Jonah Heidelbaum

**Jonah Heidelbaum** is the anti-villainous protagonist of the Amazon Prime TV series *Hunters* and a minor character in the short prequel comic *Hunters: Eye for Eye, Tooth for Tooth*. A Jewish teenager mentored by Meyer Offerman, he became a member of the Hunters vigilante group led by Meyer, seeking vengeance for the deaths of his safta, Ruth Heidelbaum, and his best friend, Arthur McGuigan.

Jonah struggled with good and evil/light and darkness, wishing often to kill but never following through, something Meyer urged him to get over, citing killing as necessary. Jonah becomes more wrathful, becoming more active in torturing Nazis. Jonah eventually sealed his fate, giving in to the darkness and did "what was necessary", ironically, by killing Meyer, whom he found out was secretly the Nazi surgeon Wilhelm Zuchs. He assumed leadership of the Hunters upon Wilhelm's death, now determined to finish what he started, looking to Europe to seek out more Nazis.

He is portrayed by Logan Lerman.

## Biography

### Early Life

When Jonah was born, his mother Naomi died of postpartum hemorrhage, and without any father to speak of, his safta (grandmother) Ruth Heidelbaum, a Holocaust survivor, took him in and raised him in his mother's stead. Ruth kept his grandfather Meyer Offerman's identity from him since she hadn't seen him since 1945 when he left her, thus didn't want him to be involved in Jonah's life. She and Jonah were rather poor and thus did not have a very high standard of living, but they kept each other company and shared the same bond as a mother and son.

Jonah was very intelligent, and as a result, he excelled in school, eventually leading him to be accepted into many prestigious universities, including Harvard, Yale, MIT, etc. Unfortunately, he couldn't afford to go to any of them, thus he hid the fact from everyone he knew, including Ruth. Due to several factors, namely being bullied for his Jewish heritage and being borderline impoverished, Jonah adopted a strong resolve and a will to survive, doing whatever he could to provide for his safta. He eventually started dealing weed to provide for him and Ruth.

In 1976, whilst at a grocery store with Jonah, Ruth sees a man she recognizes as Pieter von Schtaub, a sadistic former Nazi doctor and war criminal, now known under the alias "Hans Fischer". Ruth goes to Meyer Offerman in a panic and inspires the idea of The Hunt in Meyer. Ruth does her best to keep it from Jonah, hoping to preserve the "light" he has as Meyer once did.

### Before The Hunt

In 1977, Jonah was arrested for writing bad checks. Ruth confronts him at the police station but he attributes his attempted fraud to needing to take care of her and leaves in a huff. In summer that year, he leaves a showing of *Star Wars* at Kings Theatre with his friends Arthur and Sherman (a.k.a Bootyhole and Cheeks) to a drug deal with Dennis Dunbar, who's dating Jonah's crush, Carol Lockhart. He refuses to pay more than half the price for the weed, eventually leading to an altercation wherein Dennis beats Jonah, hurling anti-Jewish slurs at him during the fight. Booty and Cheeks tend to and walk home with him. Upon entering his home, his safta comments on his black eye and bleeding lip, cleaning him up and giving him soup. She discovers his bag full of weed and confronts him about it, though he tries to explain that he is doing it to provide for the two of them and that he isn't happy with it either, wishing he was making something of himself, but can't because of their indigent state. She assures him of his brilliance and that he's destined for greatness, labeling his vast intelligence as God-given, and imparts that he always has a choice between light and darkness.

## Throughout the Series

### Season One

In the Belly of the Whale

In Brooklyn Jonah, Bootyhole and Cheeks leave a movie theater as they discuss heroes and villains, before engaging in a drug deal with a boy called Dennis Duncan. Things go awry though when Dennis tries to intimidate and steal from him, but Jonah stands his ground and refuses to give in.

Back home, Jonah’s grandmother Ruth finds the drugs in his bag and talks to him about his gift, along with how he shouldn't resort to crime. That evening however, he’s awoken in the middle of the night and rushes downstairs where he finds his Grandmother lying dead in her chair, having been shot.

A bitter and angry Jonah sits through the funeral for his Grandmother before sitting outside on the porch at the wake and stewing in his emotions. Meyer Offerman arrives and they talk about the man Jonah claimed to have seen leave the scene of his Grandmother's murder, mentioning how he and her were originally in the camps together. “Living well is the best revenge”, he utters before handing Jonah his number and driving away.

Inside, Jonah looks over his Grandmother’s possessions, including several hand-written letters. As he reads them, we cut back in time to the camps as we see the devastation firsthand. Meyer saved her life and that’s how these two knew each other.

Jonah winds up arrested for trying to trade drugs for information about his Grandmother's murderer but in the station, he finds a pattern on the wall regarding the location for a number of rape cases the officers are working on, telling them the killer is using a bus route. As he leaves the station, he berates the police for their lack of action in finding his grandmother’s killer.

He heads up to Meyer’s house and they sit together, playing chess as the latter recounts the story of a concentration camp guard who played against a prisoner using human chess pieces, only stopping when said prisoner was gunned down after charging him and managing to cut an X in the guard's neck. After their conversation, Jonah finds a hidden compartment in the bookshelf and proceeds to open it. Inside, he finds pictures and a number of investigative pieces surrounding the Nazis – including a picture of the car belonging to his Grandmother’s killer. However, Meyer arrives and tells him to leave, warning that this is too dangerous for him to pursue.

A grief-stricken Jonah leaves and heads to a diner where he orders chicken soup – but it’s not the same as his Grandmother’s.

Jonah goes after the owner of the car from his picture but bites off more than he can chew. The man tasers him, proceeding to tie him down and interrogating him over his Grandmother and who sent him. After piercing his chest with several darts, a knock at the door saves him, giving Jonah enough time to blind-side the shop owner, leading to a skirmish between them. Thankfully, Meyer arrives and stabs the Nazi through the neck, proceeding to divulge everything he knows about the Nazis and how they aren’t actually all gone – they’re operating in America in secret.

As the episode closes out, Meyer introduces his group to Jonah, and they toast to his arrival.

The Mourner's Kaddish

Jonah deciphers a written message and realizes it’s in relation to one of the Nazis, Karl Holstedder.

After being introduced to the gang, Jonah gets to work with the others. Its here we learn that Holstedder used to host his own singing horror show inside Buchenwald concentration camp called The Star Of Buchenwald.

With a plan in action, the hunters circle Holstedder’s house before converging in the main atrium, proceeding to tie him down and give him what the Jews never had – a fair trial. With witness statements from Buchenwald, Lonny stumbles upon a hidden room and after picking the lock, he and Rox head in and find a homegrown radio set-up, one that appears to be broadcasting a message.

When they ask Karl, he refuses to engage, leading them to torture him through a grueling sound endurance test. Eventually Jonah convinces Geyer and the others to stop, and it’s here Holstedder announces that he was just following orders in playing tapes.

With the group preoccupied with the broadcast, Jonah heads into the room and gives the man a glass of water. Unfortunately, this is just the distraction he needs, proceeding to smash the glass and hold Jonah up with a shard of glass to his throat. Although Joe saves him from his fate, the ensuing blast also kills the broadcast, forcing the Hunters to leave.

While Visions of Safta Danced in His Head

Back at headquarters the next day, the group discuss the 74 different nazis on the wall that they are aware of. Meyer rallies the troops, tasking them with watching Holstedder’s house.

Jonah receives a visitor in Levi Libstein, a man in charge of his grandmother’s will. After handing him a cheque for $632, he goes on to tell him an inspiring story about Ruth, along with news about how fondly she spoke of him. Deciding to steer clear of the Nazi Hunting for now, Jonah heads up to Coney Island with the boys (Bootyhole and Cheeks) and smokes weed, along with engaging in a bizarre musical number.

Back at HQ, Sister Harriet feeds back what the group have found regarding their next target while Jonah himself visits Murray and Mindy, discussing Meyer and in particular whether there were any romantic feelings between them. It’s here Jonah opens up to them, telling them he’s not sure he can rise up and become the man they want him to be.

The Pious Thieves

Jonah, wracked with guilt and fury, heads to the police station with Carol and tells the detective he didn’t see anything. As the Detective hounds him for information, Jonah pushes back and eventually leaves.

Jonah himself marches back into Meyer’s operation and demands to be part of their group. Meyer takes him aside though and tells him his impulsive behaviour could put them all in jeopardy. After some back and forth, he agrees to put Jonah on surveillance duties with Sister Harriet, who talks to him about Ruth and recounts a tale from the camps involving a notorious German known as The Wolf (Wilheim Zuchs) who was obsessed with her.

Back at HQ they look over schematics of the bank and discuss a plan of action to break into the bank. Before they can continue, Millie arrives and talks to Jonah about Ruth in private but not before noting down the name of Danny Rohr, who wrote several New York Times articles on Meyer

Sitting down to a game of chess, Millie tells Jonah her theory and goes on to hound him about where he’s been over the past few days. However, Meyer interjects before Jonah can reveal anything incriminating about their operation and stops the questioning.

With Millie gone, the gang put their plan into action and break into the bank. With the hostage situation working perfectly as a distraction for the others to break into the vault, Jonah arrives and manages to stop Joe from being killed by a rogue officer. Mindy opens the safety deposit box but finds nothing there. However, there’s a secret compartment behind the wall that leads down to a hidden basement. Once there, they find a whole stash of Nazi loot, which they quickly take photos of for evidence.

Upon seeing these fortunes, Meyer shows Frederic what he and his team have found, going on to tell him he’s going to a war tribunal for what he’s done. Before Meyer leaves, he does manage to get a name from the Nazi – Oskar Hauptman; a notorious man known within the camps. Back at HQ, Meyer talks to Jonah about Oskar and officially invites him onboard as one of their own.

At Night, All Birds are Black

Meyer, who speaks to Jonah and tells him to channel his anger, while interjecting this speech with shots of him practicing self-defence moves with Joe. We also cut back to the past as well, learning more about The Wolf inside the holocaust camp, in particular showing a nasty torture scene involving Meyer refusing to scream. It’s here Meyer tells Jonah the one mistake he made in his life was hesitating, warning Jonah against doing just this.

The group then reconvene, proceeding to look over a photo of The Wolf and his associates, deciding to set their attention on a political activist known as Tilda Sauer.

Back home, Carol asks questions about where Jonah has been these past few days but he pushes her away, cursing the girl and forcing her to leave.

Jonah visits Dieter Zweigelt and poses as a representative from the Young Republicans Club, managing to get his signature which is enough to verify his identity.

Jonah holds Dieter up at gunpoint at his estate and takes him away during the midst of the 4th of July celebrations, where Joe, Sister Harriet and Jonah surround him and hear his story. It turns out the CIA and NASA recruited him, and as they continue to ask questions he divulges a whole host of names for people operating in America.

It’s valuable intel and enough for Sister Harriet to take this list and begin asking around for one of the men he mentioned named Kenneth Swiggens. Upon finding him, she speaks in German and advises he leave. Bundling him in the car, they drive off together leaving Jonah and Joe stranded after killing Dieter.

(Ruth 1:16)

The fractured remnants of the group discuss Harriet’s betrayal and what it means for them while Meyer stitches up Jonah following his run-in with Dieter in the previous episode. Before they can go after new targets, the group prepare for the upcoming wedding. Jonah heads out and talks to Cheeks beforehand though, apologising for what happened between them and spilling the truth about him hunting Nazis.

The festivities get underway with Murray and Mindy beginning their wedding celebrations. The duo are joined together as Jonah does his best to recite the words afterwards. As he struggles with the pronunciation, he apologises but goes on to tell them a touching story about Ruth, which receives a warm round of applause from the crowd.

Jonah speaks to the other hunters about the upcoming plan, where they learn through scattered bits of intel that the Nazis are planning to create a fourth reich in America. Before they can continue, Sister Harriet arrives, leading Joe to march up and grab her. She shows them Moritz in the trunk of her car; a wedding gift for Murray and Mindy.

Shalom Motherf\*\*\*er

In 1968 we see Jonah and Ruth together, where an animated tale plays out as she puts him to bed. Kissing him goodnight, the camera pans over to a picture next to his bedside table of Ruth, which allows us to jump back to the present where we see Jonah contemplating his familial ties.

Back at Meyer’s, Jonah presents the music box and together the group begin to decipher what it all means. Given the morse code only revealed dates, the music box is much more exact, showing coordinates to several different areas across the city, including Grand Central Station. With this information, they deduce that they could be looking at a biological weapon being released, which matches up to what they found at The Ghost’s house.

Before they can act on this intel, Millie and other FBI agents arrive with a warrant to search the house. Within one of the rooms Millie finds the remnants of the fire that broke out earlier in the show. Sensing he’s not being wholly truthful, Millie arrests Meyer for the murder of Heinz Richter.

Jonah hurries over to Murray and Mindy’s, who continue to struggle with Moritz and letting them know what’s happening.

Day turns to night, and the group converge at the station, where Jonah finds Travis walking casually down the stairs. He hurries after him, keeping an eye from afar while the other half of the group follow clues to the second location, which leads them to a utility plant. Travis slips past Jonah and Murray, but not past Lonny who follows him from afar. However, Travis doesn’t have his bag with him, having left it on the train. Inside the bag happens to be a bomb and as Murray tries to diffuse it, he begs Jonah to move everyone out of the train car while he stays behind.

He fails to diffuse it though and as the countdown ends, the utility plant blows sky high. Murray experiences a touching moment involving his son appearing before him, and as he reaches out, the train carriage detonates and Jonah flies through the air. The inferno engulfs Murray, killing him instantly.

The ensuing blast causes Lonny to become momentarily distracted, and it’s enough time for Travis to turn around and plunge a knife into the man’s stomach. As he collapses on the floor, gasping for air, Jonah awakens and sees the wreckage first-hand as the city itself is plunged into darkness.

The Jewish Question

In the aftermath of the explosion Jonah continues to see ghosts as he stumbles through the streets.

Lonny returns alive to HQ while Meyer introduces the group to Millie, who joins them in their base of operations as Jonah heads back and apologises to Mindy repeatedly about what happened, revealing that Murray met an untimely end. This leads them to a beautiful funeral where they say goodbye to him. Afterward, Jonah apologises to Mindy again and heads outside, where he and Meyer come to blows surrounding how he feels and the guilt consuming him inside.

As the group start closing in on those who are pulling the strings, they set their sights on a man called Von Braun. After speaking to Simon, who berates what they’re doing and tells them they need to stop hunting for the sake of their own heritage, Jonah begins questioning what they’re doing too. It’s here Meyer admits to killing 11 men the night in the camp, in a bid to save Ruth, and admitting he hasn’t been the same since.

At the same time, Meyer, Joe and Jonah descend on Von Braun and question him over his morality and the Fourth Reich. When he fails to talk, Jonah looks set to torture him with electrical cables until he finally reveals what’s going on and who’s pulling the strings – it’s The Colonel. He was the one who helped create “The Solution” – a weapon that’s in absolutely everything and happens to be corn syrup. However, Jonah doesn’t believe him and begins shocking the man until Joe cuts the power and forces him back into the car.

The Great Ole Nazi Cookout of '77

The hunters plan to break in and infiltrate the Nazi corn syrup operation.

With Sister Harriet watching from afar, Mindy on the radio and Joe and Jonah breaking in the back, Lonny poses as a scientist and heads in through the front door. Although Lonny starts to follow the instructions, static interference on the radio causes him to be stuck on his own. He manages to break the machines though, only to be caught by The Colonel and Travis in the main chamber.

After holding them off momentarily, the rest of the group burst in and a gunfight ensues. As the corn syrup fries, Millie rushes after Jonah while explosions rock the building.

Travis and Jonah go head to head, leading to him about to shoot Travis until Millie interjects and tells him not to.

Eilu v' Eilu

Jonah arrives at Meyer's and sees that he is shook up from his encounter. He turns to Jonah and tells him it was his birthright to lead the Hunters but letting Travis go free has changed his mind.

Jonah heads back to see Cheeks and they discuss superheroes.

Jonah looks through his Grandmother’s things again and reads the letters, in particular the one regarding The Wolf being arrested and Meyer suffering nightmares. These letters bring back memories of her cookbook, which is enough for him to begin sifting through her belongings and finding a file labelled Zuchs.

It’s here he begins to piece together the identity of The Wolf, leading him to Dr Mann. Heading in for a check-up, Jonah fingers the gun in his back pocket and contemplates killing him. Although he hesitates in the office, Jonah knocks him down outside and brings The Wolf to Meyer’s house.

Meyer plunges the knife in The Wolf’s skull but he doesn’t say a prayer beforehand, which immediately rings alarm bells for Jonah. As he thinks back to the letters, his blood runs cold as he realizes the horrifying truth – Meyer is actually The Wolf. As Meyer sits down with a glass of whiskey, he tells Jonah about his ordeal and how he managed to get away from the camp.

The man he killed isn’t The Wolf, he’s actually the SS Surgeon who changed his face and turned him into Meyer after killing the real Meyer in cold blood back in the Holocaust Camp. His reasons for hunting come down to a blood lust but Jonah stands his ground and tells him it’s not his fight, it’s the Jew’s fight.

Jonah grabs the gun in his back pocket and fires a bullet into the fake Meyer’s chest, following it up with a knife to the lung.

In the aftermath of this, Jonah sits with the group and reveals the truth about who Meyer really was. Having cut the head off the snake, Joe leaves in anger.

With Joe and Mindy both gone from the scene, the remaining Hunters band together as Jonah rallies the troops and tells them Millie is now hunting them in America. Sister Harriet takes the opportunity to discuss moving out of America and taking the fight into Europe instead.

## Personality

From early childhood, Jonah displayed a brilliant mind, being skilled enough in academics to later be accepted into several prestigious universities. His strong suit is cryptanalysis, being able to read patterns, decipher hidden messages, and was able to visualize the true dimensions of a room from the memory of a blueprint alone. This gift of his proved vital to the Hunters, being how they eliminated Heinz Richter, discovered Karl Holstedder, unearthed the stolen Jewish items in the Swiss bank, etc. Jonah knew he was gifted, but knew it couldn't get him anywhere, considering he and his safta were very poor, and what little money he made selling drugs, he spent on providing for the two of them, never telling Ruth that he was accepted into universities they couldn't afford, although she knew he at least had the potential.

According to many people, including Ruth herself, Jonah was a lot like Ruth, especially in Joe's eyes. This resemblance faded to Joe as Jonah fell from grace, and as Joe said, he more closely resembled Meyer, since Meyer had been consumed by the darkness, and the same thing was now happening to Jonah. Jonah himself disagreed with the comparison, stating that she was driven by a darkness that he lacked, though Mindy and Murray assured him that he was very much like her, except for one detail: she had no choice other than the darkness, whereas Jonah did. In the end, Jonah chose the darkness, just like his safta before him.

At the beginning of the series, Jonah was wise-cracking, strong-willed, and determined. He would often joke with his friends and make sardonic remarks to others, expressing a rather cynical view of the world, or at least that around him. He did what he could for him and his grandmother Ruth, even resorting to drug dealing to help put food on the table, something he disliked doing, but viewed as a necessary evil. After his safta was murdered, he stopped at nothing to find her killer, going as far as to attempt to deal with a street gang to find out a name. Even after being arrested, he continued to hunt Ruth's killer, despite being warned not to.

As the season progresses, Jonah's mental health slowly but surely deteriorates, as he often disconnects from reality and sees visions of his deceased loved ones, namely that of his safta, as well as Arthur and Murray. These visions would either act as harbingers (Ruth appears to him before Arthur is murdered), guardians (Ruth becomes a "shoulder angel", so to speak), or would judge Jonah (Ruth, Arthur, and Murray manifest before him and blame him for their respective deaths). Ruth would also manifest as Jonah acted on his dark impulses, acting as his conscience and urging him not to give in to the darkness. Jonah eventually started ignoring her pleas, and she finally "gave up" once he fully gave in to the darkness.

Jonah becomes much more wrathful and willing to harm by the second half of the season, shown most prominently when he electrocutes Wernher von Braun despite the latter giving him all information he has on The Colonel. His behavior even surprises and upsets Joe, who often did the dirty work for the Hunters. Jonah's ever-growing depravity even became apparent to Meyer, once the former, upon seeing the mercy-killed Moritz Ehrlich, promised him that he'd ensure The Wolf suffered more than Ehrlich did. Jonah would follow up on this promise when he eventually uncovered Meyer's true identity to be that of Wilhelm Zuchs; The Wolf, who was ironically the number one target on the Hunters' list. Jonah grew increasingly angry and hostile to him for "destroying his world", eventually reciting the Kaddish prayer to him - something the real Meyer said he would do upon killing The Wolf - and shooting him in the chest, before stabbing him in the abdomen and laying him down to die, completing his descent into villainy.

Upon Wilhelm's death, Jonah took control of The Hunt, and instead of citing what they do as "necessary", he cited it as "wrong". By that point, he was no longer hesitant to kill, something he regretted being after sparing Travis Leich when he had the chance to kill him. From that point on, like his predecessor, he decided that the Nazis shouldn't be spared and taking them to court would be futile; they would instead be killed. Jonah has now practically become a shell of what he once was, abandoning his moral code, noting that Millie Morris, who talked him down from killing Leich, would pursue the Hunters, showing that he was ready and willing to opt-out of doing what he believed to be the right thing.

## Trivia

* In the pilot, Jonah defends the actions of Darth Vader from *Star Wars*, explaining that he was conditioned to believe the Jedi were evil, and was rather deluded by his upbringing, thinking he was the one to "save" the galaxy. This is not only a hot topic in the *Star Wars* community itself (morality is related closely to perspective) mirrors both the Nazis' and the Hunters' goals, as well as his own by the end. They all believe they need to save the world by performing terrible actions, but that it's worth it in the end.
* Jonah is fond of comics, working at a comic book shop. Throughout the series he's compared to characters such as Peter Parker, Frank Castle, and most prominently Bruce Wayne/Batman.
* The creator of the series David Weil's grandmother was a Holocaust survivor, and he interpreted the stories she told him as similar to those in comic books, saying it "became the lens through which [he] saw the Holocaust." This is similar to Jonah, who said that the things Ruth had gone through were the type of thing he'd only heard of in comic books.
* Jonah's actor Logan Lerman worked tirelessly to make Jonah's character and the show itself as gripping as possible. One of the most popular examples is that he had to learn the choreography for the dance on Coney Island in the third episode the day they filmed it.
	+ Weil has called Lerman "the beating heart of the production".
	+ In Season 2 Episode 3 it is revealed that Chava is his Grandaunt.