I think that Forward cartoonist Eli Valley‘s latest comic, a homage to (or take-off from) Kafka’s Metamorphosis, will probably catch most of its flack for its unflattering, if dead-on, satire of hipster Judaism.
Most of the criticism will be dead-on, of course, if only because Valley’s commentary is so dead-on. (My favorite part of the comic, which you’ll have to click through to read in its entirety, is where Max Brod, Martin Buber, Theodor Herzl and Felix Weltsch let loose a literal word cloud of trendyJewspeak: “Tribe vibe!” “Ironic bowties!” “Shmear!” “Body hair!” “Moses was jazzy!”) But the real thrust of the comic’s power is the penultimate panel, in which he brings the metaphorical gavel down on both the parts of the community who believe that the only way to ensure Jewish continuity is through bribery…as well as those of us who go to ridiculous lengths to try and work the Tribe vibe.
