Art, Judaism & Comic Books - Rabbi Daniel Schonbuch

[Music] welcome to the show my name is Rabbi Daniel shambach your host every week on this exciting new program interviewing the people that are making a difference in the Jewish world tonight we have a special guest Rabbi Simka Weinstein the rabbi the campus Rabbi at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn New York he's uh Al also the author of numerous books about Jewish culture and Judaism uh Rabbi simpa thanks so much for joining us today it's great to be here yeah uh tell us a bit you know where you're from and how you got into this whole Jewish thing okay so I like to tell people I did not grow up religious I grew up normal for want of a better word uh I'm from Manchester England and my background is really uh in the film industry I went to film school and for me growing up religion was spiritual Valium something that others needed to get answers to the existential questions of life that didn't always have answers they say that when you make plans uh God laughs and uh really as a student I started getting involved with the various Jewish Outreach groups uh took a trip to Israel which was followed by a trip to Yeshiva which was followed by a longer trip to Yeshiva uh at which point I was becoming a little bit cynical with the the film industry sometimes it's not always good good to meet with your Heroes and heroin wins and uh ended up uh becoming a rabbi well you a lot of people grew up in Manchester with a similar story but didn't make the choices you made what made your choices happen I think um I was always looking and seeking and searching and I think the morality of Judaism I think the spirituality certainly going to Israel was uh fundamental in my uh life's journey and uh I think I became cynical with the film industry and uh I think the the rabbonim that I met and the Torah that I was exposed to was really uh life formative now you've written several books and one of them was called up up and ove it was all about the comic book Heroes and Judaism was that sort of a segue between your Jewish life and and film is that a way to get back into it well you know I like you said in the introduction I'm the rabbi of Pratt Institute which is really one of the finest art schools in America and when I first became the rabbi of Pratt you know I started to talk about you know the rabbi uh shtick and uh it was not always as well received as I would like and uh I really started to talk about the synthesis of Theology and pop culture which really comes very naturally to me I went to art school and now I'm suddenly the rabbi of an art school so it was really an evolution not a Revolution and the superhero book was a great initially a great way to connect to students uh I grew up with a love of culture uh superheroes were very sort of fundamental to my childhood and uh I think it was one of those things it was kind of the right Topic at perhaps the right time I think uh as uh always in times of trouble I think we turn to popular culture for Solace and the whole world seems to have gone super hero muga and it really fits in with my my narrative well there's so many movies today about super Heroes when I grew up as a kid I remember I was reading Batman and Superman and Spider-Man but you you wrote a book about this so what did you talk about in your book how are Jews connected to the superheroes so basically it's a little known fact though it's not so little known anymore that every single superhero that's captured the imagination of the world was written and illustrated by Jews uh largely because uh the late 1930s were particularly anti-semitic and Jews with artistic aspirations were B and limited from many Industries comic books were somewhat in their infancy it was a joke and the pulp comic uh was a very easy industry for immigrant Jews to uh to enter and in the book I write about um there's a Jewish cultural historical and I believe a spiritual connection to the All-American superhero one of my favorite superheroes was Superman and I I was wondering does he represent something about the Jews protecting themselves or overcoming adversity Rabbi shambach I'm impressed so Superman was created by two uh uh Jews from Cleveland Ohio Jerry seagull and Joseph Schuster very Jewish names very Jewish names and I think he represents many things he was sort of uh a Samson like figure he's also uh based somewhat on the story of Moses which the authors themselves have acknowledged if you think about the story of Moses uh Passover is on the horizon now that as Egypt faces implosion Baby Moses is put in the Reed basket sent away grows up in a foreign culture foreign land becomes the Savior and really the story is mirrored in that of Superman as Krypton implodes baby Cal L as he's called in the comics which is Hebrew as you know for The Voice or vessel of God Cal L is put into the rocket ship sent away grows up in a Midwestern cornfield with the Kent family and becomes the savior of humanity I think it's impossible to see Superman as anything other than an assimilation archetype I think he represents the Immigrant Jew seeking to assimilate seeking to hide seeking to become part of the golden Medina that was America at that time but at the same time having this sort of secret this secret Heritage and this secret tradition well it's just like Moses who had his own secret tradition in the house of parro and eventually emerges to be the Superman to take the Jews out of Egypt right and tragically the story happened for real as the old country of Europe implodes Jewish children at that time were put onto Kinder transports and sent away to live in safety with families uh in England so the story really has tragic resonance and if you look at the older comics from the archives you'll see Superman will tie a knot in the cannon of a Nazi tank and he'll take the war to to Hitler himself and that must have been a very powerful portrayal of wish fulfillment that was really um these Jewish um creators ways of of fighting back and fighting the war in fact it's been said that uh Hitler himself denounced Superman a Jew which is remarkable that these two kids from Cleveland were able to take their creation all the way to to Berlin they were able to to capture the imagination of their generation and become empowered through their art is that correct and I think it brought wish fulfillment it's been estimated that one in four Allied soldiers carried a copy of a comic book as they fought the War and I think it's an interesting statement on the Immigrant Jew and if you think about it really there's nothing more American than Superman Captain America perhaps more so he's the flag embellished as a costume but really is not American what he is is he's the wish fulfillment of what it means to be American coming from immigrant Jews who wanted to be all American and I think the wish fulfillment was so powerful and poignant that America adopted Jewish fiction as reality this may sound a little hokey but I think perhaps the argument can be made that the American dream is a Jewish invention it's an immigrant invention well that's that's about Superman what about Batman I mean he doesn't have the same story of Superman I don't see a Jewish theme in there exactly but I I see somebody fighting crime right so yeah Batman was created by two Jews Bob Kane and Bill Finger In fact Gotham City was based on Gotham Jewelers where Bill finger's mother worked he's certainly not a Jewish character in fact uh he's from another Faith tradition in the comics but he really represents as Bob kanaine wrote in his autobiography the wish fulfillment um that he had as a Jewish immigrant in the sense that Batman has no powers he's self-taught he's self-funded he's self-motivated and it's really through a yishak cup that he's able to overcome uh obstacles so he's kind of like this battling um sort of immigrant figure who's able to overcome the odds and and save the day wait isn't that the theme of Judaism to fight for the oppressed and to help the underdog yeah I think these things are rooted I mean you look at the story of Jacob who spends the night wrestling with an angel I think the wrestle and the struggle to overcome insurmountable odds is is a very Jewish uh journey and a very Jewish topic and I think that's what resonates uh with the superhero and I think that's the reason that today in 2017 that uh you'll see almost every Blockbuster today is a superhero movie I think America seeks solace in pop culture and I think now there's so much tension around the world I think we we almost need these Heroes more than ever now you're the rabbi at Pratt Institute it's one of the leading schools of design in the world so do you use your artwork and do you use your books as a way to communicate Judaism to students on campus today very much uh I think for me initially as I said the books were a great vehicle to connect to students in a language they can appreciate and a medium that they understand uh also my my synagogue which we established on campus I use as an art gallery and for me it's very important to students uh that students are given the chance to incubate uh emerging Jewish art and I want them to express themselves Express their Jewish identity through the art and I really believe that a Torah class which is very important Rabbi don't get me wrong um unfortunately doesn't always get as well attended as I would like uh however a piece of culture is able to to reach the world we see a short film uh a piece of art uh especially in in this digital age is really able to to go viral and and go uh completely Global in a very short span of time if you're actually able to talk about things which are interesting your students today and through talking about those things then talk about Judaism as well very much I try when I give over a class a Friday night meal I I'll look at what's happening in the world whether it be uh a political uh story or even the Oscars and I'll try and find a Jewish perspective and a Jewish slant and a Jewish teaching H uh I know that recently was the Oscars and and there was the snafu with the best picture of the year and I I would use that as an example of students to overcome disappointment and perhaps life doesn't always you know pan out the way you would like and perhaps this is a teaching tool and we can look at the para or look at a a a holiday and try and look at these things through the lenss of Judaism now I know you've written other books you wrote another book called stick shift which talks about actors comedians in in Judaism so can you talk a bit about that book and yeah sure uh I wrote a book called stick shift Jewish humor in the 2 Century I think uh I was always the class clown in school uh and I think that was really my way of overcoming uh insurmountable odds I was a little bit bullied in school and I found that when I told jokes you know the cool kids liked me a lot more and the bullies seemed to bully me uh a lot less and I think that I tapped into the Jewish tradition of of humor being used as a defense mechanism and I think if you have the last laugh you win even when you lose in fact time magazine noted uh in the late '70s that 80% of the comedians at that time were Jewish it's remarkable 2% of the population becomes 80% of the comedians I think Jews have always been America's Jesters of choice and we see this I think rooted in Torah and I think it's really a way that we've overcome these terrible um situations that unfortunately history has has repeated itself uh on numerous occasions does Adam emerged from The Immigrant Story I mean Jews just came to this country let's say 100 years ago most Jews so are they expressing something about their immigration story Outsiders I think the borch Bel humor um Jack Benny or all of these earlier bed comedians I think they were talking about their own lives and I think it's something this Outsider Insider much like the superhero um I think like you know the V twiist puppet is able to say things that the vent twiist wouldn't perhaps say so I think that uh using humor as a way to fight back you know in Fiddler on the Roof they say God bless the Zar and keep him far away from us from us I think Jews have always used humor as a way uh as a a very powerful defense mechanism but do you think today's Jewish Comics that are popular today are they communicating Judaism through their art yeah I mean Jewish humor is just as strong today I think as it's ever been I think perhaps it's a little more edgy I think it's uh perhaps certainly not uh so rinic approved for the uh the the Shabbat morning Pulpit but comedians like Sasha Baron Cohen who takes on the Persona of bat and he's able to twist anti-Semitism on itself he's like the anti anti-site and he's able to really show that you know the way that we overvalue fake celebrity and undervalue real history I think he's able to show um the the darkness in the world today right so Rabbi simpa thank you so much for joining us today is there any final things you like to tell our audience about art Judaism and comic books you buy my books right now all of them immediately on Amazon um I have a website rabis s.com my books are available in all good book stores and uh I I would just like to keep the uh keep the journey and keep the struggle and and keep the dialogue I I find these things really fascinating and I think that as a labovich rabbi myself that something that was fundamental to the Reb's teachings was as somebody comes back to to Judaism and becomes a balet Chua that they are able to find the Torah in in their Journey so I think that superheroes and humor are things that I've always studied and the fact that I'm able to bring out a Jewish message I think is very Central to who I am as a rabbi and I think just because you perhaps become closer to Judaism I don't think you have to lose your personality in the process RAB thank you thank you so much for joining us would you come back again another show anytime thanks for joining us well that wraps up another show of Family Matters my name is Rabbi Daniel shach see you next week on our new segment