Tikvah
Editors’ Pick

March 30, 2022

The Jewish Backstory to Disney’s “Bambi”

“A parable of anti-Semitism.”

Princeton University Press has just released a new edition of the 1923 novel Bambi: A Story of Life in the Forest, translated from the original German by Jack Zipes and with new illustrations by Alenka Sottler. Written by the Austrian-Jewish journalist (and Zionist) Felix Salten, the novel is a grim tale originally directed toward adults rather than children. As Zipes puts it in his introduction, it is “an allegory about the weak and powerless in the world.” Judy Gruen notes the parallels between Salten’s experiences as a Jew and those of the hunted creatures he depicts in Bambi.

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