Fantastic to a dybbuk; he even goes so far as to argue that the Incredible Hulk and his alter ego are akin to the two versions of the biblical Adam theorized by the rabbinic scholar Joseph Soloveitchik. In books and articles, speeches and seminars, Lee and the characters he is credited with creating are held up as icons of Yiddishkeit and extensions of the long Jewish textual tradition. And soโthrough genealogical research, an investigation of the cultural milieus in which Lee and his family lived, close readings of the rare comments he made about Jewishness, and a long and revealing set of conversations with his brother, Larry LieberโI attempted to suss out the true story of Stan Lee the Jew.
Secret Jewish Histories take on a wide array of mainstream cultural objectsโ Easy Rider or James Bond or the music of Dolly Parton โfixating on the roles that Jewish people or institutions had on their creation or popularization. Criticism in this vein posits that the presence of Jews in the creation of a non-explicitly Jewish event or work is a crucial vector for understanding it.
Such revelations of crypto-Judaism induce a thrill in no small part because they allow Jews to claim someone or something as distinctively ours. There is some truth to be found in this approachโwho you are really does have an impact on what you doโbut all too often it betrays a deep cultural chauvinism and parochialism. This is especially the case when it comes to Jews who, like Lee, almost or entirely walked away from Jewishness.
And yet, for related reasons, Lee is irresistible Secret Jewish History fodder for many of his Jewish admirers. But myths work precisely because you can read into them nearly anything you want. Stanley Martin Lieber, as he was originally known, was born to Romanian Jewish immigrants in Manhattan in He was raised and bar mitzvahed in Jewish communities in uptown Manhattan and the Bronx; some of the Yiddishisms he presumably learned in childhood would later make their way into his comic book dialogue and narration.
Yet over the course of my research, I found virtually no instances of Lee publicly invoking his Jewishness. In his co-written memoir Excelsior! In New York City, neither was Orthodox in their practice, but they were openly and distinctively Jewish: Celia lit candles and prayed every Shabbat; Jack attended synagogue and became an ardent Zionist who often ranted about the struggles of the Jewish people.
