I've decided to make a masterpost of Kimblee's Jewish coding complete with FAQ so I can refer to it whenever necessary and also hopefully so people will stop goywashing him.
Goyim, I'm asking you Nicely, please read and consider before dismissing, because y'all like to reject Jewish opinions instinctively before consideration. Many sources and links abound, so a worthwhile read even just to educate yourself on Jew-Coding.
It's long but I promise, it's worth it.
I'm gonna start head to toe and begin with intent, because this is where people immediately become dismissive.
"Did Arakawa intend for Kimblee to be Jewish?"
The answer is yes and no. You first need to understand what coding is. This article on Jew-Coding is important to read to understand first. Jew-Coding is often used negatively, but surprisingly often unintentionally. This is because Jew-Coding has been present for... well, forever. Because of this, it's deeply ingrained into society. What started off initially as an intentional way to convey to audiences a villain should be read as a Jew, is now associated with villainy often without the immediate connection; however, that does not mean it is not Jew-Coding. This is also still extremely prevalent in queer coding WRT villains as well. It's important to recognize that almost all media has antisemitism baked into it, because unfortunately almost all performance and literature used antisemitic Jew-Coding in the past, and it is part of the inherent culture.
Arakawa is an artist, and like most artists she uses visual cues to convey a message or characterization for her audience to understand a character before they truly meet them. If you think of a stereotypical villain, many features may come to mind and... they often come from Jews.
Keep in mind Arakawa is a Japanese person writing about a time and place she did not inhabit. I don't think its beyond a stretch of the imagination that when researching early 1910s Germany and UK, to find what you believe a villain to look like to the people of that time and place. What propaganda do you think she came upon that was relevant in that time period that could have helped shape her perception of what a Bad Guy looks like in that environment?
Kimblee is specifically similar to Ashkenazi Jews, "are usually depicted as having large hook-noses and dark beady eyes with drooping eyelids". Arakawa does not shy away from these features. She does not make him grotesque or ugly, but it is undeniable she uses these traits to illicit an immediate assumption about his character; she even states herself she wanted to make his face look "sleazy and untrustworthy", another stereotype of Jews. In addition to that, Jews are often portrayed as having hooded/half lidded "drooping" eyelids and eyebags (which are often real Ashkenazi traits) and were called "sleepy eyed Jews" derogatorily. In fact these traits were even used by nazis to identify Ashkenazim.
I don't say this with the intent of demanding that Arakawa is a nazi or even antisemitic, merely that she utilized visual story-telling to create an untrustworthy or shady character immediately- but the visuals she used, yes, come from a history of associating Jews with crime.
When Kimblee is drawn with the stone, it's not hard to see the similarities to Jewish stereotypes of greed. The idea that Jews will kill others for gold coins or money is almost always accompanied by imagery of coin pondering and admiration. It is not a stretch by any means to notice the similarities here.
It's worth noting also that, unfortunately, this method works. Often you will see people denounce Kimblee as "ugly", but when you press for what about him is ugly, it's hard to find reason that doesn't play into the above. For this reason, I actually find it rather offensive when people try to erase these traits. Just because they were used for a bad reason, doesn't mean he doesn't have them. Just because they are often weaponized against Jews, doesn't mean we don't actually have these features. To remove them is to attempt to cleanse us of our ethnic identity as you've felt it's been dirtied, but that isn't true. I think by now we should know that removing ethnic traits, for any reason, is unacceptable.
"Is that all his Jewish coding is?"
No! Actually, Kimblee has more Jewish coding than even that. Outside of his features, his given name (Solf) is Hebrew in origin.
His personality too, can be considered quite Jewish. Jewish people are stereotyped as often playing devil's advocate, answering questions with questions, and often complaining (Kimblee is seen complaining often about having to work, getting his clothes dirty, having places to be, etc.). He is also seen as someone who sits on the sidelines, doesn't choose a side, is for his own benefit. This stereotype is heavily associated with Jews in the west, as we are seen as having "dual loyalty", and will always forsake any birth country for Israel.
Additionally, his alchemy and the way his technique can also be interpreted as Semitic.
Firstly, his alchemy is tattooed on his hands. Hands are important symbolism for Jewish characters. You'll often see stereotypes of Jewish characters clapping or clasping their hands together, or wringing their hands. This plays both into the importance of hands and hand signs in Judaism, but also stereotypes of Jews, relating to the hands coming together as a sign of greed or bringing misfortune on others (Kimblee claps his hands together to cause immediate destruction). The hamsa also adds another layer to this.
Kimblee's alchemy symbology uses a hexagram (the star of David) as well as a sun and moon, which are intrinsic to the Kabbalah, or Jewish mysticism. The Kabbalah is used in FMA for various reasons, the tree of life is hugely symbolic. Kimblee's alchemy utilizes the sun and moon, which I've already explored for it's other meaning into his character, but notably the Hebrew calendar used both the solar and lunar calendars. It isn't significant, but it's still fun to note.
"The elephant in the room though is that Kimblee committed genocide, shouldn't that revoke his Jew Card?"
Honestly? No. Kimblee's Jewishness should not be erased because of the above.
Yes, he did. But keep in mind that he exists in a world unlike ours, where the Shoah did not occur, and in theory he has not been subjected to antisemitism (though, it would be an interesting character exploration if he had been, and still chose to do this). We have to be able to recognize important character coding in media that is used for the audience response, and accept that within it's respective universe, it may not have the same application. We, the audience, recognize Kimblee's Jewishness, but that doesn't mean within the world he lives he experiences the same things Jews do in our universe.
I'd like to remind everyone that the Ishvallan's are notably Muslim, and at the expense of touching very lightly on a political issue, that you can draw your own conclusions from that re: Palestine. What I'm saying is, even within our own universe, Jewish people are not immune from war crimes or bigotry. Just look at Ben Shapiro.
I don't want to use bad actions to revoke Jewishness, because that isn't how it works in the real world, and it shouldn't be that way in the fictional one. We cannot exist demanding only the purest and cleanest representation, because to do so is to dehumanize. Whether Kimblee is a good person or a bad person, he is still Jewish.
Reclamation is a powerful thing. It allows marginalized groups to take back things that have been used to hurt us, and love them for being part of us. We have that right.
The queer community is often allowed to do this without criticism; Poison from Street Fighter is seen as a trans icon now, despite her origin being explicitly transmisogynistic. Trans and cis allies alike celebrate her transness.
Then I ask, why is it not the same for Jews? Why is it when we speak about characters that are importantly Jewish, we are denied this? We are told that we're just projecting, that it's just a headcanon, that we see Jewishness in too much of the world, when Jewishness was stolen and co-opted into the very things we mention? The truth is, people either see Jewish as only a religion they equate to another form of Christianity, or feel uncomfortable with the concept of a character being Jewish.
I have experienced gentiles who know little about being Jewish tell me what being Jewish means, what is and isn't antisemitic, what is and isn't Jewish- we are denied even the right to take what is ours. The purpose of this tangent is to make you think before you have a reactionary response and say "well Kimblee can't be Jewish!" Well, why can't he? Why are you so opposed to him having an ethnic identity like that? If you are that resistant to accepting a character's Jewishness, that is something you must address within yourself.
(I may come back to add more/more sources later but yeah. you know.)
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