hello folks. i’ve been a big fan of gerard way for a long time. i’m also jewish, which i think cannot be said for most people in this circle of twitter. i’ve pointed out the antisemitism in the umbrella academy, but it seems like it needs some clarification. THREAD

first of all: the show came under fire in season 1 because the handler was shown speaking yiddish. yiddish is a language spoken by ashkenazi jews. it’s a combination of hebrew and german. it is spoken nearly exclusively by jews.

at the time, the handler was the head of the commission, a secret organization whose morals are unknown and were possibly bringing about the apocalypse.

jews have been persecuted throughout history because people think they are a secret organization bringing about the end of humanity and global domination.

read up on “the protocols of the elders of zion,” which in short was an antisemitic text that was heavily spread in the early 1900s saying the jews were secretly planning world domination. it caused lots of antisemitism. the nazis used it

SO, when the show had the handler speaking yiddish, it implies that she’s jewish, because goyim simply just don’t usually speak it (you can read up on the speakers of yiddish here) http://www.cal.org/heritage/yiddish.html

the thing is, the handler is also shown fluent in a lot of other languages. in s2, she speaks mandarin and swedish with ease. however, that raises the point — why did she speak yiddish?

at least for season 1, i could have just seen that one of the show writers thought it was a quirky language. it’s obscure, and it sounds cool. but why have her speak yiddish when she could speak ANY other language?

i could have just chalked it up to bad decision making if it had just been season 1, but after season 1 premiered, the show pretty publicly came under fire for implying that the handler was jewish.

i was SHOCKED when they had her speak yiddish again in season 2. why didn’t they learn their lesson?

here is another thing. at one point, diego mentions the “lizard people” who are going to kill JFK. the lizard people, like most other conspiracy theories, is antisemitic. you can read up on that here. https://www.varsity.co.uk/comment/11782 

i’m not sure, but they may have mentioned the lizard people twice (sorry i watched all ten episodes at once yesterday)

so, when you put these things together, it definitely comes across as somewhat suspicious. HOWEVER, in my opinion it goes a bit far to call it nazi propaganda. i do think it spreads antisemitic propaganda, but calling it nazi propaganda feels too far.

ALSO, gerard way had nothing to do with the writing of the show. i’ve not read the comics, but to my knowledge, the yiddish thing was NOT PRESENT. don’t call gerard a nazi when he isn’t one.

certainly gerard has done questionable stuff, but that has nothing to do with the problems in the WRITING of the show TUA.

there are definitely other problematic aspects of the show, but i don’t really think i’m an authority to discuss them.

i don’t know if the writers are just not catching the antisemitism they’re spreading, or if they’re doing it on purpose. but either way, i think it’s something that needs to be addressed.

but also imo calling it nazi propaganda is too much.

TLDR: the umbrella academy has spread some antisemitic things in their show, like the handler speaking yiddish or references to the lizard people. it’s problematic, but i don’t think it’s nazi propaganda. and gerard way didn’t have anything to do with the show.

end of thread. any antisemitism and you will be blocked

i’m muting this just so my mentions aren’t broken but i’ll check the replies if anyone needs clarification!!

one more thing: my opinions may differ from other jews. i don’t speak for all of them. if another jewish person is very offended, they have EVERY RIGHT TO BE. also you can still like the show!! just make sure you are mindful of its problematic aspects

also: i'm not trying to "cancel" anything. i understand there was another thread made earlier, possibly with misinformation (i never read it and OP went private) that maybe was trying to do that? that is absolutely not my goal. i just want people to be made aware of the issues.