Taking It on the Nose? A Fresh Look at Cartoon Jews and Anti-Semitism
The Implacable Urge to Defame: Cartoon Jews in the American Press, 1877-1935, by Matthew Baigell, Syracuse University Press, 240 pp., $29.95
Diaspora Boy: Comics on Crisis in Israel and America, by Eli Valley, OR Books, 144 pp., $25
For years, I’ve been doing a little experiment with the students in my Jewish literature classes, whenever I’m about to teach a graphic novel like “Maus” or “The Rabbi’s Cat.” I ask them to take out a piece of paper and a pen or pencil. I tell them that I’m going to give them an instruction, and that they have to respond without asking any questions. Then, once they’re ready, I say: “Draw a Jew.”
Feel free to try this at home.
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