A British book conference dedicated to everybody’s favorite teenage wizard will attempt to answer the question of Harry Potter’s “Jewishness” when it meets this July at Reading University. Though the evidence is scant, presenter Amy Miller believes that even though Harry doesn’t go to Hebrew school or keep kosher, “he cares about how others are feeling, he is kind, and he defends his beliefs; these are a very few examples of proper Jewish behavior” and therefore a yiddishe neshama (Jewish soul.) Cia Sautter plans to draw conclusions between author J.K Rowling’s magical (and uh, fictional) world and Kabbalah; conference organizers are astounded by the public interest in Harry’s “Jewish connection” since it seems entirely based upon wishful thinking.
We’ve read all five books twice, upside down and sideways, and, even as the conspiracy theorists we are, cannot not find one single piece of compelling proof that warrants this discussion. We’d love to claim Harry, really, unless he starts chanting the 72 names of God or has a bar mitzvah, we’re just skeptical muggles.