Is it antisemitic to design a jewish character with naturally red hair? I tried looking it up on the internet, but couldn't find a clear answer. I know that one character in family guy who is a jew, who is portrayed as a walking, talking stereotype of every antisemitic believe in history, and he is a red head. I don't want to risk creating something that could potentially hurt a lot of people. I'm goyim, so I could really use the help of a jewish person who can help me figure this out.
Thanks for reaching out! It's great to see non-Jewish writers doing research and reaching out to Jews. That being said though, first of all: "goyim" is plural! The correct way to refer to yourself with this word is "I'm a goy".
Secondly, it's actually very easy not to write characters with antisemitic tropes: don't! If you know what the tropes are, then simply don't use them in your story.
A good rule of thumb is: if you find that your jewish character contains 2-3 antisemitic tropes, that's too many.
Examples:
-my Jewish character is the head of the bank in my fictional town, is selfish and greedy, and wants all the money for themself. Congratulations! You've written an antisemitic caricature!
-my Jewish character has red hair, a pointedly hooked nose, and murders christian children. Congratulations! You've written an antisemitic caricature!
-my Jewish character has red hair, and they are a teacher who goes on magical adventures and has a pet turtle and lots of friends they care about. Congratulations! You haven't written an antisemitic caricature, you've written a Jewish person with red hair! They exist! Red hair runs in my own family actually!
That being said, some tropes are more prominent than others, like if a jewish character was the president of a bank and was the only jewish character in the story, that would be a bit trope-y. Not necessarily antisemitic, but would certainly make me go "really?". Red hair is not a very common antisemitic character trait, and certainly the least recognizable IF present in the story independent from other antisemitic concepts.
Just make sure that you don't fall into the trap of depicting your jewish character with multiple known antisemitic traits.
TLDR: nah you're good. Just don't pile on any antisemitic tropes into your character.













