Over the past few years, diversity in video games has become a hot topic in the gaming industry and in fan communities. Developers have made a more concerted effort to include minority characters in the cast of their games and to accommodate a variety of experiences: those of people of color, LGBTQ people, and people with disabilities. Although increased diversity in games has been criticized as “pushing an agenda” by some, more people than ever are now able to have a gaming experience that mirrors their own real-life experience.
One area that is still missing, however, is the diversity of religions. Many video games don’t address the topic at all, and the few use fictional religions or have characters celebrating holidays that are Christmas in name.
As such, Jewish characters are rare in games, but some still exist. Their religious identities are often not integral to their stories, but their Jewishness still deserves recognition. There is definitely a need for greater Jewish representation in media, including video games, but it’s still important to take note of what representation already exists, what it means to people, and how which it can be improved in the future.
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Some character summaries may contain spoilers for their respective games.
BJ Blazkowicz – Wolfenstein (1981-present)
The “Wolfenstein” series is all about doing arguably the most Jewish thing a person can do: fight the Nazis. The ongoing series was the foundation of the first-person shooter genre, being one of the first of its kind to achieve widespread popularity alongside “Doom” and “Quake”. “Wolfenstein”‘s innovations in the genre would lead to some of the most well-known games of all time, such as the “Call of Duty” and “Halo” series.
But the series is not without controversy, as you might expect from a game about killing as many Nazis as possible. The first game was banned in Germany due to its use of Nazi iconography, and in recent years some on the far right have taken issue with the series’ violent response to fascism and its #NoMoreNazis advertising campaign in 2017.
The main character of most games, William Joseph Blazkowicz, or “B.J.” in short, is a Polish-American Jew who acts as a spy and specializes in individual missions. He is an ardent anti-fascist who joins the American resistance against the Axis powers to investigate Nazi activities. The games throw no punches in showing what B.J. and the developers think about Nazis — in “Wolfenstein 3D,” B.J. can even assassinate Adolf Hitler himself.
Blazkowicz’s Judaism remains vague in the games themselves, but there were hints dotted around that implied he was Jewish – the most compelling of which was his ability to read Hebrew. However, according to a statement posted on Kotaku in 2014, developer MachineGames aimed to “let the player interpret” rather than claiming they were Jewish in the game text.
Later that year, Blazkowicz character designer Tom Hall confirmed on Twitter that he designed Blazkowicz with the intention that he would have a Jewish mother who was persecuted in the pre-war period. . This makes Blazkowicz himself Jewish as well.
Rabbi Russell Stone (and various other characters) – The Shivah (2006, 2013)
As far as indie games go, “The Shivah” could be considered one of the first to feature Jewish characters and themes. Published in 2006 by developer Wadjet Eye Games, “The Shivah” is perhaps the most Jewish game of all time. It follows the story of a rabbi struggling with his faith who becomes the suspect in the murder of a former member of his synagogue.
“The Shivah” is a point-and-click adventure game in the style of games like “Monkey Island” and “Myst” series. Like many of its contemporaries in the genre, it presents the player with several dialogue options that determine which ending they get. Where “The Shivah” differs is that the player cannot directly decide what Rabbi Stone will say next: he can decide his tone, as well as whether he wants to give a “rabbinical response” and respond to a question with another question, but exactly what he says is up to him.
The game’s conflict stems from an interfaith marriage between two characters. Stone refusing to marry them and driving them out of his synagogue is what ultimately leads to his murder. As the story progresses, he is forced to grapple with his own ideals and figure out if the way he espouses his faith is really the right way to do it.
The sanctity of marriage between Jews is something ‘The Shivah’ creator Dave Gilbert says his mother felt very strongly about, and seeing it as a ‘very Jewish issue to deal with’ led him to include it in the game.
Gilbert made the game within a month of returning from teaching English in South Korea. Although he was never particularly religious, he found the experience of being Jewish in a foreign land where religion is uncommon somewhat alienating.
“Every time the subject came up it was always ‘Oh you’re Jewish, I’ve never met someone like you before,’” he recalled. “It was just really weird.
“I created ‘The Shivah’ to reconnect with that Jewish part of myself. … I was just asking questions that I had, that I didn’t really have answers to,” he said. -he adds.
In the 16 years since the game was first released, Gilbert admits he has found inaccuracies in the original game, and this is not an exhaustive look at Judaism and the issues Jews may face in their lives. communities. But these inaccuracies don’t change the fact that “The Shivah” comes from a very personal place of re-examining his faith and coming to terms with it.
“It exists like this thing I did when I was going through a transition to decide what I wanted to do with my life,” Gilbert said. “But he ended up taking off because of his subject matter.”
Brigid Tenenbaum – Bioshock (2007–present)
“Bioshock” is an amazing well of Jewish representation. Ken Levine, series creator and director of the first game, said in an interview with GameInformer that “almost half the cast” of the first game is Jewish. He listed Andrew Ryan, Sander Cohen, J.S. Steinman and Mariska Lutz as examples. It should be noted that aside from Mariska, these characters are all villainous in nature and therefore their status as “good” Jewish representation is questionable. Still, the game’s Jewish cast stems from Levine’s writing about his own religion (although he now identifies as an atheist) and experiences.
The most important non-villainous Jew in the game, however, has to be Dr. Brigid Tenenbaum. She is introduced as a geneticist and creator of the Little Sisters, young girls who have been genetically engineered to collect ADAM, a gene-altering substance, in the underwater city of Rapture. She ends up seeing them as her children and protects them.
Her story is inextricably linked to her Judaism, as she grew up in Minsk during the Holocaust and became a prisoner in Auschwitz. She only survived because her intelligence was useful to the Nazi doctors working there, and they forced her to help them with their experiments or risk death if she refused.
Tenenbaum’s character is complex – she’s clearly grieving over what she was forced to do at Auschwitz and what she did to create Little Sisters, and may have become attached to it as an outlet for this grief. Whether the player chooses to kill the Little Sisters they encounter or not has a significant effect on the story, with Tenenbaum aiding the protagonist Jack if he spares them. Jack even adopts five little girls at the end of the game if the player has beaten him without killing a single Little Sister.
Tenenbaum – and in a way, her identity as a Jewish woman during the Holocaust – is central to the plot of the Bioshock series. She’s one of the few characters in the first game who didn’t give in to her instincts and is actively trying to make up for her past behavior.
Avicebron – Fate/Grand Order (2015)
The plot of the “Fate” game series is difficult to explain, but the most succinct summary is that they are visual novels about mages who summon the spirits of historical and mythological figures – commonly known as “servants”. – to fight in hopes to receive a wish from the legendary Holy Grail. Although not the most accessible series to play, as many of its games never left Japan, it has managed to attract a passionate online fan base.
“Fate/Grand Order” is the franchise’s mobile entry, and while it features historically Jewish Torah characters such as David and Solomon, the most curious Jewish depiction in the game is a figure that players are least likely to know: Avicebron, better known as Solomon ibn Gabriol.
Historically, Solomon ibn Gabriol was one of the best-known Jewish poets and philosophers. He was born in 1021 or 1022, at a time when Hebrew, which was a long dead language, had only recently been revived. As a result, his work in the language has garnered him a lot of attention. He was also responsible for writing the philosophical work “Fountain of Life”, which inspired the kabbalists – practitioners of Jewish mysticism.
“Fate” is notorious for twisting the truth of the historical figures it presents, however, and its portrayal of Avicebron focuses primarily on the Kabbalism its teachings inspired. A down-to-earth and reclusive person, he fights with golems: a reference to the fact that Solomon ibn Gabriol would have created golems to do his chores. Although a relatively minor character in a game with over 300 characters, he has quite a complex characterization and is probably how many players have discovered that ibn Gabriol even exists.
Dina Image from “The Last of Us Part II”, developed by Naughty Dog
Dina – The Last of Us Part II (2020)
Dina is perhaps the clearest case of Jewish representation in a AAA game (made by a major publisher and with a higher development and marketing budget, similar to a blockbuster). Companion to Ellie, the main character, Dina speaks openly about Judaism and Jewish practices. She wears a bracelet marked with a hamsa, has a chai symbol hanging in her house, and notes that her sister would take her to a synagogue to pray.
Although his Judaism was never stated in-game, it was a popular fan theory that was later confirmed by Naughty Dog’s creative director, Neil Druckmann.
