Topic summary
Kal-El
Extracted from the Wikipedia article Superman.
Religious themes
It is popularly believed that Superman took inspiration from Judaic mythology and there is some circumstantial evidence to support this. The British rabbi Simcha Weinstein notes that Superman's story has some parallels to that of Moses. For example, Moses as a baby was sent away by his parents in a reed basket to escape death and was adopted by a foreign culture. Weinstein also posits that Superman's Kryptonian name, "Kal-El", resembles the Hebrew phrase qōl ʾēl (קוֹל-אֵל) which can be taken to mean "Voice of God". The historian Larry Tye suggests that this "Voice of God" is an allusion to Moses' role as a prophet. The suffix "el", meaning "god", is also found in the name of angels (e.g. Gabriel, Ariel), who are airborne humanoid agents of good with superhuman powers. The Nazis also thought Superman was a Jew and in 1940 the Schutzstaffel (SS) newspaper Das Schwarze Korps denounced Superman and his creator Jerry Siegel.