On this day in 1914, Harry Hirshfield’s Abie the Agent debuted. It was the first time a comic starred a Jewish main character, Abraham Kabibble, a car salesman. The strip featured a positive portrayal of Jews in a time when malicious stereotypes were common to the American lexicon. Besides his Yiddish accent, Abie was just like everyone else — an immigrant assimilating himself into American society. Because it dealt with the topic of assimilation, it has been called the first adult comic.

Hirshfield and Abie