2014 Merchandise & Miscellaneous News Archives

September 25, 2014: Exhibition - Superman: The Jewish Roots of America's Super Hero

Superman The Temple Israel Museum in Memphis, Tennessee is currently hosting an exhibition titled "Superman: The Jewish Roots of America's Super Hero".

    In 1938, two Jewish kids from Cleveland, Ohio, created Superman, the world's most-enduring super hero. In doing so, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster wrapped their comic book character in a dual identity and concealed the signs of Jewish culture that they embedded in their Mensch of Steel.

    Today super hero scholars and collectors continue to ask: What did Siegel and Shuster have in mind when they gave birth to Superman 76 years ago? Who at that time knew that Superman's roots were Jewish? Yet clues to Superman's Jewish origins are numerous. As the story goes, Superman was born on the planet Krypton. There his name was Kal-El, which in Hebrew means "voice of God." Knowing they had only moments before Krypton was to explode, Kal-El's doomed parents put their special child in a spaceship that propelled him to the safety of Earth. The story parallels that of Moses, whose mother, desperate to save her infant son from the Pharoah's death decree, placed him in a reed basket and floated him down the Nile. Kal-El and Moses were rescued by non-Jews - Moses by Pharoah's daughter and Kal-El by a Kansas farming couple named Kent. For Siegel and Shuster, Kal-El's escape to Earth is the story of the Jews and their exodus from Egypt.

    Temple Israel member Eddy Zeno has built a broad and meaningful collection of Superman memorabilia and artifacts that explore the influence of the Jewish experience on the evolution of Superman. Superman: The Jewish Roots of America's Super Hero, displays part of Eddy Zeno's collection, which invites the viewer to consider the Jewish subtexts at work.

Having opened on September 22, "Superman: The Jewish Roots of America's Super Hero" is currently on display in the Temple Israel Museum until December 31, 2014.



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