Harlem Town Hall Meeting

Superman is a foreigner in a country composed of foreigners; he is, in the phrase of one literary critic, a "Krypto-American immigrant." On Krypton his name was Kal-El, the Hebrew phrase for "god that is light" in weight--that is, a deity who does not oppress and is so light taht he scoffs at the laws of gravity...In America the man of steel is an outsider who succeeds in a new world. He does so by applying his superhuman powers in a way that Jews typically wished others to behave--by helping the weak...Superman is no Nietzschean Ubermench; instead, he is a sort of New Dealer. Conceived during the presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt, to whom Jews showed deeper loyalty than did any other ethnic voting bloc, Superman signified the yearning to protect the vulnerable and to stimulate the confidence-building efforts at nationalist recovery. That is why he reliably fights for "truth, justice, and the American way." In his humanitarian acts, he is more effective than the golem who protects the jews of Prague; the benefactor whom Siegel and Shuster fantasized into being is less parochial and this more democratic as well.