Dry Bones (comic strip)

Dry Bones is an Israeli political cartoon strip published in the English-language newspaper The Jerusalem Post since 1973. Dry Bones is the work of Yaakov Kirschen.

Dry Bones comic strip

The name of the comic strip refers to the vision of the "Valley of Dry Bones" in the Book of Ezekiel (37:1-14).[1]

Dry Bones has been reprinted and quoted by The New York Times, Time magazine, Los Angeles Times, CBS, AP and Forbes. It offers a pictorial commentary on current events in Israel and the Jewish world.[2]

Kirschen won the Israeli Museum of Caricature and Comics' Golden Pencil Award for his work.[2]

Dry Bones is syndicated in America by Cagle Cartoons.

Kirschen says 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."[3]

Criticism

One of his cartoon characters is Shildig - Yiddish for guilty/to blame. The New York Times had 7.4% about Shildig, Dry Bones and Kirschen, in a story whose other major parties include Shimon Peres, Menachem Begin, Arik Sharon, and "the opposition Labor Party."[4][5] The comic strip was criticised in an episode of the podcast Chapo Trap House for its alleged poor quality and racist undertones.[6]

Yaakov Kirschen

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.

References
  1. "How did the Dry Bones cartoons get named?". the Dry Bones Project. Retrieved 2018-06-15.
  2. Lyons, Erica (2012-04-01). "Cover Story Issue 9 - Dry Bones - Yaakov Kirschen". Asian Jewish Life. Retrieved 2021-05-17.
  3. Hadi, Jonny (2006-02-06). "'Dry Bones': Row shows clash of civilizations". The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 2021-05-20.
  4. David K. Shipler (September 26, 1982). "The Massacre Brings On A Crisis Of Faith For Israelis". New York Times.
  5. 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.
  6. Chapo Trap House. "Episode - 141". Patreon. Retrieved 4 May 2019.
  7. born c. 1938 Thomas L. Friedman (December 5, 1985). "From Israeli Cartoonist, A Chatty Computer Game". The New York Times.
  8. "Trees". Viewpoint (National Council of Young Israel). Spring 2011. pp. 49–50.


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