Abie the Agent
Characters and story
Characters and story
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Abraham Kabibble, known as *Abie the Agent*, was the first Jewish protagonist of an American comic strip. Abie's humorous caricature was a rebuttal of some of the [Jewish stereotypes](/wiki/Jewish_stereotypes "Jewish stereotypes") in caricatures, and represented a moderately successful middle\-class immigrant. Abie and his friends had many typical Jewish characteristics, such as their names or their use of Yiddish words and accents, they also lacked many of the negative or malicious elements, such as exaggerated physical traits, found in the depictions of Jews from this time. Abie was in many ways indistinguishable from other Americans. During 1917, the character enlisted in the [United States Army](/wiki/United_States_Army "United States Army") to help the U.S. forces in [World War I](/wiki/World_War_I "World War I").

The character lost many of his more typical Jewish characteristics over the decades, showing his successful integration but also slowly diminishing the particular features of this comic strip. The comic was produced by a Jewish artist, but can be considered discriminatory since it arguably only tried to promote the [cultural assimilation](/wiki/Cultural_assimilation "Cultural assimilation") of Jews as Americans, at the same time distinguishing them from other ethnicities like Mexicans or African Americans who were often depicted negatively. That, however, was the focus of the strip.


How did Abie's character change over the decades?