Twilight: Kosher Vampires?

Jewish Screenwriter Pens ‘Kosher’ Vampires for ‘Twilight’

Vampires aren’t very Jewish,” Rosenberg says. “The most basic thing about them is that they are born out of Christian mythology.” Nevertheless, she is quick to point out that Meyer, a devout Mormon, has created her own vampire mythology, devoid of religious connotation, absent the Christian symbolism of crosses and holy water.

And yet, the protagonist vampires of “Twilight” are different in another way from other vampires.

“They’re kosher vampires,” Rosenberg says, laughing.

To call them “kosher” may be a stretch, but the leading figure, Edward Cullen, and his family are all “vegetarians” — which in this context means they don’t drink human blood, though they do eat animals — and therefore they are not killers, but hunters. Their anomalous way of life, in which diet is not simply a carnal drive but a moral choice, makes them outsiders, not only from the world of mortals but also from the larger vampire culture, who see the Cullens as a threat to the vampire establishment. The story’s human protagonist, Bella, idolizes the Cullens, and, you could say, sees them as a light unto the vampire nation.

Feh, kosher vampires would drink fish blood, which is pareve and kosher. Both animal blood and human blood are prohibited by Jewish law. Plus, the fish would presumably have to be dead already (though they don’t require schechita/kosher-slaughter) so as not to transgress “eating a limb from a living animal”.