#Especially Jewish people
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since we now know that all those "my blog is safe for Jewish people" posts are bullshit, here are some Jewish organizations you can donate to if you actually want to prove you support Jews. put up or shut up
FIGHTING HUNGER
Masbia - Kosher soup kitchens in New York
MAZON - Practices and promotes a multifaceted approach to hunger relief, recognizing the importance of responding to hungry peoples' immediate need for nutrition and sustenance while also working to advance long-term solutions
Tomchei Shabbos - Provides food and other supplies so that poor Jews can celebrate the Sabbath and the Jewish holidays
FINANCIAL AID
Ahavas Yisrael - Providing aid for low-income Jews in Baltimore
Hebrew Free Loan Society - Provides interest-free loans to low-income Jews in New York and more
GLOBAL AID
American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee - Offers aid to Jewish populations in Central and Eastern Europe as well as in the Middle East through a network of social and community assistance programs. In addition, the JDC contributes millions of dollars in disaster relief and development assistance to non-Jewish communities
American Jewish World Service - Fighting poverty and advancing human rights around the world
Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society - Providing aid to immigrants and refugees around the world
Jewish World Watch - Dedicated to fighting genocides around the world
MEDICAL AID
Sharsheret - Support for cancer patients, especially breast cancer
SOCIAL SERVICES
The Aleph Institute - Provides support and supplies for Jews in prison and their families, and helps Jewish convicts reintegrate into society
Bet Tzedek - Free legal services in LA
Bikur Cholim - Providing support including kosher food for Jews who have been hospitalized in the US, Australia, Canada, Brazil, and Israel
Blue Card Fund - Critical aid for holocaust survivors
Chai Lifeline - An org that's very close to my heart. They help families with members with disabilities in Baltimore
Chana - Support network for Jews in Baltimore facing domestic violence, sexual abuse, and elder abuse
Community Alliance for Jewish-Affiliated Cemetaries - Care of abandoned and at-risk Jewish cemetaries
Crown Heights Central Jewish Community Council - Provides services to community residents including assistance to the elderly, housing, employment and job training, youth services, and a food bank
Hands On Tzedakah - Supports essential safety-net programs addressing hunger, poverty, health care and disaster relief, as well as scholarship support to students in need
Hebrew Free Burial Association
Jewish Board of Family and Children's Services - Programs include early childhood and learning, children and adolescent services, mental health outpatient clinics for teenagers, people living with developmental disabilities, adults living with mental illness, domestic violence and preventive services, housing, Jewish community services, counseling, volunteering, and professional and leadership development
Jewish Caring Network - Providing aid for families facing serious illnesses
Jewish Family Service - Food security, housing stability, mental health counseling, aging care, employment support, refugee resettlement, chaplaincy, and disability services
Jewish Relief Agency - Serving low-income families in Philadelphia
Jewish Social Services Agency - Supporting people’s mental health, helping people with disabilities find meaningful jobs, caring for older adults so they can safely age at home, and offering dignity and comfort to hospice patients
Jewish Women's Foundation Metropolitan Chicago - Aiding Jewish women in Chicago
Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty - Crisis intervention and family violence services, housing development funds, food programs, career services, and home services
Misaskim - Jewish death and burial services
Our Place - Mentoring troubled Jewish adolescents and to bring awareness of substance abuse to teens and children
Tiferes Golda - Special education for Jewish girls in Baltimore
Yachad - Support for Jews with disabilities
#atlas entry#please add any more you know of an especially add fundraisers for you or people you know#if there are any fundraisers for synagogues please add those as well#jew#jewish#judaism#jumblr#punch nazis
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You do realize that even Jewish people in Israel, especially Jewish people of color and Jewish survivors of the holocaust were treated unequally and even dehumanized in Israel, right?
Ok, it's time to settle this...
– Noah’s a young gay Jewish man who has suffered homophobic and antisemitic abuse for years, and so it hardly comes as a surprise that he’s inclined to support Israel when it’s the only place in the Middle East someone like him can set foot in without being publicly humiliated, tortured and murdered.
#don’t play that dumb game#Israel is not safe for ANYONE#ESPECIALLY JEWISH PEOPLE#AND PEOPLE OF COLOR
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I guess this might be why the UK seemed to go so antisemitic so quickly
I'm researching the 1947 pogroms in the UK. (Actually, I'm researching all the pogroms and massacres of Jews in the past 200 years. Which today led me to discover that there were pogroms in the UK in 1947.)
From an article on "The Postwar Revival of British Fascism," all emphasis mine:
Given the rising antisemitism and widespread ignorance about Zionism [in the UK in 1947], fascists were easily able to conflate Zionist paramilitary attacks with Judaism in their speeches, meaning British Jews came to be seen as complicit in violence in Palestine.
Bertrand Duke Pile, a key member of Hamm’s League, informed a cheering crowd that “the Jews have no right to Palestine and the Jews have no right to the power which they hold in this country of ours.” Denouncing Zionism as a way to introduce a wider domestic antisemitic stance was common to many speakers at fascist events and rallies. Fascists hid their ideology and ideological antisemitism behind the rhetorical facade of preaching against paramilitary violence in Palestine.
One of the league’s speakers called for retribution against “the Jews” for the death of British soldiers in Palestine. This was, he told his audience, hardly an antisemitic expression. “Is it antisemitism to denounce the murderers of your own flesh and blood in Palestine?” he asked his audience. Many audience members, fascist or not, may well have felt the speaker had a point. ...[The photo of two British sergeants hanged by the Irgun in retaliation for the Brits hanging three of their members] promptly made numerous appearances at fascist meetings, often attached to the speaker’s platform. In at least one meeting, several British soldiers on leave from serving in Palestine attended Hamm’s speech, giving further legitimacy to his remarks. And with soldiers and policemen in Palestine showing increasing signs of overt antisemitism as a result of their experiences, the director of public prosecutions warned that the fascists might receive a steady stream of new recruits.
MI5, the U.K. domestic security service, noted with some alarm that “as a general rule, the crowd is now sympathetic and even spontaneously enthusiastic.” Opposition, it was noted in the same Home Office Bulletin of 1947, “is only met when there is an organized group of Jews or Communists in the audience.”
The major opposition came from the 43 Group, formed by the British-Jewish ex-paratrooper Gerry Flamberg and his friends in September 1946 to fight the fascists using the only language they felt fascists understood — violence. The group disrupted fascist meetings for two purposes: to get them shut down by the police for disorder, and to discourage attendance in the future by doling out beatings with fists and blunt instruments. By the summer of 1947, the group had around 500 active members who took part in such activities. Among these was a young hairdresser by the name of Vidal Sassoon, who would often turn up armed with his hairdressing scissors.
The 43 Group had considerable success with these actions, but public anger was spreading faster than they could counter the hate that accompanied it. The deaths of Martin and Paice had touched a nerve with the populace. On Aug. 1, 1947, the beginning of the bank holiday weekend and two days after the deaths of the sergeants, anti-Jewish rioting began in Liverpool. The violence lasted for five days. Across the country, the scene was repeated: London, Manchester, Hull, Brighton and Glasgow all saw widespread violence. Isolated instances were also recorded in Plymouth, Birmingham, Cardiff, Swansea, Newcastle and Davenport. Elsewhere, antisemitic graffiti and threatening phone calls to Jewish places of worship stood in for physical violence. Jewish-owned shops had their windows smashed, Jewish homes were targeted, an attempt was made to burn down Liverpool Crown Street Synagogue while a wooden synagogue in Glasgow was set alight. In a handful of cases, individuals were personally intimidated or assaulted. A Jewish man was threatened with a pistol in Northampton and an empty mine was placed in a Jewish-owned tailor shop in Davenport.
And an important addendum:
I've read a whole bunch of articles about the pogroms in Liverpool, Manchester, Salford, Eccles, Glasgow, etc.
Not one of them has mentioned that the Irgun, though clearly a terrorist group, was formed in response to 18 years of openly antisemitic terrorism, including multiple incredibly violent massacres. Or that it consistently acted in response to the murders of Jewish civilians, not on the offensive. Or that at this point, militant Arab Nationalist groups with volunteers and arms from the Arab League countries had been attacking Jewish and mixed Arab-Jewish neighborhoods for months.
I just think the "Jewish militants had been attacking the British occupiers" angle is incredibly Anglocentric.
Yeah, they were attacking the British occupiers. But also, that's barely the tip of the iceberg.
Everyone involved hated the Brits at this point. If only al-Husseini and his ilk had hated the Brits more than they hated the Jews, Britain could at least have united them by giving them a common enemy.
#jewish history#jumblr#fascism#antisemitism#when anti-zionism IS antisemitism#seriously if you declare that something is never ever antisemitism we know you're writing yourself a blank check to be antisemitic#like. you may not consciously be aware of it#but the more you're emotionally invested in the idea that anything said or done in the name of anti-zionism isn't antisemitic#the more you will ignore or fail to notice or outright defend things that other anti-zionists do that ARE antisemitic#not to mention things that YOU do or say or believe that are antisemitic#especially because most people aren't very aware of the details of different antisemitic tropes#you're not an expert on what is antisemitic and why to begin with and now you're buying into a belief that muffles your perception of it#and gives you motivation to disbelieve and deny it#and there's already psychological motivation to disbelieve and deny it when it's coming from you or your peers or people you admire#and then there's the belief that jews just cry antisemitism to silence valid criticism#aka the exact thing that we always say marginalized groups don't do. and that it's offensive to claim marginalized groups do. that one.#the entire discourse has been set up to protect and propagate antisemitic beliefs from the start#which is not particularly progressive nor is it necessary if you actually want to support palestinians but go off etc#wall of words
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Wild and revolutionary concept: maybe don't treat converts like trash just because they're converts? And also don't ask someone if they're a convert in a public setting?
#having lunch before shabbat and had to remind my friend not to do this to people#like i get it might be a hard concept for some born jews to understand but one thing jumblr has taught me#is that its a sensitive and private topic#you dont just.bring it up. especially not in front of people?#because i have seen other born jews get all Different when they find out someone is a convert#and its crazy disrespectful#side note you can disagree w a convert about their opinions on certain things#and still not go after them for being a convert#thats a dif topic though#anyway unless the convert is openly inviting that convo#dont fucking bring it up????#jumblr#judaism#jewish#jewish conversion#like it prob feels like how i do when someone treats me dif for being baal teshuva#its just a shitty thing to do in general#dont bring it up?#if you have to ask they prob havent told you for a reason#yes even if its from a movement you don't think is vaid#like what do you expect them to go back to their rabbi and be like 'is like to return this conversion and exchange it for orthodoxy'#thats not how it works they already converted to that movement what is the point of you trying to make them feel bad about it#like what do you change or affect by doing that#same w being baal teshuva#you want me to get in a time machine and tell my parents to move to a jewish community?#whats the point of saying anything just shut up
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ultimately you have to remember that complaining about "4chan white trans women who are bigoted and so and so" is almost entirely pointless for any purpose aside from raising transmisogynistic sentiments in observers. this specter of an evil tranny is constantly looming despite the individuals being rare and often total shut ins, and people expect transfems to take this shit seriously and be constantly swearing off association with """bad people""". these people, when they do exist, by and large lack the power to actually do anything with their beliefs; obviously if they do it sucks but this idea that there are trans women ~getting away with it~ and that all transfem communities allow and hide this behavior is blatantly transmisogynistic in addition to often being completely imagined! its insane to act like you have to choose between resisting white supremacy and resisting transmisogyny, and yet, people wind up continually portraying it as this
#trust me brother most of the people I’ve been friends with are trans women ive seen trans women say racist stuff before#my circles challenge it and figure it out#these subhumans are talking like we dont deeply value the contributions of black trans women to transfeminism#im all for combating white supremacy in lgbt spaces including transfem ones#which is why we have to stop people just adding 'white' in front of whatever transmisogynistic shit they want to say#transmisogyny and racism are closely linked due to the racialized expectations we have for womanhood and tackling them together is critical#and talking over trans women on this- especially trans women of color and jewish trans women- is batshit insane and yet impossibly common#genderposting#sasha speaks#stop putting spacelazarwolf on my dash lol
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There's this group of people, usually Western leftists, who tend to filter all global politics through the lens of "what if this happened in America?" regardless of the actual political landscape of the situation in question. So this is one of the two primary reasons that you get takes like the above, even while people who know literally anything about Israeli politics know that Israelis are absolutely furious with Bibi right now. There have been protests! He's under immense pressure from Israeli civilians who don't want Gazans massacred! Israel is not the US under Bush!
The other primary reason is, of course, antisemitism.
#post sent to me by M. hence why it is in french etc.#*#mine#before you say something like this‚ I would advise stopping and asking yourself why it might be‚ perhaps‚ insensitive#to compare Jews to Nazis#especially considering that most Israelis (correctly‚ I would add!) view Hamas as attempting another genocide of Jewish people.#which is explicitly what is happening.#antisemitism#anyway. yes. that person is explicitly calling for another genocide of Jewish people. in case you weren't sure.#Israel
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jenndoesnotcare replied to this post:
Every time LDS kids come to my neighborhood I am so so nice to them. I hope they remember the blue haired lady who was kind, when people try to convince them the outside world is bad and scary. (Also they are always so young! I want to feed them cookies and give them Diana Wynne Jones books or something)
Thank you! Honestly, this sort of kindness can go a really long way, even if it doesn't seem like it at the time.
LDS children and missionaries (and the majority of the latter are barely of age) are often the people who interact the most with non-Mormons on a daily basis, and thus are kind of the "face" of the Church to non-Mormons a lot of the time. As a result, they're frequently the ones who actually experience the brunt of antagonism towards the Church, which only reinforces the distrust they've already been taught to feel towards the rest of the world.
It's not that the Church doesn't deserve this antagonism, but a lot of people seem to take this enormous pride in showing up Mormon teenagers who have spent most of their lives under intense social pressure, instruction, expectation, and close observation from both their peers and from older authorities in the Church (it largely operates on seniority, so young unmarried people in particular tend to have very little power within its hierarchies). Being "owned" for clout by non-Mormons doesn't prove anything to most of them except that their leaders and parents are right and they can't trust people outside the Church.
The fact that the Church usually does provide a tightly-knit community, a distinct and familiar culture, and a well-developed infrastructure for supporting its members' needs as long as they do [xyz] means that there can be very concrete benefits to staying in the Church, staying closeted, whatever. So if, additionally, a Mormon kid has every reason to think that nobody outside the Church is going to extend compassion or kindness towards them, that the rest of the world really is as hostile and dangerous as they've been told, the stakes for leaving are all the higher, despite the costs of staying.
So people from "outside" who disrupt this narrative of a hostile, threatening world that cannot conceivably understand their experiences or perspectives can be really important. It's important for them to know that there are communities and reliable support systems outside the Church, that leaving the Church does not have to mean being a pariah in every context, that there are concrete resources outside the Church, that compassion and decency in ordinary day-to-day life is not the province of any particular religion or sect and can be found anywhere. This kind of information can be really important evidence for people to have when they are deciding how much they're willing to risk losing.
So yeah, all of this is to say that you're doing a good thing that may well provide a lifeline for very vulnerable people, even if you don't personally see results at the time.
#jenndoesnotcare#respuestas#long post#cw religion#cw mormonism#i've been thinking about how my mother was the compassionate service leader in the church when i was a kid#which in our area was the person assigned to manage collective efforts to assist other members in a crisis#this could mean that someone got really sick or broke their leg or something and needs meals prepared for them for awhile#or it could mean that someone lost their job and they're going to need help#it might mean that someone needs to move and they need more people to move boxes or a piano or something#she was the person who made sure there was a social net for every member in our area no matter what happened or what was needed#there's an obvious way this is good but it also makes it scarier to leave and lose access#especially if there's no clear replacement and everyone is hostile#i was lucky in a lot of ways - my mother was unorthodox and my bio dad and his family were catholic so i always had ties beyond the church#my best friend was (and is) a jewish atheist so i had continual evidence that virtue was not predicated on adherence to dogma#and even so it was hard to withdraw from all participation in church life and doubly so because the obvious alternative spaces#-the lgbt+ ones- seemed obsessed with gatekeeping and viciously hostile towards anyone who didn't fit comfortable narratives#so i didn't feel i could rely on the community at large in any structural sense or that i had any serious alternative to the church#apart from fandom really and only carefully curated spaces back then#and like - random fandom friends who might not live in my country but were obviously not mormon and yet kind and helpful#did more to help me withdraw altogether than gold star lesbians ever did
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it honestly baffles me that Transphobes or general anti-LGBT will be pro Israel anti-hamas... it makes no sense, and as glad as I am people support Israel it confuses me... all the people who hate me stand for a place I could be safe. yet all the people who should love me stand for a place we would be killed... we live in a mad world... it makes me feel so lost... I don't want transphobes to have my back in one way and then not in another... because I'm scared of transphobes for how they see me and treat me and how much trauma they've caused... but I'm also scared of my own community for playing into their hands and giving them a valid reason to think we're insane when before they had none... I don't know what to do... I feel like as soon as the world moves on from the war the transphobes will just turn on me as they always have... so I find it hard to accept they support Israel and hate Hamas...
#i stand with israel#fuck hamas#free palestine from hamas#free gaza from hamas#pro israel#lgbt#transphobia#trans#gay#queer#trauma#terf#ashamed of my fellow goyim#terfs fuck off#hamas#queers for palestine can fuck right off#chickens for kfc#our history is not a fever dream#I am not “just a straights woman” I am a gay trans man#like I know there are multiple reasons to support Israel other than their acceptance for queer people! of course there are... but still#I've been treated so kindly by many Jewish people both queer and not#and especially with how queer people were treated during the holocaust I feel many Jewish people and queer people should have solidarity..#idk maybe I'm over explaining lol#transphobes dni#terfs dni#like seriously fuck off#no one likes you you're weird
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sorry 4 always complaining but i am so over "the gods arent real" reveals . why are u so opposed to faith and the belief in something u cant comprehend fully but still devote urself to anyway. is that not a form of love. yawn.
#likeeeeeeeee. this is part of my problem with da4 . the revelations about the evanuris literally happened nearly ten years ago#with the release of trespasser. and from what ive seen in interviews with david gaider that was always the plan.#for the elven gods to be fake#and idk its so cruel and callous ?? have the dalish and the elves not suffered enough.#especially considering the dalish and elves in general r explicitly based upon indigenous/romani/jewish peoples#going into da4 i was kind of hoping that not all the evanuris were as solas said they were#because why should we trust every word he says. the devs even say dont trust solas entirely#and then nope they didnt do any of that they just had the entire pantheon be tyrants#like ok. sure.#and then it turns out they're all dead anyway. lmfao.#so we never get to see another perspective . just elgar'nan and ghilan'nain being hurdudrdur we're evil and stuff#like :))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))) ok#datvg spoilers#da4 spoilers
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Just saw some Free Palestine supporters on the road to my parents’ house and was about to wave at them but then I saw a couple of them holding signs making disgusting antisemitic jokes about Passover. Guys seriously how fucking difficult is it to just. Not do that 😭 You’re really not giving Palestine extra help by making horrible comments and jokes about Jews ffs can you not just promote support for Palestine without bringing hatred for entire minority demographics into it DURING THE TIME OF A RELIGIOUS HOLIDAY. It is remarkably easy to criticise Israel without antisemitism and if you can’t do that then maybe you should stay out of the movement because you’re causing much more harm than good
#It was in such a small town as well where I doubt anyone has ever even met a Jewish person#Like in the city I’d expect some of that cos there’s more people but a tiny Northern town? That’s scary#Makes me so sad when bigots highjack what should be a compassionate movement#I know it must be so scary to be Jewish or Muslim right now and it stresses me out just thinking about it#Like it’s scary being Jewish or Muslim any day of the year but especially with everything going on lately#I’m sad. People make me sad#When will the hatred and violence ever stop fr#Ugh my day’s ruined now someone send me something funny pls#personal#vent#rant#antisemitism#free palestine#free gaza#i/p#protest
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Hey
If you're Jewish, this post is about you
I know it's gotta be shit right now. Antisemitism is on the rise. People are using Israel's genocide as an excuse to perpetuate antisemitic ideas. If you acknowledge that you're Jewish, someone will take that as an excuse to accuse you of Zionism and supporting the genocide. Celebrating your holidays? Same result.
And then on the other side, if you try to speak out against the genocide, to stick up for and show your support of the Palestinian people, your own people label you as an Enemy, and an antisemite. Your own Jewish identity is ignored or denied.
If you say nothing because you've realized nothing you say seems to be the right thing, you're accused by everyone of not caring, or secretly supporting one side - any maybe you do, but you can't say anything because you can't win no matter what side you're on.
The entire world has been equating Judaism with Israel on both sides and it isn't fair. It isn't fair when Jewish people are being arrested for antisemitic crimes in Germany - making up 37% of arrests despite making up a significantly smaller part of the population - because they weren't going to be quiet about genocide after their own people were met with silence during the Holocaust. It isn't fair when Jewish people are vocally denouncing the actions of Israel and calling for an end to the ruthless bombing. It isn't fair when even some Israelis risk everything to speak out against the state and their horrible crimes. It isn't fair when Jewish people are simply existing as Jewish people, either. Even when they aren't "proving" their support, it's still unfair to make such assumptions about someone because they're Jewish
And if you're one of these people who's shown hostility towards Jewish people over Palestine when they hadn't indicated they supported Israel at all, fuck you.
#to specifically address one idea:#the jews control the media is bullshit and israel-palestine doesn't “prove” it#y'know who controls the media? The West. Especially America#the USA benefits from Israel's existence. the UK benefits from Israel's existence. Most major Western nations do#That's who controls the media#They're pushing Israel's propaganda#there is no secret top jewish society that controls everything#israel just asks the usa for help and we do so as a fellow imperialist state#jewish#judaism#israel#anti israel#palestine#free palestine#anti zionisim#jewish antizionism#antisemetism#if you're making leftist spaces hostile to Jewish people I'm biting you. don't do that
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I love getting validated on small things that I didn't even consider like it's always a treat and this time it's Gender
The Fundie Baby Voice™️ has been popping up a lot in ex-christian spaces lately and I actually had one in middle school and part of high school! I learned when and where to use it and how to turn up my southern accent just enough. I can still do it but it sounds weird after 3 years on T. The main place I used it was at church cause it made me sound sweet and polite. I used it for old ladies when I worked at a grocery store too. My family didn't like it when we were just all together cause they said it sounded like baby talk, but loved it when I used it at church cause everyone would tell them how sweet and soft-spoken I was
My therapist said it actively made him feel uncomfortable when I used that voice. He couldn't quite put his finger on why it made him uncomfortable (other than him only knowing me on T) but he very much did not like it and he's so so right for that
#he's a cishet white jewish man so it's always a treat when I talk about something like this#cause it started off about how I felt like my gender is a performance and I will use it to my advantage#I usually talk fairly neutrally and monotone so people find it uncanny when I change it up#especially if it's the way I talk to my family and the church folks that ask about me#Now that I'm on T and had top surgery I love fucking with ppl via my gender presentation#I like the chaos of not correcting ppl and watching them fight amongst themselves over what my gender is#My previous gender was Weird Little Girl#and now i'm Just Some Guy#I don't feel like I was always a guy I feel like my gender at the time was Weird Little Girl#and it changed over time but I loved the performance of being a weird little girl#I was not a girl I was specifically a WLG#And well I still know how to use my old performances even if I'm no longer a weird little girl#I consider myself a guy but not a man and a girlie but not a woman#my gender is whatever is funniest at the moment#My gender is whatever you project onto me. My gender is a mirror to your childhood trauma#anyways I kinda lost the plot but yea I can kinda still use the fundie baby voice but it sounds a lil off#cause I've been on T for over 3 years now#ex christian#religious trauma
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A Chabad synagogue in Pomona, New York, burned to the ground on April 17th, along with its three Torah scrolls.
Torah scrolls are hand-written, hand-made, and kept in elaborately decorated cases or wrappings.
Many of them have long histories; my synagogue has two, I think, that were smuggled out of villages being destroyed in pogroms or in Nazi attacks. One of them is the only remaining piece of that village on earth.
Sometimes, the Torah scroll doesn't even belong to the synagogue, but is on loan from a place like the Memorial Scrolls Trust:
There's an entire Jewish holiday just for taking them out and dancing with them: Simchat Torah, "The Joy of Torah."
In fact, that was the holiday on which Hamas's invasion took place.
instagram
So it's a particular tragedy when a Torah is destroyed.
Chabad itself has a page about what goes into making just one Torah scroll:
"An authentic Torah scroll is a mind-boggling masterpiece of labor and skill. Comprising between 62 and 84 sheets of parchment -- cured, tanned, scraped and prepared according to exacting Torah law specifications -- and containing exactly 304,805 letters, the resulting handwritten scroll takes many months to complete.
"An expert pious scribe carefully inks each letter with a feather quill, under the intricate calligraphic guidelines of Ktav Ashurit (Ashurite Script). The sheets of parchment are then sewn together with sinews to form one long scroll. While most Torah scrolls stand around two feet in height and weigh 20-25 pounds, some are huge and quite heavy, while others are doll-sized and lightweight."
I learned all of this on Tumblr.
Once upon time, in people's "punch Nazis" days, I would've been able to find some mention on Tumblr of this synagogue burning.
There is none, so I'm posting about it.
And I'm going to quote Daniel Weiner, Rabbi of Temple de Hirsch Sinai in Bellevue, Washington, when his own synagogue was vandalized last November:
"It’s horrific and heartbreaking.... [Taking out your feelings about] what's going on in the Middle East by defacing a sacred space of a synagogue -- that’s the very definition of antisemitism."
I'm also posting about the Kehillat Shaarei Torah Synagogue in Toronto, whose windows were broken on Friday, April 19th, by someone who also tried to break the front door down.
And the April 15 graffiti outside a Bangor, Maine synagogue that said, "Nazi Israel 30K murdered," next to a crossed-out Star of David. The same synagogue faced pro-Hamas flyers plastered around it in November.
I was going to include all the synagogues vandalized over the past six months. But there are way too many. Several every week. Lots are swastikas.
I'll go back to just doing attacks on and near synagogues.
Someone has to talk about the 1-year-old who was stabbed outside Temple Beth Zion-Beth Israel (BZBI) synagogue, in Philadelphia, on April 13th.
The foiled terrorist attack on a Moscow synagogue on April 11th.
The man who, on April 9th, screamed at the rabbi at Moldova's Great Synagogue, "What are you doing here? How come no one has finished you off for everything you are doing to the Palestinians?" Just one week after people had vandalized a Holocaust memorial in nearby Soroka, and sprayed "Free Palestine" on it.
The Oldenburg, Germany synagogue that was firebombed on April 5th.
The Florida Las Olas Chabad Jewish Center, which on March 16 burned, but not to the ground. The Torah scrolls were safe, and no one was hurt, but the back of the building was severely damaged.
The planned-but-thwarted-on-March-7th ISIS massacre in a Moscow synagogue.
The stabbing of an Orthodox Jew in Switzerland on March 5th. (He was badly injured, but expected to survive.)
A man leaving a synagogue in Paris was beaten on March 3rd.
People set the courtyard of a synagogue in Sfax, Tunisia on fire on February 27th. Firefighters managed to put the fire out before it consumed the inside of the building.
The synagogue is no longer used; there are no Jews left in its area, and fewer than 1,000 Jews left in Tunisia overall.
(Thousands of Tunisian Jews were sent to work camps during the Holocaust. Antisemitism across the Middle East continued to increase rapidly for decades. By the 1970s, 90% of Tunisian Jews had fled to France or Israel.)
On February 18, an Orthodox Jew leaving Synagogue of Inverrary-Chabad in Lauderhill, Florida, was beaten by an attacker yelling racial slurs.
Someone deliberately chose International Holocaust Remembrance Day, January 27, to smash all the windows in the front of Sgoolai Israel Synagogue in downtown Fredericton, New Brunswick.
On December 29, Turkey arrested 32 people linked to ISIS who were planning attacks on synagogues and churches.
On December 17, a man drove a U-Haul truck up onto the sidewalk between a barrier and the front door of the Kesher Israel Congregation in Washington D.C., got out, and started yelling "Gas the Jews." He also sprayed a foul-smelling substance on two people leaving the synagogue.
December 17 also saw 400 synagogues across the United States receive bomb threats.
On December 11, a man attacked an elderly couple on their way into a synagogue in Los Angeles, screaming, "Give me your earrings, Jew!!" and beating one of them bloody with a belt. (Happily, he chased the guy down the street, and caught him when his pants fell down.)
On December 10, a 16-year-old was arrested in Vienna for planning an attack on a synagogue.
On December 8, on the first night of Hanukkah, 15 synagogues in New York State received bomb threats. And someone screamed, "Free Palestine," and fired shots outside of Temple Israel in Albany, NY. Which has a preschool that was in session.
Meanwhile, the five Jews left in Egypt were canceling public Hanukkah candle-lighting at their synagogue out of fear of reprisals. Particularly after two Israelis in Alexandria had been gunned down by terrorists on October 8. (While Israel was still fighting Hamas in Israel.)
On November 15, a terrorist group set the only synagogue in Armenia on fire.
Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia (ASALA) has a history of working with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).
(PFLP is part of Hamas's network of groups. Samidoun is their nonprofit arm - which is why Germany banned Samidoun last year, although it's still active in many other countries.
PFLP is also actively supported by the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM), a diaspora nonprofit group, and Within Our Lifetime (WOL), an SJP spinoff in NYC.)
On November 11, halfway through Shabbat services, police asked Central Shul in Melbourne, Australia to evacuate "as a precaution" due to a "pro-Palestinian" protest that had chosen the neighboring park as its gathering place. Australia has seen some very outspoken antisemitism at protests, including the march shortly after October 7 that chanted "Gas the Jews."
Also on November 11, protesters targeted a synagogue along a march route. They sat in their cars, spraying green smoke and shouting at people leaving the synagogue. The march itself featured a record number of horrifying signs and chants.
On November 7th, Congregation Beth Tikvah in Montreal was firebombed, and the back door of the Jewish organization across the street (Federation CJA) was set on fire.
On November 4, protesters chanted "Bomb Israel," and burned an Israeli flag outside the only synagogue in Malmo, Sweden.
During October, there were 501 antisemitic acts under investigation in France in just three weeks, including groups gathering in front of synagogues shouting threats, and graffiti such as the words “killing Jews is a duty” sprayed outside a stadium.
On October 18, people firebombed a synagogue in Berlin after homes all over the neighborhood were graffitied with stars of David.
And also on October 18, hundreds of "pro-Palestine" rioters attacked the Or Zaruah Synagogue, in the Spanish enclave of Melilla in North Africa, while worshippers were inside.
Based on the video, they seem to have blocked the synagogue entrance completely, while screaming "Murderous Israel" and waving Palestinian flags. (Melilla is an autonomous zone belonging to Spain. It borders Morocco.)
On October 17, during pro-Palestinian protests, hundreds of rioters set fire to Al Hammah synagogue, an abandoned house of prayer in central Tunisia. They hammered down the building’s walls and raised a Palestinian flag on the building. Police did not intervene.
The Facebook page "Tunigate", which has around 88 thousand followers, published a video of the assault. So did "Radio Bousalem”, with 83 thousand users. The vast majority of comments on these videos welcome these acts. The building was severely damaged and almost completely razed to the ground.
On October 15, bomb threats were sent to many East Coast synagogues. Attleboro synagogue Congregation Agudas-Achim received one of the emails, which read, "The bombs will blow up in a few hours. A lot of people will die. You all deserve to die."
On October 8 -- again, while Hamas was still in Israel -- Madrid’s main synagogue was defaced with graffiti that read “Free Palestine” next to a crossed-out Star of David.
And on October 7, an assailant in Rockland, NY fired a BB gun at two women entering a synagogue. Later in the month, a banner at the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue in the area was vandalized with the words, “Fuckin kikes."
#if you have used “Free Palestine” as if it's a sort of verbal assault you can shout in comments or scribble over flyers#if you are unwilling to hear what the Jewish term Zionism means to the people who use it#if you cannot name one Palestinian human rights activist#and most of all if you don't know how Hamas abuses Palestinians and you still think it's The Resistance#then you. are. the. problem.#if you don't know people in gaza have been protesting Hamas and blaming it for deliberately instigating a war they don't want#if you don't know how often they've spoken out about Hamas stealing aid and selling it to them#and especially if you don't want to believe me much less find Palestinians in Gaza to listen to#also if you didn't know about any of the stuff in this post BUT you have taken it upon yourself to tell Jews that “it's not antisemitism”#like seriously everyone deal with your learned distrust of Jews challenge#wall of words#fire tw#guns tw#violence tw#Instagram
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If you're going to criticize jews but your entire criticism hinges on jews not only being all white but also being treated as white all the time, your criticisms are unbaked and your cornerstone of politics relies on antisemitism, considering how quickly and easily you fall for it
#jumblr#jewish politics#personal thoughts tag#antisemitism#antisemitism tw#as a white converting person/jew in progress: the antisemitism ive faced (even how MILD it is) has still shown me that i am being separated#i could not even imagine being a jew of color where your existance is treated as an impossibility or as something contradictory#many of the progressive types i have been around still fall for this frankly antisemitic idea#feel like this could be worded better so if anybody (especially jews of color) want this post: share if you please (/genuine)#at the very least it shows me that all you have done to expose yourself to jewishness is like...#...a movie where the jewish character is like. from brooklyn and is pale and Looks Jewish By Your Standards#i really don't like talking about antisemitism (who does.) but it's important to me#not just because i face it (mildly) as a jew-in-progress but because JEWS ARE PEOPLE AND LIKE ALL PEOPLE ARE DIVERSE#and i see this exact post (almost) from jews and this is a problem that's probably as old as time but that doesn't make it right#and like.. 'if youre going to criticize jews' like people are going to be normal and not antisemitic about it. im just bad at starting posts
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"Oh wow OP sounds like you weren't Their Good Jew™ enough to avoid experiencing antisemitism in antizionist spaces, I guess you'll change your mind about antizionism now!"
Actually this is so crazy, but my political activism isn't actually based on what will personally benefit me or if I'm rewarded for it, but is in fact a reflection of my moral compass and what I think is right. Way to tell on yourself that your political views and activism are 100% based on other people's approval and what you think will personally benefit you best, though! Couldn't be me.
#did you know that some people don't choose their political activism based on clout? and that you're the weird one for thinking that they do?#the whole “antizionist Jews are only antizionist to try to escape antisemitism/for goyim's approval” argument is so stupid#and is VERY telling about how selfish the people making that claim must be#to think it's not just normal but expected to abandon your values because they don't always benefit you on a personal level#that's just straight up not how most people think about activism or political beliefs or basic morality#my advocacy for Palestinian liberation isn't for anyone's approval it's because of my moral compunction to do what I think is RIGHT#and I couldn't really respect myself (especially as a Jew) if I abandoned my advocacy because it didn't personally benefit me#idk maybe self-respect or moral character or having any fucking backbone at all is a new concept for the people in my inbox#and if so great timing! high holy days are coming up so maybe this is a chance to reflect a little and realign yourself with Jewish values#anyway thank you to the zionist and antizionist Jews and gentiles who are being normal in the notes of my post y'all are so kind#jewish antizionism#antizionism#jumblr#jewblr#jewish
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NGL: Stuff like Brambleclaw being a terrible namer is like. really fun but also kinda hits with the 'he;s not some meglomaniacl villain hes just a shitty guy'. like. you could see squirrelflight finding that really endearing. IDK if this is some mastermind shit, or if i'm just reading wayyyyy to into this, but i like how you give characters that are pretty bad dudes very humanising qualities. Especially when they're silly/cute. Kinda reminds you that like. theyre like. a person. well. cat but yknow. and they chose to do bad shit, with influence from their past, rather than being inherently terrible. 👍
YEAH MAN, that's what I'm SAYING
Abusers, ideologues, and other terrible people are not masterminds. They aren't born evil. They're not inherently smart OR stupid. They can love, they can be funny and polite, they do things they believe are justified and want to be good people. They don't think of themselves as villains.
Evil isn't complex. It's really, really not. I feel like that's the #1 cause of confusion when I get a question like, "Why does this person do this malicious act, when it's bad/inconsistent/mean?" The answer is always simple;
They wanted to control someone.
They wanted something and didn't mind who they hurt.
Spite and short-sightedness.
Look for anything deeper and you will not find it. Heroics are complex, being a good person is ongoing and changes over time. We're in a constant state of growing. Malice is childishly simple; it feels good to get what you want.
With Bramblestar especially... it always goes back to what I said here, when talking about the idea of an Evil!Bramble. He's a person, and you ruin everything that's so interesting about him by stripping away that nuance. Squilf and Bramble loved each other, truly, and legitimately. He can be charming. He can be nice. He still hurts her. Reconcile with this.
He is not wiser for what he went through, as a child. His pain doesn't make him better. Man's just a jerk... that's it.
#Sparkpelt deserves that scene from God The Devil and Bob#Where Bob finds out his dad isn't in Hell#And it INFURIATES him#If you haven't seen that scene btw you should. I really love that series#Especially if you're religious OR are like me where you aren't but are still fascinated by more human takes on biblical figures#Btw just... as a side note I am intrigued by how many of my followers are christian. It surprises me? I love you guys tho but like...#I really don't hold back in my critique of hierarchical religion#I'm glad that I am respectful enough to not alienate you guys though#I'm glad you're finding something meaningful too#I am an A-A-A-ATHEIST though with a hard ATH#I just never thought I would have so many religious people following along#OH BTW I hope all my Jewish followers are having a meaningful and somber Yom Kippur*#Bone babble#* = edited I'm an idiot
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