David Corenswet’s Superman: A Jewish Hero Rises

There’s a moment in the new Superman film — not a fight, not a flight, not a building smashed to dust — where Superman, dressed in regular clothes, sits across from Lois Lane and gives an interview. She grills him about international law, presidential protocol, and moral boundaries. And for a brief, stunning instant, the Man of Steel stops being a comic book character and becomes what he was always meant to be: a deeply human symbol of conscience, courage, and complex identity.

That moment works not just because of the writing or directing, but because of David Corenswet — the first Jewish actor to ever officially don the cape and fill out the red boots of America’s most enduring superhero.

The Shayna Punim Behind the Shield

Corenswet, who stars as Superman in James Gunn’s fresh take on the franchise (released July 11), is as photogenic as you’d expect — what we’d call in Yiddish a shayna punim. But there’s more than just jawline and charm here. There’s neshama — soul.

Born and raised in Philadelphia, Corenswet is carrying on a legacy that started in 1938 when two Jewish teenagers, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, created Superman — a mythic response to antisemitism and the looming threat of fascism. Kal-El’s name itself hints at Hebrew origins: “El” meaning “God,” “Kal” evoking lightness or swiftness. Superman was always, in spirit, Jewish.

Now, with Corenswet in the role, the subtext becomes text — a full-circle moment 85 years in the making.

A Jewish Legacy, On and Off Screen

Though Corenswet has kept his personal life fairly private, his Jewish roots run deep. His family has long ties to New Orleans’ Temple Sinai, where his father’s memorial was held and where Corenswet and his wife were married in an interfaith ceremony, co-officiated by Rabbi Edward Cohn.

His connection to his father — a fellow actor — is especially poignant. When Corenswet landed his first major role on The Politician, it gave him the freedom to spend his dad’s final months by his side. It’s a relationship that shaped his own sense of humor, compassion, and purpose. “I have terrible jokes that nobody laughs at,” he told People. If Superman is the Jewish dad of superheroes, Corenswet is channeling him perfectly.

A Super-Jewish Origin Story

From the start, Superman was never just about super strength. He was the Champion of the Oppressed. Before he punched asteroids, he punched Nazis — literally, in early comics and symbolically in his ethos. He was modeled not just after Moses but also Samson, the biblical strongman with a flair for smashing pillars — a feat Superman mirrors in multiple early issues.

Even the Golem of Prague — the mystical clay protector of Jewish folklore — inspired both Superman and his bizarro clone, Bizarro. It’s no surprise that the Nazis themselves noticed. In 1940, the SS’s official paper Das Schwarze Korps attacked Superman as part of a Jewish conspiracy to undermine the youth of America. It was one of the first times a fictional character got into a real-world fight with fascism. He wore a cape. We wore yarmulkes. Same fight.

And now, Corenswet is carrying that torch — not with fiery rhetoric, but with thoughtful intensity. He’s not loud. He’s not brash. He’s not trying to outdo Christopher Reeve (who still holds the gold standard). But he’s giving us a version of Kal-El that breathes. That feels. That hurts, hopes, and heals.

A DC Universe That’s a Little Too Crowded

The new film isn’t perfect. While Corenswet and Rachel Brosnahan (as Lois Lane) have real chemistry, the introduction of the “Justice Gang” — featuring Green Lantern, Mister Terrific, and Hawkgirl — bloats an already hefty script. Their inclusion feels less like narrative necessity and more like corporate franchise-building.

Nicholas Hoult’s Lex Luthor, however, is a revelation. A smirking tech bro with a God complex, Luthor runs a disinformation factory filled with chimps banging on keyboards — a darkly comic metaphor for our real-world digital chaos. His creation of a deepfake video claiming Superman came to Earth to conquer it? Chillingly timely. His villainy isn’t cartoonish — it’s systemic, institutional, algorithmic. He’s Zuckerberg and Putin rolled into one, and Hoult devours every scene.

And yes, the fictional war between Boravia and Jarhanpur will spark debate. It evokes modern conflicts without naming them — perhaps intentionally. Gunn never explicitly maps the geopolitical allegory, but the dynamics of power, occupation, resistance, and propaganda hover uncomfortably close to current events.

A Hero with Heart — and Humor

Still, the movie’s emotional center holds. One of its best lines isn’t delivered in a shout, but in a shrug. When Superman is asked why he didn’t wait for government approval before stopping a war, he says simply: “Because I could.”

That line — morally grey, deeply human — is where this film shines.

Superman is no longer the two-dimensional Boy Scout of yesteryear. Corenswet gives him subtlety. A sense of loss. A Jewish kind of seriousness — not dourness, but a gravitas that comes from memory, exile, and resilience.

There’s even a matzah ball reference buried in Corenswet’s past interviews. Yes, his aunt’s legendary recipe turned out to be straight off the Manischewitz box. Superman might leap tall buildings in a single bound, but he still loves a good seder.

Final Verdict: A Mensch Among Mortals

Superman (2025) doesn’t reinvent the cape, but it does reinfuse it with meaning. David Corenswet’s performance isn’t just powerful — it’s purposeful. For the first time, the actor inside the suit shares the same layered identity as the myth he’s portraying.

Superman has always been Jewish in soul. Now he’s Jewish in body too — a mensch with muscles, a protector with pathos.

In a world starved for heroes who do good without asking what’s in it for them, this Superman arrives right on time.