Anti-Semitism in Disney's Hocus Pocus
Last year, I enrolled in a course titled Reading and Writing for the Professions. While the class structure was more aimed at providing students with a variety of writing styles to their literary toolbelt, the professor regularly encouraged the implementation of our own voices in writing. Because of this, that professor quickly came to know about my love for the occult and overall experience as a modern witch. In one such conversation, he pulled me aside to ask my opinions of the 1993 film Hocus Pocus. At the time, I hadn’t watched the film in a few years, so I responded with, “It’s a lovely children’s movie”. Not liking my answer, he immediately responded “I think it’s a horrible display of anti-Semitism”. I was running late to another meeting, so our conversation quickly died there. However, the exchange stuck in my mind, and I couldn’t help but revisit the thought several times.
Oddly enough, this theme of anti-Semitism came up again in my reading of Frankie Castanea’s Spells for Change: A Guide for Modern Witches. In their novel, they write, “A lot of images of witches may have been linked to anti-Semitic imagery” (Castanea 169). Based on the research of Emma Shachat in 2020, Castanea references the wearing of pointy witch hats which is derived from a cone-shaped garment that Jewish individuals were made to wear called a ‘Judenhut’ (Castanea 169). After the laws about ‘Judenhut’ were passed, laws in Hungary forced individuals who were accused of sorcery to wear peaked hats (HeyAlma.com). In fact, the reclaimed label of being a witch was once a label given to any group that deviated from Eurocentric Christian normality, especially members of the Jewish community (HeyAlma.com). Later, Christian society began to label any religious meetings outside of Christian practices as devil worship. The ritualistic meetings of Jewish individuals on the Sabbath were immediately demonized because of this (HeyAlma.com). In a more modern sense, the common misconception that all witches worship the devil still exists. However, ideas of Heaven and Hell, Demons and Angels, and God and Satan are firmly rooted in Christian beliefs. The majority of modern witches completely reject the conceptions of good vs evil and instead opt for a non-labelled balance of energy. Relying on their horned imagery for Satan, the Christians began to draw Jewish individuals with forked horns and clawed feet (HeyAlma.com).
To further demonize the group, medieval conceptions of the four humors were used to falsely justify the role of Christianity over Judaism. Jewish individuals were described as melancholic and phlegmatic, making them weak like women, and adorning “‘putrid black blood’” (HeyAlma.com). Intertwining anti-Semitic depictions of Jewish individuals and stereotypes of unruly women, the first publicized depiction of a witch was created. Tying this back into the movie that originally started this discourse for me, Hocus Pocus, the costuming and makeup of the three witches clearly plays into anti-Semitic stereotypes. In his article titled Compliments Will Get You Nowhere: Benign Stereotypes, Prejudice and Anti-Semitism, writer Thomas C. Wilson lists Jewish stereotypes of “pushy, covetous, clannish, ill-mannered, ruthless, dishonest…overbearing, sloppy, loud…” (Wilson 465). While all of these characteristics initially seem like classic movie villain tropes, they are all labels that are pushed onto witches and Jewish individuals alike. Spellwork done to bring about a change becomes pushy, covetous, and overbearing to one’s free will. The witches of Hocus Pocus often bump into each other, cackle loudly, fight over belongings, and lie for their own benefits. Combining these non-physical elements with appearances, the witches become caricatures of anti-Semitism.
Going off of horrible stereotypes that I, myself, have heard stated throughout my life, the idea of a ‘Jewish nose’ that is large, hooked, and tilted down is a feature that has been put onto many witches in the media—think Gargamel or the Wicked Witch of the West. Additionally, anti-Semitic Nazi propaganda featured Jewish individuals with rat-like features such as large ears and pointed bucked teeth. Hocus Pocus’ witch, Winifred Sanderson, is a prime example of this stereotype, and she also acts as the main operating villain to the movie. Interestingly enough, the witch that relies the least on anti-Semitic stereotypes in appearance, Sarah Sanderson, also lacks many of the characteristics that the other two witches have. She is dull, unintelligent, but enchanting. Her flirtatious side allows her to lure in men and young boys in order for her to play tricks on them. Coincidentally enough, she is also the witch that fits the most into Nazi-Germany’s standard of beauty: she is the only witch with blonde hair and blue eyes. She is made out to be the ‘pretty’ sister while her other two sisters hold more ‘mousey’ and anti-Semitic qualities. Looking back, I wish I would have been able to form a more educated response when asked about my opinions towards Hocus Pocus. My professor was absolutely correct in describing the harmful Jewish caricatures that the movie creates, but the thread runs even deeper than that. This evil, Satan-worshiping, bumpy-nose, warty illustration of witches goes far beyond the demonization of women to create and encompass a disgusting depiction of ethnicity and gender combined. Not only are these spiritual women prosecuted, but racism encompasses the entire issue of witch media.
Works Cited
Castanea, Frankie. “Spells for Change: A Guide for Modern WItches”. Andrews McMeel Publishing. 2022
Shachat, Emma. “The Antisemitic History of Witches.” Hey Alma, 30 Oct. 2020, https://www.heyalma.com/the-antisemitic-history-of-witches/.
Wilson, Thomas C. “Compliments Will Get You Nowhere: Benign Stereotypes, Prejudice and Anti-Semitism.” The Sociological Quarterly, vol. 37, no. 3, 1996, pp. 465–79. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/4121294. Accessed 19 Sep. 2022.
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