IN THE MAIL - This came in at the beginning of the week:

J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Despite this, it's not a Zionist plot.

But this Jewish connection has been suggested:

Harry Potter's Fabulous Jewish Monsters

By: Rabbi Natan Slifkin (Jewish Press NY)
Wednesday, August 1, 2007

The fabulous world of Harry Potter, so prominent in the news right now, may seem very far removed from Judaism. After all, magic, the central feature of the series, is prohibited by the Torah. But some of the most striking inhabitants of Harry’s world are very much part of Torah. Many of the strange beasts that Harry encounters, including mermaids, giants, centaurs and dragons, were described in the Talmud and Midrash long before J.K. Rowling ever took up her pen.

Harry’s headmaster, Professor Dumbledore, owns a magical phoenix, an immortal bird that is continually reborn in fire. The phoenix is also described in several instances in the Talmud and Midrash, having received its gift of immortality as a result of not eating from the Etz Ha-Da’at (Tree of Knowledge) in the Garden of Eden. Hogwarts, the school where Harry is a pupil, houses a lake inhabited by mermen and mermaids. Mermaids are also mentioned in the Midrash, and Rashi likewise discusses people who are half man, half fish.

The Hogwarts grounds are home to a forest inhabited by centaurs, men with the legs of horses. According to the Midrash, the descendants of Enosh turned into centaurs.

In Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Harry’s teacher Hagrid makes a bonfire in his "Care of Magical Creatures" class. Out of the bonfire emerge salamanders, which continue to survive in the fire and whose blood has extraordinary powers. The Gemara likewise attests that salamanders are generated from fire, and Rabbi Akiva expresses amazement at their ability to survive only in that environment. Hagrid himself is a half-giant, standing ten feet in height, while the giant Grawp measures twenty. The Gemara puts Moshe Rabbeinu and the Levites in between, at ten cubits (fifteen feet) in height, and describes Og of Bashan as being many hundreds of feet tall.

[...]

The writer has a book on the subject of monsters in the rabbinic literature, but it sounds heavily apologetic.

For more on Og the giant, see here, here, and here.

On another note, my son and I saw the Harry Potter 5 movie over the weekend. It was okay, but my chief feeling as we left the cinema was relief that now I don't have to read the book.

UPDATE (25 August): More here.

UPDATE (31 August): More here.