Emil Ferris calls herself an Arab; more likely she is a paternal Jew

I didn't seek to out her. Didn't know at all about her until yesterday. But when I learned about this remarkable woman, I just had to explore more about her.

Yesterday, I was introduced to Emil Ferris, a remarkable women who fought all odds against her and, at 55, published her first book, a raging success, earning millions. I was enthralled with the story of the woman who had been paralyzed by a bout with West Nile Virus and who fought her way back to recover her ability to draw, painstakingly producing, over a number of years, a graphic novel — to great aclaim. (Sorry, I didn’t make note of the article that brought her to my attention. I think it was on Substack but I cannot find it now.)

This novel, My Favorite Thing is Monsters, is essentially the diary of a 10-year-old girl investigating the murder of her upstairs neighbour, a Holocaust survivor. A second volume has recently been published with 100K copies printed. Here is one pithy entry in the girl’s diary in the first book:

Curious to know more about her, I clicked on the YouTube interview link in the article. After seeing her walk onto the stage with the kefiyeh around her neck, I could not get past the first moments of the interview. She begins by expressing (mock) surprise that anybody came to see her, claiming that all those kids who didn’t have anyone show up for their birthday parties are with her now.

Still, I wanted to know more about her. Turns out she makes a big deal of being an Arab, saying that nobody wanted to be her friend in school because she was an Arab.

Wikipedia gives her family background as:

Ferris traces her Hispanic lineage from Indigenous Mexico to Spain, and is also of Lebanese, German, French, Irish emigres, and Sephardic Jewish descent.

And on her mother’s Wikipedia page:

Her mother, Harriette, descended from early Spanish settlers in the territory. Her father, Waldo Spiess, was an attorney of German/Irish/Mexican heritage

I’m curious: does having descended from early Spanish settlers make one an indigenous Mexican?

With that, I turned to her “X” account to see if the material she posts to her 9743 followers corresponds to the kefiyeh.

It does. But the kicker for me was finding out she might actually be a Jew on her father’s side. Bear with me.

Responses to Oct 7th and the ensuing war

Of course, given that Oct 7th is a pivotal date for me and life is measured as before-Oct-7th and after-Oct-7th, I wanted to see what impact it had on Ferris. She posted nothing until 13 Oct and this is what she wrote:

If you see a picture of a dead child and your grief response or lack thereof is predicated on what their nationality or race is then your vibration is in alignment with the murder of that child.

OK. Perhaps she is talking about both Israeli and Gazan kids. On 28 Oct, she wrote:

Arab children are dying right now. You should realize that when I was a child I was an Arab child. If you think you don’t have any Arab friends, you have me.

It is understandable that she would identify with her fellow Arabs.

She writes one or two posts wishing for peace and safety for the people of Israel and Gaza, and others against war in general. In one post, she decried our manipulation into “being tribal. “However we have to resist this,” she wrote, “and remain loyal to ALL of humanity.”

Then ….. I’m sorry, Ferris, but I snorted derisively when I read this next post, especially in view of what I found you would write later in the war:

To the person who had to unfollow me because they don’t follow Arabs, thank you. Nonetheless I love you and hope you get all the healing your wounded heart requires.

Okaaaay.

On November 21, she responded to a Jewish commenter who remarked that Oct 7th made it clear “that an Israel is required more than ever.” Ferris wrote that she prays for the hostages and her heart breaks for their families.

So far so good.

However, by March 2024, her tone has completely changed. In response to a post about the death of a Palestinian infant resulting from the starvation caused by the war “that Israel has launched against Palestinians living there…” Ferris wrote:

Hey comics world, if you are an artist and you go to Israel as a guest of an Israeli comics festival — this is what you have sanctioned.

That same day, in response to someone wondering about how Israelis can do what they are doing to Gazans, she reposted it with the comment:

Hate is learned. Grew up w/kids who were good-hearted yet when they found out I was Arab told me that I was stupid/dirty. It happened a lot. 3 even tried to drown me at a pool party. 1 kid finally apologized, saying “In Hebrew School they taught us Arabs are not really people.”

There is no need to post more of her venom against Israel, her reposting of accusations of genocide, starvation, bombing schools, murdering journalists, soldiers “gang raping Palestinian hostages,” deliberately and brutally traumatizing children and murdering babies — accompanied with images and videos. She apparently has made no note of the experts both in the UN and in academia and media who have published reports contradicting these accusations.

Let this section be summarized by this post:

You [Israel] are racist, genocidal terrorists & the world sees you and knows what you are.

So is Ferris an Arab?

She goes on and on throughout her account of claiming she is an Arab. In this post she writes:

This was my dad. A great artist. A survivor of horrors - least of which was being mistreated because he was an Arab - a Lebanese man. In this picture we’re returning from the Middle East. As am I, he would be weeping at the genocide of our cousins. He refused to hate and so do I.

He refused to hate, she writes. And claims that she does not hate either. I leave it to you to conclude whether or not that is a true statement.

However, what is interesting is her Lebanese father who is the source of her claiming to be an Arab. Ferris was born in 1962 (in Chicago), meaning that this photo was taken in 1962-4, meaning that the family visited the Middle East before the 1967 war. They could have been to either Lebanon or Israel back then. But had they been to Lebanon, why would she not just write Lebanon? I am guessing that they were in Israel.

Upon what do I base that guess?

Earlier in this article, I quoted her 21 Nov post in which she said she prays for the hostage families. This is the entire text of that quote:

Thank, Itty. I definitely do pray daily that the kidnapped families are returned. That breaks my heart. I had a grandmother who was never pronounced about being Jewish. Hence I’ve always been proud of the fact that there is an Israel. I will do my due diligence regarding this.

I don’t know what doing her “due diligence regarding this” refers to, but what stands out for me is that, as a writer, she should not have produced such an awkward sentence as: “I had a grandmother who was never pronounced about being Jewish.” It a sentence that could easily be mistaken as having been written by a non-English speaker struggling with the language. Why would that happen?

I put two things together — Jewish grandmother and Lebanese father in contrast with her mother’s lineage and came up with the following comments I posted under the photo of her with her parents:

1 of 2 I am confused. You posted in another tweet that you have a Jewish grandmother. Given what I saw written about your mother, I do not think it was your mother’s mother (which would have made you a Jew according to Jewish Law). So if it was your Lebanese father’s mother

2 of 2 So if your Lebanese father’s mother was Jewish then your father was a Lebanese Jew and not an Arab. That does not make you a Jew by Jewish Law (but it does by Hitler’s definition of Jew). So why do you call yourself an Arab? Ashamed of being a Jew?

I posted these comments yesterday and I wonder if Ferris is one of the 2 and 4 people who viewed them so far. According to “X" rules, she cannot delete my comments. I wonder if she will delete the entire post in order to get rid of me. If she does that, or if she responds to me, I will let you know.

In the meantime, for me, Emil Ferris is a paternal Jew. She can join any number of Jewish anti-Zionist organzations in the United States and feel right at home.

If I am wrong about this, let me know. I will apologize and make corrections.

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