"The Jewbird" is a short story by the

Jewish-American American Jews or Jewish Americans are American citizens who are Jewish, whether by religion, ethnicity, culture, or nationality. Today the Jewish community in the United States consists primarily of Ashkenazi Jews, who descend from diaspora J ...

writer

Bernard Malamud Bernard Malamud (April 26, 1914 – March 18, 1986) was an American novelist and short story writer. Along with Saul Bellow, Joseph Heller, and Philip Roth, he was one of the best known American Jewish authors of the 20th century. His baseba ...

. The

protagonist A protagonist () is the main character of a story. The protagonist makes key decisions that affect the plot, primarily influencing the story and propelling it forward, and is often the character who faces the most significant obstacles. If a st ...

is a crow named Schwartz, who identifies himself as a Jewbird. Fleeing persecution by

antisemitic Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism. Antis ...

birds, Schwartz tries to find a home with a

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

Jewish family. Despite being generous and respectful to the family, the father first persecutes, and then attempts to kill Schwartz. The story has been interpreted as an

allegory As a literary device or artistic form, an allegory is a narrative or visual representation in which a character, place, or event can be interpreted to represent a hidden meaning with moral or political significance. Authors have used allegory th ...

about

Jewish self-hatred Self-hating Jew or self-loathing Jew, transliterated in Hebrew as auto-antisemitism, is a term which is used to describe Jews whose views are perceived as antisemitic. The concept gained widespread currency after Theodor Lessing's 1930 book ('' ...

. The story was first published in '' The Reporter'' on April 11, 1963, and collected in ''

Idiots First An idiot, in modern use, is a stupid or foolish person. 'Idiot' was formerly a technical term in legal and psychiatric contexts for some kinds of profound intellectual disability where the mental age is two years or less, and the person cannot ...

'' (1963). It also appeared in ''A Malamud Reader'' (1967), ''The Stories of Bernard Malamud'' (1983), and ''Two Fables'' (1978), where it appeared along with "Talking Horse." The story was adapted for the stage at the Israeli

Gesher Theater Gesher Theater is an Israeli theater company founded in 1991 in Tel Aviv by new immigrants from Russia. Defending Identity: Its Indispensable Role in Protecting Democracy, by Natan Sharansky, 2008, pp 139ff. History Gesher Theatre was founded ...

, along with other tales, under the title ''Schwartz and Other Animals''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jewbird, The American short stories Fictional birds Fictional crows Works originally published in The Reporter (magazine) Short stories by Bernard Malamud Jewish American literature Short stories set in New York City Animal tales 1963 short stories