I just finished the latest installment of Jim Butcher’s “Dresden Files” series, Twelve Months. I won’t comment on the book as a whole, other than to say that it was enjoyable. But I do find myself mildly irritated by a bit character that Butcher introduced.

Without spoilers, I can say that despite the grab-bag of Lovecraftian, Celtic fae, and other supernatural bits all thrown in, important aspects of the “Dresden Files” setting are Catholic in flavor. There was a single secular Jewish character up to this point, who ends up taking on a, ahem, religiously incongruous job as the series progresses. But in this book, Butcher chose to introduce a religious Jewish character, Rabbi Aaronson, as an ally to the local Catholic groups fighting the nasties. I am not sure why Butcher did so. Aaronson appears in only two brief scenes, has no plot function and only a few paragraphs of “screen time,” and his only activities are to blow the shofar and be crotchety.

Perhaps Butcher is setting Aaronson up to be a more important character later, which would be consistent with some previous character introductions. If so, Butcher is going to have to step up his game. His thin characterization of Aaronson leans very hard on the stock Hollywood trope of the alte kacker, the old fart, beloved by secular Jewish scriptwriters working out their daddy issues on screen. Butcher also leans on two pieces of religious paraphernalia and depicts questionable things about both.

When Harry asks if Aaronson is carrying a “real shofar,” Aaronson says yes, and that he had forgotten how hard a shofar is to blow. This is unlikely. A shofar is not a rarely-used bit of ancient history. Especially if he is in the habit of using a shofar as a supernatural weapon, it is probable that Aaronson would be one of the men blowing the shofar each year, nearly every day during the month leading up to the High Holidays. (I am also skeptical about Aaronson carrying his shofar around in a baldric, which I have never seen anyone do in real life, but I suppose it’s not impossible.)

Additionally, Aaronson is described as wearing a “shawl.” Presumably, this is an imprecise reference to a tallit or tallis, often called a “prayer shawl” in English. Though a tallis is generally only worn during prayer, its appearance here is in keeping with Hollywood’s lazy stock depiction of rabbis always wearing a tallis under any circumstances, presumably as a reliable visual shorthand that “This Guy Over Here is a Rabbi” for audiences who might not pick up on less blatant indications. (Off the top of my head, this bit of costuming shows up in Babylon 5, Cabaret, and The Simpsons.)

While in ancient times some Jews would indeed wear a tallis during mundane activities, nowadays I can think of only one reason a real-life Jew might wear a tallis outside of prayer or when walking to synagogue—certain mystical practices are best done wearing a tallis. Ironically, that might even be a decent explanation in-universe, given the context. However, Butcher does not seem to be aware of this, given that nothing else in Aaronson’s presentation suggests (yet?) that he is a mystic.

Obviously, it’s Butcher’s story and he is under no obligation to write his characters with verisimilitude. But as long as he feels like putting in a Jewish character, why not make the character more interesting? Why rely on stock tropes, especially when they are low-quality tropes?

I don’t think Butcher has committed any great sin here. He certainly didn’t do anything as obnoxious as Orson Scott Card’s book Enchantment (which made the main character Jewish yet had his Jewishness play exactly zero role in his character or the plot—other than an in-passing ultimatum that he convert to Christianity, immediately acceded to without any drama or plot significance). But I am interested to see if Aaronson will be playing a greater role in the future, and whether Butcher will write him as a more interesting character in the process.

This does, I think, illustrate some of the pitfalls of writing characters from different cultures. I emphatically do not say that no one should do this, or that this is insensitive or cultural appropriation, or that you need to spend valuable page time genuflecting to whatever historical tragedies might apply. But chances are, you don’t know what you don’t know. And to be a good writer, you should do your research.

Butcher notes that he relies on a group of beta readers to review his drafts; knowing that he was introducing a religious Jew, he would have been well served to find an observant Jewish beta reader, at least for those few paragraphs. You really can find us, even in fandom.