It’s a bird. It’s a plane! It’s Superman carrying a pastrami on rye?

As Zack Snyder’s “Justice League” extended cut becomes available to stream on HBO Max today, it felt like a good time to remind the world of his Jewish ties. But more than that, it’s teaching the world that Jews were at the forefront of comic book lore. 

Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, the creators of Superman, came from a family of Jewish immigrants. People such as Max Ginsburg, Bob Kahn and Jacob Kurtzberg were the New York trailblazers for the comic book industry, hiding their identity under names such as Gaines and Kirby. 

When Snyder rebooted the son of Krypton with 2013’s “Man of Steel,” he could have called it “Mensch of Steel,” which was a popular article documenting Siegel and Shuster, who are from Cleveland, and their creation back to Judaism. While the alien hero was raised by a non-Jewish family, he did return to save the tribe that had adopted him once he took control of his superpowers. 

It was Rabbi Simcha Weinstein that wrote the book, “Up, Up, and Oy Vey,” which used Superman as the crutch of an argument that most superheroes in general have Jewish ties. Back between the 1880s and 1920s, Eastern European Jewish immigrants came to America and were met with anti-Semitism and targeted by lynch mobs and the Ku Klux Klan. While their presence helped reshape the workforce, it wasn’t a smooth transition, as quite a few jobs weren’t offered to Jews upon their arrival. 

Since Siegel and Shuster didn’t have access to a lot of jobs, they decided to crawl inside their own heads and create heroes that defied races, politics and oppression. Marvel fanatics may forget that the one and only Stan Lee was born to Romanian-born Jewish immigrant parents. Along with Superman, Captain America and the X-Men came from the mind of hopeful yet resilient Jewish writers. 

In the worst of times, when people are shoved into a certain spot in the American workplace due to uncontrollable things such as race or their history, they use that hateful fuel to create amazing things. Just think, without the diligent work and ingenious hindsight shown by Siegel and Shuster, the world may not have larger-than-life comic book heroes to apply a suture to on dark nights.

Without Superman, you could chop half of Snyder’s directorial efforts off. Along with “The Man of Steel,” he used Clark Kent’s heroic alter-ego in “Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice” as well as the new release this week, “Zack Snyder’s Justice League.” Doubled in size, this extended edition rights a big wrong before you can even touch the PLAY button. For Snyder, Superman is where hope and sorrow live as one. 

A few years ago, Snyder was putting the original version of “Justice League” together and was in the middle of shooting it when tragedy struck. His 20-year-old daughter, Autumn Snyder, took her own life. The director left the film, and Warner Brothers allowed “Avengers” director Joss Whedon to come in and “finish” the movie. Instead of making Snyder proud, the Marvel auteur buried the man’s vision beneath multiple reports of racism, sexual exploitation and a very uncomfortable set. 

In a way, Snyder pulled Superman out of the ashes of an unfortunate collision of events, just like Siegel and Shuster did a century ago during a time of need and discovery. In the new and final edition of “Justice League,” the story begins directly after Superman’s demise–but eventually he is reborn. Don’t take this as spoiler territory, because it’s also one of the most legendary comic books of all time. 

As you sit down this weekend to enjoy Snyder’s new film, teach your son about the proud Jewish light in his creation and story. If you know Superman, you should know Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster.