Dry Bones (comic strip)

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Dry Bones comic strip

Dry Bones is an English-language Israeli political cartoon strip by Yaakov Kirschen that was published by the The Jerusalem Post from 1973 until 2023, and then by the Jewish News Syndicate from 2023 until Kirschen's death in 2025. Dry Bones was syndicated in North America by Cagle Cartoons.

Contents

Dry Bones was syndicated to Jewish community newspapers around the world and has been reprinted and quoted by The New York Times , Time magazine, the Los Angeles Times , The Wall Street Journal , CBS, the AP and Forbes . It offered a pictorial commentary on current events in Israel and the Jewish world. [1]

Name

The name of the comic strip refers to the vision of the Valley of Dry Bones in the Book of Ezekiel (37:1–14). [2] The main character of the cartoon is Shuldig – Yiddish for guilty/to blame. [3]

Yaakov Kirschen

Yaakov Kirschen was born as Jerry Kirschen in Brooklyn, New York City, in 1938. He studied art at Queens College and became an artist after graduating in 1961. [4] He originally held a job in making greeting cards, but was eventually fired due to his "jocular" behaviour. He drew cartoons for magazines such as Playboy [5] and Cracked . In 1971, he moved to Israel with his wife and three children, changing his name to Yaakov and taking up cartooning. [6] Kirschen did programming at IBM and two other major corporations by day, "while at the same time working as a cartoonist." [7] In 1971 he "dragged a wife and three children [to] 'return' to the land of Israel, a place that we had never even visited." [8] In Israel, with four other computer programmers, he built an ELIZA-like Artificial Intelligence program, but with "personalities of a Jewish mother and a Jewish uncle, called Mom and Murray." [7] He also began his Dry Bones series – the same combination of programming by day, cartoons in after hours. In November 1982, Gesher Educational Affiliates hired him to draw promotional artwork and make educational computer games aimed at Jewish youth in Israel and the United States. [9]

After a 2019 cartoon in the New York Times depicting Benjamin Netanyahu as a guide dog leading Donald Trump (portrayed as a blind man) sparked controversy over perceived antisemitism, Kirschen criticized the cartoon, which he believed was using both anti-semitic tropes and a lack of creativity. [10]

Kirschen criticized the general field of political cartooning for condoning antisemitism. In an interview he gave the example of a cartoon by Dave Brown depicting Ariel Sharon as eating babies, which won several awards. [11] Kirschen said his cartoons are designed to make people laugh, which makes them drop their guard and see things the way he does. In an interview, he defined his objective as a cartoonist as an attempt to "seduce rather than to offend." [12] Kirschen was opposed to the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement and criticized it in his cartoons. In 2015, he founded a virtual campus named the Dry Bones Academy of Cartoon Advocacy and Activism. [13] [11]

Yaakov Kirschen died in 2025 at the age of 87. [14]

Reception and criticism

During the aftermath of the Sabra and Shatila massacre in 1982, The New York Times published an article on Israeli perception of the event, where Dry Bones was featured. [15] [16]

"When terrorists attacked from Syria, we blamed the Syrians. When murderous infiltrators slipped in from Lebanon, we blamed the Lebanese. When P.L.O. killers launched raids from Jordan, we blamed the Jordanians. When fedayeen goons came in from Egypt, we blamed the Egyptians. But when we send a bloodthirsty gang into a refugee camp, we blame everyone in the world except ourselves. Whether it was omission or commission, we've got something to atone for this Yom Kippur." – Yaakov Kirschen

Dry Bones has been characterized as generally pro-Israel, and has tried to spread awareness of the persecution of Christians in Africa and Syria. [17] [18] In his obituary, Jewish News Syndicate describes Kirschen as "a proud Zionist." [14] Thomas L. Friedman described it as the Israeli equivalent to the Doonesbury cartoon in 1985. [7]

The comic strip was criticised in an episode of the podcast Chapo Trap House for what they judged was its "poor quality" and "overt racism", referring to it as "Zionist Ziggy" owing to the similar simplistic style of both comics. [19] Following Kirschen's death, Chapo revisited the comic strip, noting its long-lasting advocacy for the release of convicted spy Jonathan Pollard as a cause célèbre . [20]

Awards

Kirschen won the Israeli Museum of Caricature and Comics' Golden Pencil Award for his work. [1]

Books

References

  1. 1 2 Lyons, Erica (2012-04-01), "Cover Story - Dry Bones – Yaakov Kirschen", Asian Jewish Life, retrieved 2021-05-17
  2. ↑ "How did the Dry Bones cartoons get named?". The Dry Bones Project. Retrieved 2018-06-15.
  3. 1 2 Beloff, Ruth (3 August 2013). "'Dry Bones' goes to the Seder". The Jerusalem Post . Retrieved 1 August 2025.
  4. ↑ "Yaakov Kirschen". Koren Publishers. Retrieved 2025-04-19.
  5. ↑ Kaplan, Ron (2010-10-13). "From 'Playboy' to the Holy Land". New Jersey Jewish News . Retrieved 2022-07-07.
  6. 1 2 Neiman, Rachel (2017-11-20). "Dry Bones cartoonist's new book looks back at early Israel". Israel 21c. Retrieved 2022-01-19.
  7. 1 2 3 Friedman, Thomas L. (December 5, 1985). "From Israeli Cartoonist, A Chatty Computer Game". The New York Times . Archived from the original on 2015-05-24.
  8. ↑ Kirschen, Yaakov (Spring 2011). "Trees" (PDF). Viewpoint. National Council of Young Israel. pp. 49–50. Archived from the original (PDF) on September 13, 2011. Retrieved March 23, 2022.
  9. ↑ Renaud, Josh (2024-09-16). "From "aliyah" to "zaydie": Insights into the making of early Jewish computer games". Emory Libraries. Retrieved 2024-12-07.
  10. ↑ Davis, Barry (2019-05-03). "Cutting satire - Israeli cartoonists on NYT 'antisemitic' cartoon; Israeli political cartoonists chime in on the controversial 'New York Times' caricature". The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 2022-01-19.
  11. 1 2 3 Rosenbluth, Susan L. (11 February 2016). "The Dry Bones Academy of Cartoon Advocacy and Activism". JewishLink. Retrieved 2022-01-19.
  12. ↑ Hadi, Jonny (2006-02-06). "'Dry Bones': Row shows clash of civilizations". The Jerusalem Post . Retrieved 2021-05-20.
  13. ↑ "Dry Bones battles against BDS, media bias". The Jerusalem Post . 2015-11-04. Retrieved 2022-01-19.
  14. 1 2 Linde, Steve (2025-04-14). "'Dry Bones' cartoonist Yaakov Kirschen dies at 87". JNS.org. Retrieved 2025-04-19.
  15. ↑ Shipler, David K. (September 26, 1982). "The Massacre Brings On A Crisis Of Faith For Israelis". New York Times .
  16. ↑ This is about the murder by Arabs of other Arabs. The Israeli Army was not far away. Sharon was accused of not preventing it. The cartoon was printed before Sharon won a libel award in an American court, in which the judge wrote: Time (magazine) "disregarded a pointed indication that its story was false." Court records include internal Time notes saying "I believe that our story is wrong." "Sharon v. Time, Inc., 599 F. Supp. 538 (S.D.N.Y. 1984)". November 12, 1984.
  17. ↑ freebook.pdf (drybones.com)
  18. ↑ Steinberg, Jessica. "Dry Bones league vs. the anti-Semites". Times of Israel . Archived from the original on 2014-12-11. Retrieved 2022-01-19.
  19. ↑ Chapo Trap House. "Episode - 141". Patreon . Retrieved 4 May 2019.
  20. ↑ "926 - G20 Blaze It feat. Kath Kreuger (4/17/25) | Chapo Trap House". Patreon. Retrieved 2025-04-19.
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