It doesn't matter to most viewers of Disney and Marvel's Moon Knight whether Marc Spector is Jewish. However, to those in the Jewish community, it means the world. As a Jewish Marvel fan myself, I was so excited for Moon Knight because I knew that the character was openly Jewish in the comics. For most of the show, I waited and waited for this representation to appear; once it came (after too long a time), I cried. It meant so much to me to see a Marvel superhero be so open about his Jewish heritage, for the entire multiverse to see.
Marvel heroes are obviously not required to have or be open about their religious backgrounds. However, Judaism is an ethnoreligion, and thus there are traditions that are common for the Jewish people, whether they are religious or not. To see a character participate in these traditions when it is vital to their character means a lot to those in the Jewish community. Representation matters, even on a small scale. Being Jewish is just a part of who Marc Spector is.
Was Moon Knight Jewish in the Comics?
In short, yes, Marc Spector (and Moon Knight) is Jewish in the comics. He was raised by a rabbi, so of course that played a large part in his connection to the religion. In the comics, his father was a Chicago rabbi who survived the Holocaust in Czechoslovakia; you can't really get more Jewish than that. Marc Spector was driven to be a superhero because of his Jewishness, not despite it. Marc began boxing because he felt that his father's passive response to antisemitism in their neighborhood was not helpful, and so responded to violence with violence. (Coincidentally, the new HBO movie The Survivor follows a Holocaust survivor who becomes a boxer, and further signals the themes of Moon Knight).
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Marc then went to the Marines, and later became Khonshu's avatar; all of this connects back to his original passion for boxing and fighting antisemitism. However, a large element of Moon Knight's character is his diagnosis of Dissociative Identity Disorder or DID. Moon Knight's other identity is Steven Grant, who is not Jewish. This is important because it means that the split that occurs in Marc's brain is not only based in identity but in culture as well.
How Did His Jewish Heritage Appear in the Show?
Not very much, unfortunately. Marc Spector's Judaism did not play a big part in the show at all; it didn't even make an appearance until episode five. However, the minimal representation that was in the show was done in a very organic way and still made an impact. Marc's Jewish heritage was brought up naturally through a conversation between Marc and Steven (himself) about Marc not wanting to attend his mother's Shiva. A Shiva is a Jewish tradition that occurs after someone passes, and is a time to mourn with the family of the deceased. Marc developed Steven through his troubled relationship with his mother, and thus Steven does not know about this.
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Besides the Shiva the only other inkling of Marc's Jewish heritage is a scene in which he wears a kippah, which is also associated with his mother's Shiva. Thus, every single connection to Marc's Jewish heritage is based in this one traumatic event, giving his connection to Judaism in the show a darker connotation.
Was That Representation Enough?
No, it wasn't enough. Or, as Decider puts it, "Moon Knight's attempt at Jewish representation was a misfire." Being openly Jewish is a big thing in modern media. Many characters are "Jewish coded" and thus not openly Jewish, but instead seem Jewish without being actually representative. Since Moon Knight in the comics is so well known for being openly Jewish, it was upsetting for many fans to have him barely show his Judaism in the series.
While there are some great Jewish comedies, Jewish representation is not as common in media as it may seem. Many characters may feel Jewish but never observe the way actual Jews do. That is why people thought Moon Knight might be different. The character of Moon Knight had been openly Jewish since the origins of his comics, so fans hoped he would be in the show. However, this is nothing new for Marvel — they have taken away the Jewish heritage of characters in the past, such as with characters like the powerful Avenger Wanda and Pietro Maximoff, who were canonically Jewish in the comics. While it was a small part of their story, it did not come over to the screen.
Fans expected more from Marc Spector, as his Jewish heritage played such a big part in his character. While the season is now over, fans can only hope to see more of Marc's Jewish heritage in the character's future appearances.