubio concluded: “The United States will continue to take whatever actions we deem necessary to respond to lawfare and protect our sovereignty and that of our allies.”
The decision to impose sanctions on Albanese marks an escalation in the ongoing feud between the White House and the United Nations over Israel. The Trump administration has repeatedly accused the UN and Albanese of unfairly targeting Israel and mischaracterizing the Jewish state’s conduct in Gaza.
Albanese, an Italian lawyer and academic, has held the position of UN special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories since 2022. The position authorizes her to monitor and report on alleged “human rights violations” by Israel against Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.
Last week, Albanese issued a scathing report accusing companies of helping Israel maintain a so-called “genocide economy.” She called on the companies to cut off economic ties with Israel and warned that they might be guilty of “complicity” in the so-called “genocide” in Gaza.
Critics of Albanese have long accused her of exhibiting an excessive anti-Israel bias, calling into question her fairness and neutrality.
Albanese has an extensive history of using her role at the UN to denigrate Israel and seemingly rationalize Hamas’ attacks on the Jewish state.
In the months following the Palestinian terrorist group’s atrocities across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, Albanese accused the Jewish state of perpetrating a “genocide” against the Palestinian people in revenge for the attacks and circulated a widely derided and heavily disputed report alleging that 186,000 people had been killed in the Gaza war as a result of Israeli actions.
The action comes as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visits Washington, where he has received a warm reception from the Trump administration. Netanyahu has been meeting with US officials to discuss next steps in the ongoing Gaza military operation.
Gideon Sa’ar, Minister of Foreign Affairs for Israel, commended the Rubio announcement with his own post on X/Twitter, exclaiming: “A clear message. Time for the UN to pay attention!”
The post US Clamps Sanctions on Israel-bashing UN Rights Monitor Albanese first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Hardball: Trump Administration Reports Harvard to Accreditor Over Antisemitism Allegations
US President Donald Trump speaks during a Cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington, DC, July 8, 2025. Photo: Kevin Lamarque via Reuters Connect.
The Trump administration escalated its showdown against Harvard University on Wednesday, reporting the institution to its accreditor for alleged civil rights violations resulting from its weak response to reports of antisemitic bullying, discrimination, and harassment following Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 massacre across southern Israel.
The US Department of Education (DOE) announced the action on Wednesday. Citing Harvard’s admitted failure to treat antisemitism as seriously as it treated others forms of hatred in the past, the DOE called on the New England Commission of Higher Education to review and, potentially, revoke its accreditation — a designation which qualifies Harvard for federal funding and attests to the quality of the educational services its provides.
“Accrediting bodies play a significant role in preserving academic integrity and a campus culture conducive to truth seeking and learning,” said Secretary of Education Linda McMahon. “Part of that is ensuring students are safe on campus and abiding by federal laws that guarantee educational opportunities to all students. By allowing anti-Semitic harassment and discrimination to persist unchecked on its campus, Harvard University has failed in its obligation to students, educators, and American taxpayers.”
The DOE, McMahon added, “expects the New England Commission of Higher Education to enforce its policies and practices, and to keep the Department fully informed of its efforts to ensure that Harvard is in compliance with federal law and accreditor standards.”
As previously reported by The Algemeiner, Harvard’s Presidential Task Force on Combating Antisemitism has acknowledged that the university administration’s handling of campus antisemitism fell well below its obligations under both Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and its own nondiscrimination policies.
In a 300-plus-page report, the task force compiled a comprehensive record of antisemitic incidents on Harvard’s campus in recent years — from the Harvard Palestine Solidarity Committee’s endorsement of the Oct. 7 terrorist atrocities to an anti-Zionist faculty group’s sharing an antisemitic cartoon depicting Jews as murderers of people of color. The report identified Harvard’s past refusal to afford Jews the same protections against discrimination enjoyed by other minority groups as a key source of its problem.
Coming several weeks after President Donald Trump ordered the freeze of $2.26 billion in federal research grants and contracts for Harvard, the task force report found it was “clear” that antisemitism and anti-Israel bias have been fomented, practiced, and tolerated not only at Harvard but also within academia more widely.”
The university is now suing the federal government over the funding halt.
President Trump has spoken scathingly of Harvard, calling it, for example, an “Anti-Semitic, Far Left Institute … with students being accepted from all over the world that want to rip our Country apart” in an April post to his Truth Social platform.
In recent weeks, however, both Trump and McMahon had commended Harvard’s constructive response in negotiations over reforms the administration has asked it to implement as a precondition for restoring federal funds. The requested reforms include hiring more conservative faculty, shuttering diversity, equity, and inclusion [DEI] programs, and slashing the size of administrative offices tangential to the university’s central educational mission.
The administration has since changed its tone in the wake of a report by The Harvard Crimson that interim Harvard President Alan Garber has said “behind closed doors” that he has no intention of doing anything that would make Harvard more palatable to conservatives.
Earlier this month, the Trump administration’s Joint Task Force to Combat Antisemitism issued Harvard a formal “notice of violation” of civil rights law. Charging that Harvard willfully exposed Jewish students to a flood of racist and antisemitic abuse both in and outside of the classroom, it threatened to strip whatever remains of Harvard’s federal funding.
“Failure to institute adequate changes immediately will result in the loss of all federal financial resources and continue to affect Harvard’s relationship with the federal government,” wrote the federal officials comprising the multiagency Task Force. “Harvard may of course continue to operate free of federal privileges, and perhaps such an opportunity will spur a commitment to excellence that will help Harvard thrive once again.”
In Wednesday’s announcement, US Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said Harvard’s conduct “forfeits the legitimacy that accreditation is designed to uphold.”
“HHS and Department of Education will actively hold Harvard accountable through sustained oversight until it restores public trust and ensures a campus free of discrimination,” he said.
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
The post Hardball: Trump Administration Reports Harvard to Accreditor Over Antisemitism Allegations first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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IDF Strikes Hezbollah Sites in South Lebanon as Terror Group Pushes to Rebuild Amid US Disarmament Talks
IDF operating in southern Lebanon. Photo: IDF Spokesperson
Israeli forces uncovered and destroyed Hezbollah weapons caches in southern Lebanon on Wednesday, as a new report indicated that despite ongoing U.S.-led efforts to secure a disarmament deal, the Iran-backed group is making repeated, largely concealed attempts to rebuild its military presence in the area.
Troops carried out several operations targeting Hezbollah infrastructure in southern Lebanon on Wednesday morning, destroying weapons depots, explosives and multibarrel launchers concealed in forested terrain, the IDF said, in violation of the November ceasefire, which requires Hezbollah to withdraw its forces 20 miles from the Israeli border.
A new report released this week by the Alma Research and Education Center found that Hezbollah is focused on rebuilding in three areas: operational deployment, weapons acquisition, and financial recovery.
“Hezbollah didn’t give up its resistance narrative and motivation,” Alma’s director, Lt. Col. (Res.) Sarit Zehavi, told The Algemeiner.
“It wants to rebuild its capabilities and infrastructures, whether it’s the villages that will be used as human shields or the military infrastructure in South Lebanon and in Lebanon in general.”
According to Zehavi, Hezbollah is attempting to return Radwan fighters to positions south of the Litani River as part of a wider plan to restore its elite forces to operational readiness. The IDF on Monday killed Radwan commander Ali Abd al-Hassan Haidar in a targeted strike. The action came hours after US Special Envoy for Syria Thomas Barrack met with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam and Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri in Beirut to discuss a long-term deal that would include an Israeli withdrawal and complete disarmament of Hezbollah.
Barrack described the Lebanese response to the proposal as positive. Later, he issued a blunt warning to Hezbollah in response to a vow by the terror group’s leader, Naim Qassem, not to lay down its arms. “If they mess with us anywhere in the world, they will have a serious problem with us,” Barrack said in an interview with Lebanese news network LBCI. “They don’t want that.”
Zehavi said it was premature to predict the outcome of the diplomatic efforts. She warned that the challenge of disarming Hezbollah remains enormous and emphasized that the Lebanese Armed Forces have not demonstrated the capability or willingness to confront the group.
“It’s too soon to be optimistic or pessimistic,” she said, noting that no firm commitments have emerged from the Beirut talks.
Hezbollah’s efforts to smuggle and manufacture weapons have been complicated by both Israeli strikes and the regional realignment over recent months. While Israeli strikes have disrupted many supply routes, according to Zehavi, Syrian authorities have intercepted far more Hezbollah-bound weapons than the Lebanese Army, which claims to have uncovered 500 arms caches but has provided no evidence.
The financial front marks the third aspect of Hezbollah’s rebuilding effort. Last week, the group halted cash payments to Shiite civilians whose homes were damaged in the war, citing liquidity problems. Zehavi attributed the shortfall to disruptions in Iran’s funding networks — an outcome of the 12-day war against the regime in Tehran — and said the constraints would likely hamper Hezbollah’s ability to compensate its base and sustain operations.
“I hope they will continue to have problems with the cash flow, that way it will be very difficult for them to recover,” she said.
The post IDF Strikes Hezbollah Sites in South Lebanon as Terror Group Pushes to Rebuild Amid US Disarmament Talks first appeared on Algemeiner.com.