“Superman (2025)” comes out today on July 11, and this new film features the most Jewish Superman yet. And it’s not just because new Superman actor, David Corenswet, has a Jewish father. This Superman builds on his well-known and Jewish-inspired origin story, and focuses specifically on Jewish values that everybody can be inspired by.
It’s no secret that Superman was created in 1933 by first-generation American Jews, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, with a very Jewish mythos. Like Moses in the Torah, who was sent down the Nile in a basket to be raised in the Egyptian court, Superman was sent in a basket from his planet Krypton to be raised on planet Earth.
Superman was sent by his Kryptonian parents with a message telling him to protect the people of Earth. He grew up as Clark Kent, raised by a kind family in Kansas with a strong sense of right and wrong. Where Moses grew up to fight the injustice of Pharaoh and free the Israelites from slavery in Egypt, the lessons from Superman’s mixed heritage led him to grow up and fight injustice everywhere and protect all of humanity from evildoers.
When the new “Superman” movie introduces Corenswet’s Superman, he is faced with a dilemma familiar to many Jews in the diaspora. As a superpowered alien, Superman can never just be a regular human being. People hate him and fear him for being different. But when he hides his powers and tries to live just as Clark Kent, it’s inauthentic.
Clark Kent’s good nature and Superman’s alien powers ultimately come together to make him a superhero. But in “Superman (2025),” he’s not just any hero. He’s a hero who operates based on very specific Jewish values. The most important thing to our present day Superman is the concept of tikkun olam, repairing the world.
Sometimes, Corenswet’s Superman literally mends rips in the universe. But more often, he’s just trying to make the world better than when he got there. He tries to stop alien attacks without hurting them. He tries to prevent wars so innocent people won’t die. They’re tall orders for the average person, but the most powerful person in the world never gives it a second thought.
His approach to tikkun olam is further informed by the Jewish principle of pikuach nefesh. This is an imperative to treat the lives of every living being as if it is the most important thing in the world. The new Superman may have grown up in Kansas, but he is clear that he doesn’t represent any single country or corporation like other superheroes in the new movie do, or like older versions of Superman have.
This Superman cares about protecting all people everywhere, regardless of where they live or what they believe in. He doesn’t let his anger get in the way of seeing even his enemies as people too. He would sooner risk his own life to save anyone than leave them to harm, if he can avoid it. The new Superman even cares more for the safety of his dog, Krypto, than he does for punishing the supervillain, Lex Luthor, when he doesn’t have enough proof of Luthor’s evil doing.
But above all, what makes Corenswet’s Superman so Jewish is “Tzedek Tzedek Tirdof,” the relentless pursuit of justice. This commandment from the Torah is phrased intentionally. It doesn’t require people to “do” justice or to “make” justice. Jews, and Superman, “pursue” justice. We chase after it again and again, even as it often eludes us, because we are flawed people living in a still-broken world.
The 2025 Superman, for the first time, is allowed to make mistakes. More so, he’s allowed to own them. He doesn’t catch every single bad guy or save every person. He hurts people he loves. He acts before he thinks.
And he apologizes, and he strives to make up for it by doing better next time.
What makes the new Superman so Jewish is more than just how his story began, or which actor plays him. What makes the new Superman so Jewish is how he honors his two peoples, the Kryptonians who bid him help humanity repair their world and the Kansans who taught him to put others first, that every life is a universe.
Most importantly, Superman is such a Jewish character because he knows the truth about pursuing justice: That while it isn’t his job to save the whole world by himself, it is his job to do everything he can to help it.
