(Jewish Group) 125 years later, is Dracula antisemitic -- or is he just another vampire? [View all]

This year marks the 125th anniversary of the publication of Bram Stoker’s horror novel “Dracula” and the centenary of “Nosferatu,” the classic silent film inspired by it. Should Jewish readers kvell along with all the Transylvanian wannabes who adore everything vampirish?

The Tel Aviv Cinematheque is commemorating the anniversary of Stoker’s book with a special festival of vampire movies. As the Jerusalem Post cheerily announced earlier this month, the “celebration of all things bloodthirsty and undead runs until May 16.”

The cultural impact of “Dracula” in hundreds of films, TV adaptations, video games, animated cartoons, comic books and dramas, is undisputed. Yet in recent decades, academic researchers and bloggers have repeatedly published claims that antisemitism, itself often bloodthirsty and undead in today’s world, can be discerned in the pages of “Dracula.” Juxtaposing “Dracula” and Jews somehow seems incongruous, as the comedian Bill Hader showed on “Saturday Night Live” a few seasons ago, jocularly mentioning a Jewish Dracula named Sidney Applebaum.

As is often the case, readers and filmgoers see what they wish to see in any text or film. In “Nosferatu,” a manuscript page is fleetingly shown with mystical symbols on it, including a six-pointed star and what may possibly be a few Hebrew letters amid dozens of other signs.

more...

Interesting. I have seen this argument made before. I have also seen Jews portrayed as vampires, but had it 'splained to me that I wasn't really seeing what I was seeing.