RIP Martha Wayne. As a Jewish mother you would have loved having Clark as a son in law because he’s never more than two seconds away, is always willing to help out around the house, and has 0 excuses for not visiting.

Bruce and Dick celebrating Hannukah together.

Bruce not being very connected or attached to his culture before adopting Dick

Bruce not even considering celebrating Hannukah or any other Jewish holiday since he was 8 because it’s just a reminder of his parents and he can’t stand to do it alone but then Dick comes into his life and he can’t take that experience away from a kid, he doesn’t want Dick to end up like him

Bruce picking Dick up and holding him in one arm so he can see Bruce light the menorah. Dick sitting and watching the candles burn until the wax starts to melt and Alfred ruffles his hair and blows them out when they get all over the table

Bruce letting Dick light the candles himself when he gets older (he and Alfred are both on standby in case he burns the living room down)

Bruce and Dick sitting in the living room unwrapping their presents each day and Bruce is so happy seeing Dick’s eyes light up that he can’t even think about what he’s lost and he’s able to experience the holidays without pain for the first time

Dick filling a void in Bruce’s life and giving Bruce Hannukah back

So, I found out that, as of The Penguin #7 (from February 2024), Martha Wayne has been confirmed to celebrate Hanukkah.

Before, DC had accidentally made her Jewish through the Kanes, but didn’t seem to realize it. I personally figured that although she was technically Jewish, she didn’t actually have a particular connection to it. But yeah, apparently she celebrated at least one Jewish holiday. So…Martha Wayne was Jewish and she participated in the culture.

That means Bruce spent his early years in an interfaith family—even if Martha wasn’t religious, he was raised on two different religious practices. Which likely affects his views on religion, authority, and his family relations, and I find that really interesting.

I really want to explore this in a fic somehow, but I’m not quite sure what to write. But yeah.

is this anything? anyways happy pesach

In case you didn't know, most of the Wayne clan is Jewish.

Bruce and Tim go to synagogue, Dick comes home for the holidays (yes, all of them), and I get called home to light the menorah every Hanukkah.

Barbara, Steph, and Cass aren't Jewish but they do join us in celebration.

Alfred makes the best matzo ball soup, and no, I do not take criticism on that because it is a fact.

I don't know where Duke and Damian stand, but I assume Dami is agnostic at this point? I'll have that conversation with him later.

Anyway, this is just a long winded way of saying happy Passover!

To all my Jewish friends, I love you, and I wish you the best. Love and light, and all that. ✌🏻

He’s rich, he dresses like a bat, he bisexual, he’s autistic, he’s a father of six, he’s Jewish on his mom’s side, he has three awesome parents, he never got out of his emo phase, he’s total a loser and I love him

Ohh Batman is so moral ohh he can’t be with cat woman long term bc shell never stop being a criminal- he doesn’t care. I don’t think Bruce Wayne gives a shit about laws or criminality outside of the scope of justice. He would happily marry Selina unchanged and would delight in her robbing museums (which robbed the people’s who’s artifacts they boast). He gets off on Selina trying to steal from him. She gets off on him trying to stop her. They don’t hold hands in public they just take turns pick pocketing each other. Theyre two extreme rule breakers living on the fringes of society clinging to normality with the tips of their fingers breaking the law is just foreplay

I need more Martha content

It’s always Thomas who gets the storylines and stuff like where’s my girl???

Bruce's response to Jason's death makes a lot more sense if the Waynes are Jewish.

In Jewish burial practices, the body is washed and dressed in a simple burial shroud. However, if you die of an injury that leaves blood on you or your clothes, neither of those things take place. Any part of a person, including their blood, is considered to be holy and deserving of a proper burial (that's the reason we don't do embalming or cremation, traditionally).

Jason was murdered, bloody and brutal. Jason absolutely had blood on himself and his clothes. So, under Jewish tradition, Jason Todd would have been buried in his Robin uniform. But the thing is, Robin didn't die. Jason did, and Jason isn't Jewish.

So you have this dilemma. Jason Todd can't be buried in Robin's uniform. He's a Wayne, and not a Jewish one. He has to be cleaned up and put neatly in a suit so no one will see the injuries and question whatever cover story they created. Bruce, as a Jew, can't throw away or clean Jason's uniform, but he also can't bury it with Jason's body with the respect his blood deserves. Fuck, he probably doesn't even know how Jason would want to be buried. Bruce prepares for a lot of things, but his child's death always felt like too much. Would he prefer cremation? A more Christian funeral? Something else?

Like yeah, he kept the uniform and didn't clean it. Under Jewish law it should have been buried with Jason, but Robin didn’t die, and Jason can’t be buried in Robin’s uniform. Blood is considered as holy as the person and deserving of equal respect, so I guess it should be given a place of honor? Like he’s still stupid, but he’s trying

I’ve seen that post about what if for Halloween the Batfam all dress up as each other and patrol like that, but consider: in a universe with Jewish Bruce Wayne (and Tim Drake, obviously), they do the same thing but for Purim. It has the added benefit of confusing all the people who aren’t up on the Jewish holidays, while being a nice nod to their heritage.

Thinking about if Bruce was Jewish again.

In Judaism, burying someone is one of the greatest mitzvot of all. A lot of Jewish people bury their own loved ones, whether symbolically by helping shovel the first few bits of dirt, or the entire grave.

Burying someone is considered so great a mitzvah because it is one that cannot ever be repaid.

If Bruce was Jewish, he probably buried Jason himself, or with Alfred’s help. It had to happen within 48 hours of Jason’s death.

And then! Jason came back. Does that render the mitzvah null? How does that affect his yartzheit? I have so many questions.

Thinking about Bruce, alone, before his Robins, his mother gone too soon to teach him much more than the basics, quietly observing just a few of the Big Traditions...

Having an actual dinner for a change, some apple and honey slipped in. A quiet "shanah tovah" murmured to Alfred before bed. Staying home from his patrol a few certain evenings that next fortnight. Falling asleep in the gazebo on the manor grounds that he knows doesn't really qualify, but to be fair he's not really trying to follow any sort of rules, just... just giving a few little reaching grasps at a sort of something he's never really felt a part of, but still feels a kind of almost remembrance for.

And then Dick comes to stay with him. Loud and colorful at times, withdrawn and somber at others.

When the cool breezes at the end of their first summer start shifting the manors heavy curtains, it looks like the boy is settling into a solidly sorrowful downturn. Something deeper than the familiar ache of missing loved ones that Bruce knows and recognizes. He tries introducing various new entertainments, challenges, hobbies. And Dick gives him a little smile here and there, tries out each new pursuit diligently, but... there's still an empty hole in there somewhere, brought on by the autumn air, and Bruce doesn't know how to patch it up.

Until the night Alfred places the bowls of fruit and honey on the table with the usual quiet refrain, and Dick's jaw drops open and his eyes light up and the words spill right back from his tiny, clumsy lips and suddenly what was once only murmured and whispered between mourning men is tumbling out loud and bright and celebratory and over and over from all three of them, building up slow at first then matching each other's energy until finally their usual in memoriam participation of these high holy days, looking to the past, is replaced at last by looking to the future.

Putting their faith in a good year to come, rather than mourning the good years lost.

And giving a young boy, clinging to the kindness of strangers, the lifeline of a shared connection.

Bruce knows immediately in that moment, his foggy scraps of memory aren't going to be enough. He needs to learn. All he can. To make sure Dick never loses that connection to his mother. His family. His culture. Not like Bruce did. No. He has to learn, so that he can then teach.

And though he starts the journey for his young ward's sake (later, he realizes, his son's sake, though that revelation is a few "Shana Tovah" yet to come), it's not too far into it that he begins recognizing his own path. A link not just to his mother and the past, but to himself and a future. Something he can ground his identity in just a bit more solidly, as he learns (better late than never) who Bruce is, outside of Batman.

As part of a family.

As a father.

As a Jewish man.

Happy Purim!

In honor of the comics accidentally making Bruce Wayne Jewish:

I think Bruce's Jewish heritage is particularly interesting to me because although he certainly must be aware of it, he's clearly disconnected from it almost entirely. And like...that's what happens, sometimes. Through generations passing, through the death of relatives, through shame or fear...and in Bruce's case it's a combination of the first two, maybe even all three. As sad as it is, this story feels real. So I had to give it a happy ending.

Anyway, this...took me so long to draw even though I let myself be super messy. I might post more of them actually celebrating Purim, with better art...but that's unlikely to happen until after Purim is long past, so I'm gonna post this now. I wish I could include more that references Dick's Romani culture, but there is very little on the Internet. A lot of it is from unreliable sources and the rest is very vague. There wasn't anything I found that I felt certain enough to include, since I didn't want to misrepresent anything. So, I apologize for that.

...I need to stop being sad. Happy Purim to those who celebrate it!

Just saw a clip where David Mazouz talks about how a WB exec called him “too Jewy” to play young Bruce Wayne so uhhh now I have decided that Bruce should have thick curly hair, he should have bold, broad features, he be exactly what people think of when they stereotype Jews.

And yeah, obviously there is no singular way to “look Jewish”. That’s not the point. The point is that a Jewish kid had to load his hair down with gel in order to play a canonically Jewish character. I shouldn’t have to spell out the rest for you.

The point is visibility. The point is that Jewish-American comic book innovators used the concept of superheroes’ secret identities to explore identity and assimilation. The point is that I want Bruce Wayne in a kippah and I’m not gonna shut up about it.

Bruce and Dick:

No you cannot change my mind

What do you MEAN batman isn't "canonically jewish", as far as I'm concerned he and batwoman dressed up as each other for purim