Rabbi Meir Kahane debuts as a comic book hero
Hm. This doesn’t seem like a good idea … Spread the hostile-to-Arabs word of Meir Kahane to kids through comic books.
Twenty years after his assassination, supporters are using a kid-friendly medium to spread the Kach leader’s ideas.
Israeli children who don’t find enough inspiration from the exploits of Spiderman can now turn to Rabbi Meir Kahane, who founded and led the Jewish Defense League and Kach movements before his assassination in 1990 and now stars as the hero of his own comic book.“Miracle Man,” a 50-page book printed on glossy paper and hardbound, making it more like a graphic novel than a traditional comic, tells the life story of the rabbi in a format designed for older children. The story is told through a school project that young Meir David is assigned to write about. He meets with various people— fictional friends and relatives as well as real-life figures like the Kahane acolyte Baruch Marzel – who knew Kahane personally or were helped by him.
“The idea is to teach the younger generation about Rabbi Kahane. It’s for those who never had the chance to meet him,” Levi Chaden, English director of the Yeshiva of the Jewish Idea, Miracle Man’s publisher, told The Media Line. “Everyone loves comics. It’s an easy and fun way to understand his ideas, for kids and adults.”Kahane’s Kach Party captured one Knesset seat in the 1984 elections before it was banned as racist, and its successor movement Kahane Chai (Kahane Lives) plays a marginal role in Israeli politics today. Nevertheless, his supporters remained determined to spread his philosophy of violence and hostility to Arabs. Some elements of his philosophy have entered mainstream political discourse.