Is Bruce Wayne Jewish?

[Clark_Kent]

Who cares? Being Jewish or not Jewish has zero bearing on the character of Batman as he has never worn his religion on his sleeve. Because of such, I've always viewed the character as nonreligious if anything.

The JLA series Morrison started in the 90’s explicitly had Batman state he was an atheist. I don’t recall which writer it was, but it was prior to Identity Crisis.

[Frontier]

I don't think Bruce thinks of himself as Jewish.

(FYI, I am Jewish).

[Celgress]

The JLA series Morrison started in the 90’s explicitly had Batman state he was an atheist. I don’t recall which writer it was, but it was prior to Identity Crisis.

Yup, I remember that occurrence.

[WontonGirl]

It just depends on the writer. Someone wrote like this major dissertation of the religion of comic heroes. I think they were saying that Bruce was a Methodist.

[Celgress]

Actually, I don't think anyone here is arguing his religious beliefs.

I'm pretty sure he doesn't have any firmly or even loosely held organizational beliefs as an adult and isn't a member of any church or synagogue (or mosque or temple or whatever).

And since being Jewish has (fairly uniquely) both ethnic and belief aspects, I think at this point it's only the ethnic aspect in debate, not the belief aspect (Bruce flunks that one outright, as he would any organized religion).

True, although I think ethnicity is not important to Batman. The character can be any race long as the basics of his characterization remain the same it doesn't really matter.

[WontonGirl]

The JLA series Morrison started in the 90’s explicitly had Batman state he was an atheist. I don’t recall which writer it was, but it was prior to Identity Crisis.

Didn't something like that just happened in Justice League Rebirth?

[Frontier]

Honestly, this is raising a lot of questions in my head about how Thomas and Martha handled raising Bruce up until their death.

[Tuck]

Guy that rich . . . I'm going with Scientologist.

[Jackalope89]

Guy that rich . . . I'm going with Scientologist.

Nah, I'm going with Druish.

[Pohzee]

Were Martha and Jacob raised Jewish, or did Jacob convert to his wife’s faith? Not up to date.

[Frontier]

Were Martha and Jacob raised Jewish, or did Jacob convert to his wife’s faith? Not up to date.

I think the Kane's were all Jewish.

[CryNotWolf]

By technicality of retroactive continuity, I suppose so. For me, that idea has always seemed a bit too "one-drop-rule" for my taste, but hey I'm not the one deciding who gets labelled as what.

Regardless, I believe it has zero bearing on his character. He does not practice the religion in any form, he has never referred to his Jewish ancestry, and from his many internal musings, we can surmise that it simply is not something that has ever come to his mind, even after 3 quarters of a century. If him being Jewish matters to you, then okay that's fine. But I don't think it really matters at all in the context of the character, it's not a footnote that he's ever acknowledged or referred to when making any kind of decision.

So technically Jewish or not, I really don't care, and I don't think anyone else should either.

[Doctor Bifrost]

I always assumed that Jacob Kane converted to his wife's religion.

Actually, that's not quite true. What I originally assumed was that Jacob Kane belonged to a more distant branch of the family - perhaps Martha Kane's second or even third cousin - and that his father or grandfather converted. And that, given the time period that would put the subject in, that might explain something of an estrangement of the branches of the family.

It's only recently that they decided that Kate Kane was Bruce Wayne's first cousin. I happen to think that was a very bad idea, for reasons that have nothing whatsoever to do with ethnicity or religion, and have to do with adding unneeded baggage to both Batman's and Batwoman's origins.

But that's just me.

[WontonGirl]

By technicality of retroactive continuity, I suppose so. For me, that idea has always seemed a bit too "one-drop-rule" for my taste, but hey I'm not the one deciding who gets labelled as what.

Regardless, I believe it has zero bearing on his character. He does not practice the religion in any form, he has never referred to his Jewish ancestry, and from his many internal musings, we can surmise that it simply is not something that has ever come to his mind, even after 3 quarters of a century. If him being Jewish matters to you, then okay that's fine. But I don't think it really matters at all in the context of the character, it's not a footnote that he's ever acknowledged or referred to when making any kind of decision.

So technically Jewish or not, I really don't care, and I don't think anyone else should either.

Exactly! This is the first time I ever heard Bruce being Jewish.

[Soubhagya]

He is definitely not interested in any sort of religion. I usually say someone belongs to a religion if such a person accepts its tenets and practices its teachings. That would be the strict definition.

Then there are those who are so from family. Who are identified as belonging to that religion simply because they have parents from such a religion. They may practice something but may not accept its tenets. Can you call them as belonging to the religion? In a way yes. In a way no.

For instance my parents are Hindus. If some person wants to know which religion i belong to, in an official capacity i say i am 'Hindu'. At the personal level i don't consider myself a Hindu. Just as Christianity is based on the Bible, 'Hinduism' is based on 'Vedic Literature'. An umbrella term encompassing lots of books. While people and 99.9 percent 'Hindu' religious leaders use that term, in none of the books the word 'Hindu' is used. Its a word given by the people from the Arab countries. During the early medieval period the Indian subcontinent was under invasion by people from this area. India has a river to its North-West region named Indus.



Those who invaded the land did so from its North-Western side. From their viewpoint India is a country to the East of the Indus river.

Indus was earlier called 'Sindhu' river. They used to pronounce the river as 'Hindu' and the country to its East as 'Hindustan'. 'Stan' is a word meaning land. So 'Hindustan' was a word to indicate the land to the East of the Indus river and the people who live in this area were designated 'Hindu'.

So, i can't call myself Hindu. Its a name given by someone else while the word itself has no presence in the books themselves. It would be like saying i belong to 'Hudson' religion or 'Thames' religion.

At the same time i am more 'Hindu' then those who say they are 'Hindus'. I read those Vedic literatures. I cherish them and try to practice them. Religion in my opinion is a rubber stamp. A designation to divide people. I find all these religions in their core tenets are the same. There really is no 'Christianity' or 'Islam' or 'Buddhisim' and there definitely is no 'Hinduism'. They are all the same thing with each one focusing more on one aspect over the other. The leaders like Christ, Mohammed, Buddha and others essentially taught the same thing but under different circumstances to a different audience. So the differences are simply superficial.

Coming back to my family. My mother and father are both 'Hindus'. My mother has faith in many teachings of 'Hinduism' (Notice that i use brackets). She practices many teachings with faith. My father on the other hand does practice something but his faith is not as strong as the mother. Both are 'Hindus'. Yet i have faith which is based on reading and understanding the books while i try to practice them. I am not one. But in the eyes of society and even my parents i am one. A term which i consider meaningless and derogatory.

As you can see one's religion is a complicated subject. I did not know about Jewish. Assam gave a cool info that if the mother is Jewish the child is considered as Jewish too. So, it depends on how he is raised and how society sees him. Even then it would be more a designation. I don't think that on the personal level he calls himself Jewish. Unless some writer addresses this that is.