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A Streetwise Jewish Monster From Brooklyn

JL;DR SUMMARY Andrew Fox explores the beloved Jewish monster archetype through the character of Ben Grimm, aka 'the Thing' from Marvel's Fantastic Four. A way out west there was a fella, fella I want to tell you about, fella by the name of Jeff Lebowski. At least, that was the handle his lovin' parents gave him, but he never had much use for it himself. This Lebowski, he called himself the Dude. Now, Dude, that's a name no one would self-apply where I come from. But then, there was a lot about the Dude that didn't make a whole lot of sense to me. And a lot about where he lived, likewise. But then again, maybe that's why I found the place s'durned innarestin'.

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Tags

Jewish IdentityBen GrimmFantastic FourGolemPopular CultureComicsStan LeeJack KirbyDybbukJewish Monsters

Places mentioned

Brooklyn, New York, United States
"The most famous Jewish monster of them all is the golem."
New York, United States
"New Yorkers reacted to Ben Grimm on the streets as though he were a monster, which led him to attempt to disguise his appearance with trench coats and hats, scarves and dark glasses."
Warsaw, Mazovia, Poland
"The next most obvious choice for favorite Jewish monster would be the dybbuk, the restless, vengeful revenant who possesses the body of a living person to enact revenge, initially made famous by S. An-skys stage play The Dybbuk, first performed in 1920 in Warsaw."
Brownsville, New York, United States
"He even smoked cigars, like my stepdad did every night after dinner."
Prague, Prague, Hlavní mešto, Czechia
"The most famous Jewish monster of them all is the golem. Ever since Rabbi Judah Loew ben Bezalel supposedly created a servant from clay in 17th-century Prague and granted it animation so it could protect the Jewish ghetto from threatened destruction due to a Christian blood libel, the golemessentially an organic robot whose on/off switch is a Hebrew word carved into its forehead, either emet (truth) or met (dead)has proved irresistible to writers and artists."

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Retrieved 2026-06-30 05:32:56 UTC
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