Look, up into the political atmosphere… It’s Captain Israel!

SAN DIEGO – StandWithUs is turning another page in popular Israel advocacy—and it’s in a comic book.

The Los Angeles-based group, which sends speakers and sign-bearers to counter Palestinian demonstrations and purchases space on billboards to tell Israel’s message, recently issued the first number in a comic book series to be known as Captain Israel.

We don’t know much about this beefy guy, except that he’s been around as long as the Jewish people and he’s pretty partial to the six-pointed Star which he uses as a shield and a design on his belt buckle and chest.

Written and illustrated by the talented Arlen Schumer, the 8-page comic (including front and back cover) made its appearance last weekend in San Diego at the western convention of the American Library Association.  According to StandWithUs, the comic book—which was distributed from a booth in the exhibit hall—made a big hit.  Since then, she added, the StandWithUs office in Los Angeles has been receiving so many orders, they’ve had to divert some personnel to other tasks in order to fill them.   You can get a glimpse of what the buzz is about at www.captisrael.com.

In the first issue, Capt. Israel speedily narrates the 3,000-year-long Jewish history in the land of Israel, explaining that while other countries conquered the land, Jews maintained a continuous, if small, presence in the country.  With the growth of the Zionist movement in the aftermath of  France’s disgraceful persecution of Capt. Alfred Dreyfus, Jews in greater and greater quantities moved back to their biblical homeland.

Soon, England’s Foreign Secretary Arthur James Balfour would look “with favor” upon the establishment of a Jewish state in mandatory Palestine—an idea subsequently brought to fruition by a vote of the General Assembly of the United Nations.  However, the Arab neighbors of this new state declined to accept Israel’s existence, and Israel has had to defend itself from attack ever since.

I showed the comic book to my grandson, Shor, who is a gifted 4^th grade student.  “What is A.D.?”: he asked, a reflection of the fact that up to this year he had been educated in Jewish Day Schools, where C.E. is the style for giving dates.  A.D. stands for the Latin words, Anno Domini, meaning “In the Year of Our Lord.”  As this is a Christian construct, relating to the approximate date of the birth of Jesus, the initials are replaced by many Jewish institutions with C.E., standing for “common era.”  (Although some call it “Christian Era.”)   Inadvertently, Shor had fingered one problem with this comic book – for whom is it written?  Christians, who need “A.D.” to recognize a date?   For Jews?  For both?

After about a page or two, Shor asked “Well, who is this guy’s enemy anyway?”   That’s an essential for the super-hero genre.  You have to have a super-villain for him or her to fight.  In this first number, there is none.  In fact, it’s a dressed-up history lesson.   Shor opined that his friends might start to read it, but would probably put it down in boredom after the second  page “unless they had a test to study for.”

On the back page, however,  there is a preview of the next issue in which Capt. Israel appears to be doing battle with a giant serpent.   “Now that’s what I’m talking about!” Shor explained.   The serpent, in fact, is a metaphor for the BDS campaign  – boycott, divestment and sanctions  against Israel– and whether youngsters will keep coming back to the comic book will depend on how interestingly StandWithUs can dramatize the issue.

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Harrison is editor of San Diego Jewish World