‘Wonder Woman’ Sparks Debate About Jewish Identity

Gal Gadot in “Wonder Woman” Image by Warner Brothers
The superhero blockbuster “Wonder Woman” has opened up familiar Jewish debates about race and nationality, the Washington Post reported Tuesday, drawing on several Forward articles to do so.
The debate was sparked by a post on comicbook.com where the author Matthew Mueller argued that the star of the film, Gal Gadot, was a woman of color — because she was an Israeli Jew.
“Gal Gadot is not actually Caucasian, but is in fact Israeli,” Mueller wrote. The piece prompted a string of impassioned responses across platforms and publications.
“Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman Is White — Let’s Not Pretend Otherwise,” Noah Berlatksy wrote. “Are Gal Gadot And Other Ashkenazi Jews White? The Answer Is Complicated…And Insidious,” Joe Finkelstein responded.
“’Wonder Woman’ Hurts People Of Color? That’s ‘Patronizing Stupidity,’” Chloe Valdary wrote. And Berlatksy responded again: “Why Do White People Get Mad When We Call ‘Wonder Woman’ White?”
Meanwhile ahead of the movie’s international release, Lebanon banned the film because Gadot is Israeli, with Jordan considering a ban for the same reason. “Everyone who has preconceived views about Israelis will project them onto the film,” the journalist Yair Rosenberg told the Post. “People will use this to hang their hat on certain issues.”
Email Sam Kestenbaum at [email protected] and follow him on Twitter at @skestenbaum
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
2X match on all Passover gifts!
Most Popular
- 1
Film & TV What Gal Gadot has said about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
- 2
News A Jewish Republican and Muslim Democrat are suddenly in a tight race for a special seat in Congress
- 3
Fast Forward The NCAA men’s Final Four has 3 Jewish coaches
- 4
Culture How two Jewish names — Kohen and Mira — are dividing red and blue states
In Case You Missed It
-
Fast Forward ‘Another Jewish warrior’: Fine wins special election for U.S. House seat
-
Fast Forward Cory Booker proclaims, ‘Hineni’ — I am here — 19 hours into anti-Trump Senate speech
-
Opinion In Trump’s war against campus antisemitism, hate the tactics but don’t ignore the problem
-
Yiddish כ׳בענק נאָך די וועלטלעכע ייִדן וואָס האָבן אָפּגעריכט אַ טראַדיציאָנעלן סדר Longing for those secular Jews who led a traditional seder
מײַן פֿעטער יונה האָט נישט געהיט שבת און כּשרות אָבער בײַם אָפּריכטן דעם סדר האָט ער געקלונגען ווי אַ פֿרומער ייִד
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.