Abstract of Paper to be Presented at Accio 2005

Is Harry Potter Still a Nice Jewish Boy? A Jewish Perspective on Harry Potter - Part 2

Cantor Amy O. Miller

That Harry Potter could be called "a nice Jewish boy" makes many people laugh, including me. He isn't going to have a bar mitzvah (the ceremony when a Jewish child is called upon to chant a Hebrew blessing before the reading of the torah scroll), or fast on Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement), or have a seder on Passover (the ritual meal that recounts the Jews' redemption from Egypt). He doesn't wear a skull cap, or go to Hebrew school, or keep kosher (the practice of not eating pork or shellfish and separating dairy foods from meat and poultry by not eating them together and using separate dishes for each). But Harry Potter, as Joanne Rowling has drawn him, has a "yiddishe neshome," a Jewish soul. He cares about how others are feeling, he is kind, and he defends his beliefs; these are a very few examples of proper Jewish behavior.

I have previously spoken and written my opinions and perspectives about Harry Potter and Judaism. However, I read Edmund Kern's book, The Wisdom of Harry Potter, and was fascinated by his hypothesis that Harry's character is drawn as a Stoic. I then began to think about how a Jewish approach to Harry Potter differs from a secular one. How does the same situation look from each perspective? If there is conflict, what is the motivation for its resolution? What prompts specific behavior-devotion to God's commandments or secular humanism? I believe Harry and his friends have Jewish values, even though Joanne Rowling is not Jewish and probably has very little, if any, knowledge of Jewish texts.

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