Hi! I know there are issues with making Muslim characters magical/etc. but I was wondering if the same is true for Jewish characters? I have a Jewish character who's a werewolf and I was wondering if that's okay, or if I should change the character to not be Jewish if there would be too many issues surrounding it? Thanks :)
Jewish Werewolves
Here’s my post from the last time someone asked if it was okay to write Jews and magic: [Link] - short answer: for many of us yes, despite it technically being “against the rules” under many circumstances – remember, we have a unique relationship with our own rules. And of course there are going to be people who say no, which is also totally fine, but it’s not inherently offensive to Jewishness in general if that’s what you mean. One of the main characters of my Jewish fantasy series is a hunky older wizard, and writing him is very meaningful for me.
As far as werewolves specifically, I’m okay with it, but I feel like some people might be a little uncomfortable with how close wolves are to dogs (in other words, if you have the opportunity to make him a werelion that might work better? No biggies if not and I know if I try to find the “sometimes Jews are uncomfortable with dogs because of our history” conversation I’ll find a lot of upsetting things first. And my dad totally had dogs his whole life!)
On the other hand, @kayla-bird is about to publish some Jewish lesbian werewolf fiction (“Like A Bell Through the Night” in Into the Mystic, a f/f paranormal collection coming from NineStar Press on July 31, 2017) so as usual, your mileage may vary.
A special note about Jewish observance and werewolves specifically: the phase of the moon matters to our religious calendar, so it might be slightly easier for an observant Jewish werewolf to keep track of their wolf calendar than a gentile (or even a secular Jewish) werewolf. Passover starts on the night of a full moon, for example, as do Purim and Sukkot – opening up interesting plot possibilities since all three of those holidays have colorful celebration customs that are also social events. (“Oh, hi! Great Purim costume! You’re supposed to be a werewolf?” “…uhhhhhhh….yes. Sure. Costume. Just like you said.”) Anyway, that’s the reason our holidays are always moving around and there’s literally a Tumblr called @istodayajewishholiday .
Final note: please stay away from anything that sounds like blood libel. We do not eat the blood of Christian babies, and it grosses me out that I even had to type that, but you’d be in pretty bad company if you perpetuated that trope by having your Jewish werewolf doing anything even close to it.
–Shira
