By Stephen Silver
The character of Superman was created in 1938 by two Jewish artists, writer Jerome “Jerry” Siegel and artist Joe Shuster. Much has been written, in the nine decades since, about the Jewish subtext of the character, an immigrant and outsider who came to the United States and accomplished great things for the world.
But in the long history of the character and its many screen adaptations, it wasn’t until now that an actor of Jewish ancestry has played Superman in an official live-action project. George Reeves, Christopher Reeve, Dean Cain, Tom Welling, Brandon Routh, Henry Cavill, and Tyler Hoechlin are (or were) not Jewish.
But David Corenswet is. And he was born not on Krypton or in Smallville, but in Philadelphia.
Corenswet, a 31-year-old actor, was announced as the new Clark Kent/Superman in 2023, as part of the reboot of the DC Universe under director James Gunn. He will make his debut in the new movie, called simply “Superman,” which is set for release on July 11.
He was largely plucked from obscurity to play the part, just as Reeve and Cavill were in their time, although Corenswet has been on some Netflix shows and in a handful of earlier movies.
In an interview with a German news outlet called Geek! magazine, Corenswet was asked how he feels about being the first Jewish actor to play Superman.
He didn’t get specific in his answer, but he did talk about having the opportunity, shortly before filming, to meet Jerry Siegel’s grandchildren, and to visit the house in Cleveland where Siegel lived and wrote the first-ever Superman story in the 1930s.
“It’s old and small, the ceilings are low, but it radiated this warmth,” he said in the interview, in the house. “That basement reminded me of my best friend’s basement.”
Corenswet has not talked much in interviews about his Jewish background or level of religiosity, and it’s not known if he attended a synagogue while growing up in the Philadelphia region. But his father’s family is known to have deep roots in the Jewish community of a different city.
The Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported in 2023, upon the news of his casting, that the Corenswet family is “well-known and loved” in the actor’s father’s hometown of New Orleans.
When Corenswet got married, also in 2023, he held an interfaith ceremony, which was co-officiated by a rabbi.
“It seems that his Jewish heritage is important to him,” Roy Schwartz, author of the book “Is Superman Circumcised?: The Complete Jewish History of the World’s Greatest Hero,” told the Jewish Exponent. “That Corenswet comes from a Jewish background isn’t really important to the film, obviously, but it’s meaningful because it’s the first time in 87 years that Superman, who’s a quintessentially Jewish character, is played by a Jewish performer.”
The actress playing Lois Lane in the new film, Rachel Brosnahan, is not Jewish, although she did star for five seasons on “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.” The actor playing Jimmy Olsen, Skyler Gisondo, is Jewish, despite his surname, and his character was on the receiving end of a memorable monologue from Alana Haim about his Jewish status in the 2021 film “Licorice Pizza.”
“I don’t mean that Clark Kent secretly lays tefillin between comic book panels,” Schwartz added. “He’s canonically Christian, usually a nonpracticing Protestant. He’s a good ol’ boy from Kansas. But he’s a Jewish character.”
Schwartz noted that the two creators, “the sons of immigrants from Eastern Europe,” had based the Superman persona in part on Moses, Samson and the Golem,” while also giving him a “Hebraic” Kryptonian name, Kal-El. At the same time, the “nebbish alter ego” of Clark Kent was based more on themselves and Jewish stereotypes of the time.
“Superman is basically a kindertransport refugee who comes over from the old world, anglicizes his name, and integrates into society because he looks enough like everyone else. He’s a Jew passing for a gentile, the ultimate assimilation/assertion fantasy,” Schwartz said. “Superman is a Jewish creation, inspired by Jewish legend, and is a metaphor for the Jewish experience. Over the years, his mythology has grown and changed, incorporating many Christ parallels, but his DNA remains Jewish. Corenswet being Jewish too is a nice homecoming of sorts. More importantly, Corenswet is a good actor who radiates warmth, and by all accounts a real Super-mensch.”
Superman arrives in theaters on July 11.
Stephen Silver is a freelance writer.