#Im so scared for the Palestinians of course

[theamazingannie]

We can’t get a functional healthcare system or a solution to school shootings or a federal minimum wage above the poverty line or the fucking ability to expel actual fucking nazis from our congress but somehow we can get a near unanimous vote to equate antizionism with antisemitism, something that is only going to harm Jewish people even more than they already are. What a joke country this is

[determinate-negation]

I see your answer, and it frankly infuriates me, your denial of documented hateful comments on campus and ACTUAL Jewish people saying they feel threatened. The refusal to acknowledge even the slightest defect in your "side" leads me to the conclusion that you yourself are not immune to propaganda and you certainly do not value jewish voices (unless, of course they agree with you). You are more than welcome to check the jewhatedb to have a taste of the spirits in some campuses.

As for this: "more cops on campus and administrations destroying academic freedom cynically framed as “preventing antisemitism” is actually a bigger threat for us in the long run" oh how nice of you to ignore those pesky jews in name of the greater cause of academic freedom, consider this, a space that ignores Jewish voices and excuses antisemitism wasn't free to begin with. You are willing to accept their absence for some sort of "long run" greater cause and that's, for the lack of better words, fucked up.

i didnt deny shit, i stated multiple times that antisemitism exists on college campuses, but i did point out that your examples are not coming from pro palestine students. theyre coming from people who are trying to vilify pro palestine students. why doesnt it infuriate you that people are threatening to murder jews just to make muslim students look bad? why is it not infuriating to you that bad media coverage on this makes jewish students unneccesarily scared when the threats are coming from our zionist so called allies? when did jews start cheering for police repression? do you think that attacks on left wing political organizing on college campuses are actually good for jews in the long run? i see someone didnt do their nazi history homework.

also im a marxist not a liberal that subscribes to bankrupt identity politics so the identity of voices is less relevant to me than the content of what theyre saying, but if you want to go on that path why the fuck are you ignoring my jewish voice and the voices of other anti zionist jews who agree with me?

as ive said many times before, there is a difference between feeling threatened and being threatened and jewish students feeling threatened by the existence of pro palestine organizations that are generally progressive and full of jews is in my mind separate from being threatened by real antisemitic incidents. which should be taken seriously but arent coming from pro palestine students as much as they are from reactionaries and opportunists.

besides the fact that “jewish voices” are not a monolith, academia does not ~ignore jewish voices~ except for anti zionist ones. anti zionist jews get doxxed by organizations like canary mission, get kicked out of jewish centers, get slandered by college admins and pro zionist organizations. college administrations bend over backwards to support israel and denigrate sjp and jvp on their campuses. as for academic freedom, its historically never been free for critics of israel, not zionists. jewish professors have been blacklisted from academia for criticizing israel in fact. you said youre glad youre not in american academia and its very obvious you understand nothing of american academia

https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/the-blacklist-in-the-coal-mine-canary-missions-fear-mongering-agenda-college-campuses

[jewish-vents]

On my main blog i saw someone i had been following for a long time make a post about how one of their mutuals doesnt reblog donation scams because theyre secretly a zionist + they hate palestinians. I've also seen another person i follow say "only zionists are falsely claiming the gofundmes are fake".

This is the new norm.

Some of my long time mutuals as well as their moots and even random blogs i'll find tend to do this insane thing where they'll accuse everyone and anyone of being a zionist simply for no reason or even based on vibes. (Of course jews are disproportionately attacked but anyways.)

I usually dont block because i cant block everyone on the internet...i would also have to block everyone outside of jumblr.

This one time a few months back i had to block this one person tho because they had a long vague rant about a mutual who they were convinced was a zionist because

*GASPS* THEY TRY TO CALL OUT MISINFORMATION!

Insert the "ah ive seen youve fallen for the jewish trick of providing evidence" 4chan image lmfao.

I was so sad. This person had people agreeing with them (token jews and gentiles alike). Their rant could, no joke, be summed up by "idk why this mutual keeps talking about "antisemitism" and wont stop saying things like check your sources and fact check what u see.. only zionists would fact check a genocide!" I wish i was making this up. They were ranting about their most likely jewish mutual who tried to remind people to be careful of who they were listening to i.e. jackson hinkle and calling out misinformation which was "off" to the OP. Why? Because all that energy should be applied to caring about palestinians instead.........

As a result i reblog donation posts even though im sure 99% of them are scams.

Ive been uneasy since october 7th.

I dont post anything jewish because i know for a fact a mutual or a mutual's mutual will accuse me of being an evil genocidal zionist that drinks palestinian tears or something like that which would be an insane blow because i, as all humans should, care about palestinians and their oppression and suffering so such an accusation would upset me beyond words. idc about the zionist part i luv zionists but the other stuff would piss me off to tje point where i'd lose it.

I wish i wasnt such a coward. Im too scared for my safety. I dont wanna be punished for existing.

.

[fairuzfan]

hi, im a minor who doesnt have very much money and is too scared of his parents to reliably ask to actively support palestine. is there anything i can do even in this position?

Hey, thanks so much for reaching out. One of the biggest things anyone can do right now is speak up for the Palestinians, be their voice, because obviously it was dangerous enough for the Israelis to cut it off. But please, if you are a minor, be safe. We understand and are thankful for your care, but please, if you are a minor or dependent, be carious to whom youre speaking with because not everyone will be receptive.

When you speak up, always cite your facts and don't engage with trolls and people with obviously bad faith arguments (if you need help recognizing this, feel free to ask me). Even if you change the mind of ONE person, it will be enough. I asked my mom for her opinion on this and she suggests talking to your friends that you feel safe with (while still being careful with your words, of course) and concealing your identity when online if you do speak through social media, although she says she doesn't like the idea of a minor talking online to openly because you dont know who is on the other end of your convo and what their intentions are.

If you don't feel safe in a conversation then leave and don't worry about it. That person obviously won't change their mind and will want to corner you.

Thanks so much again for reaching out. Knowing that you want to help is already doing so much. And keep Gaza in your thoughts, please.

[silly-little-zio]

hi! looking for advice from my (((friends)))

i’m struggling a lot with my identity right now and i’m not sure what to do

i’ve grown up jewish, and i’m so immensely proud of my heritage, my culture and my community. i love being jewish

recently i’ve been doing a lot of research and found i feel very connected with zionism. i’ve decided im a zionist, and the stance i identify most with is a peaceful two-state solution.

my heart goes out to both my people in israel, and the hostages in gaza, but also the innocent palestinians who also deserve a safe home.

but i don’t know how to say this, to anyone really. i’m a leftist and while i don’t consider myself a “textbook liberal” i have pretty much all liberal views, so of course so do all my friends. so im scared.

i’m scared to tell my friends and family that im a zionist and that i support israel. i’m terrified of being labeled an “evil zionist” or a “dirty jew”

and that embarrasses me. i’m ashamed of myself because i should be proud of myself and my views and my culture. but i’m terrified of losing my friends and being called names and maybe even getting hurt.

any advice is welcome. thank you so much for reading.

i ask that any pro-palestine ppl don’t interact with this post. i’m not looking for an argument right now, im looking for advice from my community. please and thank you

am yisrael chai ✡️💟

[kartana]

I heard a story on npr today about how a city near Gaza in Isreal has had its population return up to 70% or so after many people fled after october. The show mentioned oct 6th a lot, describing students' reactions to the day and how one teacher consoled a child who was scared by saying that the spilders were scared too. They explained that many families chose to leave the city after threats of missles and that they have all started to return. Schools are running again there, and they also drove a lot of people to return. The story talked about how many schools erected walls towards Gaza to feel protected and that many schools now had armed guards stationed for security. They talk about the children dealing with trauma from having to evacuate last year along with hearing bombs in Gaza constantly. I hear children speak and then mothers talk about how they dont move away because all of isreal is dangerous, not just miles away from the border wall. I heard an Isreali man, I assume a teacher, talk about how he went and planted an isreali flag in the rubble. The npr host pivots now for a moment and describes a hill with a clear view of the now destroyed nearby neighborhood in Gaza. He speaks like he's describing nature, that all the rows of houses have been turned to rubble. That over 34,000 palestinians have been killed. NPR cuts back to the city in isreal. A woman speaks about how it's bad for both sides of course and laments halfheartly that she's glad that "we" were winning but doesn't like that the citizens of Gaza suffer. Npr moves back to the man who planted the isreali flag in the rubble. I listen as he says he thinks its better if things are rebuilt far away, that the people of Gaza do not come back. That the time to rebuild will come later. That his flag signifies the resilience of the isreali people and how they persist. This is where the show ends. I feel like im being fucking punked. I feel like im supposed to just listen to the tone and crescendo this story presents thoughtlessly and leave with a faint buzz of sentiment about how war is bad for everyone and people move on changed from it. To have this nothing sentiment and take no action due to it just being a story I hear on the radio. The children are scared of the bombs! We took one sentence to describe where the bombs dropped. It's just rubble now. they are no people there don't think about the people in those houses and the bodies under the rock. I don't have to think about that because npr said most people have fled the north of Gaza. It's fine don't think about it. Think about the isreali flag in the wind surrounded by a devastated landscape. This is a powerful statement we will end the show on. Jesus fucking christ. I think npr should do a story on manifest destiny next they could just do this story again and change some details.

[nokindarider]

Every single jew I know is posting I stand with *srael and i have literally felt nauseous because of it for several days and im really scared and upset and i just hope that the world eventually finds peace and love and forgiveness and people are saying that *srael is gonna bomb all of gaza to rubble that they’re gonna just genocide them all and i am praying with everything in me that doesn’t happen but the worst part is i 100% believe that the *sraeli government is capable of doing that because they are sort of just an amerikkkan military outpost and if america is capable of genociding our indigenous population why would they stop others from doing it and it just makes me want to be sick and war is a racket and i love all the Jewish people I know and I completely understand the lies they’ve been fed by zionists and I understand why they think about the Holocaust and they think about the persecution of Jews but this isn’t that this is about land and power and money and oppression of the palestinians and i just can’t take seeing my friends posting about being pro *srael meanwhile they’re cutting off the electricity and the water into gaza and using phosphorus these are war crimes people being used on civilians on children im sorry I care much more about that than one terrorist attack especially because of the political context surrounding it I mean my friend at college her dad is *sraeli so of course she’s been posting a fuck ton of shit about it and it just makes me so uncomfortable and she showed up to school wearing an IDF shirt I was like that’s a fucking lot but I also know it’s not something I can ever have a real convo about with her and I tried once but we always go to the rabbis house for Shabbat and I’m like thinking wow I literally love going so much but I also kind of don’t want to go anymore because they literally just spew propaganda anyway I don’t fucking know but I’m done and I’m praying for the Palestinians and I am praying for life

[remembermeyesterdayandtomorrow]

January 4th, 2024 Well, its been a while. I'm almost 20 now... time flies. I'm back, hoping to relay my mind once more. Hoping that maybe this document will surpass my life, should anything happen. I'm in college now, doing what I love. I have a boyfriend and his family loves me. My mom bought a new house and is so excited to move in. And war is raging on in our world. For the last few months I've been struggling to accept the impacts climate change is having on our world, and just as I've begun to settle on that front, war breaks out. Of course, I haven't lived a day of my life without war, but it has been worsening. The people of Palestine have been suffering, and Israel is spreading their attacks- to Lebanon, to Syria. They don't deserve it. The people blame America, they hope we suffer the same. I want to help. I want our government to stop- to have some common sense. South Africa has brought it to international court- I can only hope that a ceasefire comes out of this, I don't know what to do if it doesn't. I feel guilt that there isn't more that I can do to help the Palestinians. I have emailed my politicians and donated when I can, but in reality, our government cares more about money and strengthening out relations that the lives of people that are suffering. You know it is saying something when North Korea and Russia- Our perceived enemies, are calling for the war to stop. Who know's, maybe if we agreed with them for once, there could be opportunity for bridges to be built. I don't think North Korea will be so easy though, yesterday they officially declared they would no longer be attempting to reunify with South Korea, and today they fired 200 shells at a residential island. (Though, I assume they will argue that it was within their right, as the island resides below the northern limit, but above the line North Korea has set as theirs. ) I am terrified that the United States will get involved. We have been warned more and more what will come if we meddle. And I fear for my life. I cannot say that I know even a fraction of what the people of Gaza feel, the loss they have suffered is immeasurable, but I am scared for them, as well as myself. Everything feels wrong. I should be at the happiest point in my life. I'm getting a new house, I'm loved, Im doing what I love. But I haven't suffered this much in a long time. I think that I am mourning my future. It feels more and more like things that I was told were to be, are no longer feasible. My boyfriend had said to me the other day that he would love to have kids with me one day, get married, get a house. When we were old enough. I didn't have the ability to respond excitedly. Why be excited for something that seems almost impossible now? I simply responded with "We'll see." I wish I could remain positive in the way he does. My friends in the military say not to worry, that If we're smart everything will be okay. I watched videos of girls trying on wedding dresses. I saw one I really liked. It was simple, Innocent, but beaded and delicate. I went to save it. I hesitated. Would I ever need this?

Every night, I cannot go to sleep. I am paranoid that a bomb will come any second. I lose more and more sleep every night. I feel sick. And yet, for now, I am safe. Im disgusted that I am so terrified when I am safe and they are not, yet I fear nonetheless. I would like to get married some day. My country does not speak for me. I wish I could do more.

[heavensickness]

i'm the anon who sent the prev message. im so sorry that you feel scared to share about yourself. it's your blog and you should feel comfortable to post whatever you want. :/ honestly, if people don't like what you post, they can unfollow or block - it should be simple. i hope you feel comfortable sharing your culture eventually! i only started sharing about my religion and ethnicity (im muslim and palestinian) once i made mutuals with similar backgrounds. being a palestinian comes with the baggage of people's stereotypes and politcal views lol so i have to tread lightly most of the time, especially offline since i live in a western country...

I feel more comfortable now bc I know that my mutuals are not bigoted people & I learned to use the block button freely! I think Palestinian culture is beautiful even with the little information I have & I would like to learn about it more ❤ And of course I wouldn't cross my line saying that I 100% relate to your experience but I know about having an ethnicity whose existence is treated as a socio-political discourse... But I am happy that you are comfortable with talking about your culture! It kinda eases the alienated feeling one has from their country. I hope that you and your family will always be safe. I hope you have a great day ❤❤❤

[scottstiles]

clarz

replied to your post

“hi divvy! i know you are MAD right now, so don't answer this until you...”

thanks so much for answering this! tbh i love the fact that you're religious and that you clearly love it so much. i went to a very catholic college, so that kind of thoughtful and deep connection with religion and tradition is important to me, and i love seeing it in other people. it's an important part of who you are! and part of the reason i asked is because you mentioned disliking the performance thing in your initial post, and i really connect with that. when i was growing up, the church i went to was pretty plain and traditional (despite very liberal politics and interpretations of scripture.) most of the other people i knew who went to church were evangelical and/or southern baptist, and i always disliked that their churches had like, full rock bands at services, and poppy contemporary melodies to "hymns." i understand that they're trying to make church fun, but it always made me suspicious and felt disingenuous.                  i don't think religious services should be a chore, certainly, but i also don't think that they should be "fun" in that way. that's not the purpose of religion. i don't think religion should become more like entertainment or performance, because it's supposed to be a space that's completely different from the rest of the world. it makes it feel less holy to me. so i definitely relate to how you feel there. also, how did you end up feeling about the service in the moment? (and i'd love to hear about the ma'apilim sometime)                                            

SORRY I DIDN’T ANSWER THESE BEFORE CUZ I REALLY WANTED TO BUT PROCRASTINATION IS MY MIDDLE NAME (jk it’s tzviya but try saying that ten times fast. or just one time. slow.)

HERE WE GO:

1- i love finding other people who feel close to their religion, no matter what it is. i remember in teacher’s college i just naturally gravitated to the only catholic girls in my classes i guess simply because i enjoyed talking to them? we weren’t there learning to teach religion, but i’m always fascinated by what other people feel about it. i’ve found myself thinking on more than one occasion that i feel more comfortable with people who have that side to themselves, like me, rather than people who don’t interact/think about/believe in any of that kinda stuff. (im being purposefully vague because it’s a huge generalization, but nonetheless true-ish for me, i often find myself sharing much more common ground with palestinian muslims, for example, than a french canadian montrealer). i guess especially because religion is not something i consider a defining trait of mine, and im just in constant evolution with respect to that. judaism is so much more than just a belief in god or a practice of the rituals and commandments.

2- how fascinating to find someone in my age bracket who feels the same way about music in prayer. my problem has always been that i LOVE music, and its so personal and emotional that i DO see it fitting seamlessly with prayer but... it’s the setting that has always bothered me. it just never felt right for me in a synagogue. like you said, it’s just a different space. i don’t know about church and ‘making it fun’ but i definitely can imagine plenty of religions use music to draw in otherwise disinterested people who find prayer “boring” or pointless. music is awesome! i just wish people could feel the music in their soul as a separate entity from external music, like from an instrument. idk i guess i just really love singing XD and i wish it wasn’t always a performance or a competition of voices, because i think prayer should be personal. even if it’s between a community, its still voices connecting to each other. i’m reminded of Hannah’s prayer, in the book of Samuel (the prophet- his mother), she’s at the temple on one of the annual pilgrimages with her family and she’s depressed because she doesn’t have any children and her husband’s other wife just keeps popping out babies left and right. so she goes to be alone somewhere in the temple, and she’s weeping and praying to god for a child. Eli, the high priest, comes in and sees her shaking and moving her lips real fast so he goes, “hey, you shouldn’t be drinking in here” and she’s like “im not drunk, i’m praying”. so that’s the first place we read about a person actually praying, and not out loud. this was like a huge revelation to the priest cuz clearly he’d never seen that before, and now the tradition has become to pray like hannah. (as an aside, if u ever see the propaganda videos made by the nazis, they use footage of synagogues to show how loony tunes those jews are with their muttering and their rocking back and forth). cuz like, prayer is supposed to be out loud? ahaha anyway i forgot where i was going with this but... oh ya, okay, so prayer didn’t really exist (as we know it, in judaism- and therefore christianity/islam/western monotheism) until that point- it was all about the sacrifices. and the temple ritual was replete with music and instruments like the shofar, timbrels, lutes, blabla other ancient instruments. but since then, we’ve been meant to use our voices alone. so says tradition, i guess.

3- so i did go to services on yom kippur (kol nidre) but not at my shul. i went with my sister to the chabad house near my parents, and it was....not great. but it was compounded by a lot of factors- i got a wicked cold the day or two before, so my nose was running a marathon and i was coughing like a 90yr old with emphysema. i got my period that morning so i was on an extra steep emotional rollercoaster that i just somehow could barely control. so we sat on the other side of the mechitzah (the separation barrier between men and women), the rabbi/cantor stood at the head in the middle so we could all see, and we all prayed out loud, no hush on the women’s side or anything (pretty typical from what i remember of camp/school prayer services). but of course the tunes were not quite what i’m used to, and there was a bit of annoying stuff that just irks me as a perfectionist (like they use a lot of yiddish pronunciation of the hebrew words, injecting a bunch of oy oy oys and ahoyhoyhoys in random places, in fact i leaned over to my sister at one point and was like ‘did ned flanders write this nigun (tune)?’), but altogether i guess it was better than watching an orchestra perform the prayer? idk it was pretty bad, on an emotional level, but not in hindsight. im very good at ruining things for myself through sheer stubbornness. i must have embarrassed my sister just by existing next to her, poor girl, she really wanted me to like it. i’m glad it’s over, and hopefully by next year ill be back in nyc or some other city so i wont have to worry about it.

4- MA’APILIM!!!!! okay so this was my absolute favoritest thing as a kid and i can’t wait to describe it to you. one night in camp, every summer, the counselors and cits would wake us up at like 3am by barging into our cabins chanting (screaming, really) “MA’APILIM, MA’APILIM BEH-MASSAD, BEH-MASSAD. MATCHIL HALAYLA MATCHIL HALAYLA BEH-MASSAD, BEH-MASSAD.” which translates to : “ma’apilim at massad (the name of my camp) starts tonight.” i’m singing it in my head as i type XD. so they’d be screaming and we’d be tumbling bleary eyed out of bed to grab our socks and sweatshirts and run over to the flagpole (keep in mind i was 8 when i first experienced this, and we’ve had kids as young as 6 at camp). once we had all gathered in line with our bunkmates, the counselors and cits put on a little “skit”.

basically they acted like they were nazis and jews, and did a little skit of some basic bad holocaust stuff (don’t ask me to remember the exact details we’re talkin at least 20 years since i last did this) to scare the pants off of us. kids would always cry already at this point from the shouting. we’d all kinda follow into this “play” (sorry idk what else to call it), and marched over to the gym where we watched a fake hanging on the stage. they literally. hanged someone. in front of us. a fake noose, of course, duh, i remember my counselor showing it to me, but traumatizing to say the least (i still remember the name of the counselor they “hanged”- not sure this ever happened more than once but ill never forget it).

then we’d all hustle down to the waterfront, again “playing” the role of holocaust victims/survivors after these little “skits” had sort of put us in the headspace, and we play along, imagining we’d just experienced these things and were now running from it. it was terrifying and exhilarating as a small child, and an even more unbelievably emotional thrill ride as i got older and became pseudo-obsessed with holocaust lit and facts in general in my life (it never did go away but everything changes with age). ANYWAYS so down at the waterfront we got a speech from another counselor playing a member of the haganah (the main jewish defense force in palestine leading up to independence, which ben gurion later turned into the IDF). sidebar for a little history: in the 40s the yishuv (jewish agency) and the haganah began a mission called aliyah bet, “the second immigration,” an illegal smuggling operation to bring refugees from the holocaust into palestine under the noses of the british, since almost all countries in the world had barred their doors to jewish immigration from europe (a high level member of the canadian government is famously recorded as having answered, when asked how many jews they should let in, that “none is too many”). volunteer seamen from the US and canada and other countries crossed the ocean on cargo ships hastily refurbished to fit hundreds of people, picking up thousands of refugees in europe to smuggle them onto the beaches of haifa and tel aviv. paul newman has a lovely half nekid scene of this in the movie Exodus when he jumps off the ship in the middle of the night and swims up onto the beach- one of my fave movies ever and pretty much the story of aliyah bet (albeit with tremendous hollywood embellishment and only mild accuracy). these refugees who became illegal immigrants (caught or not) were known as “ma’apilim”- the root of the word is to “climb” or to “rise up”, and is found in the bible referring to the israelites who were still eager to enter the land even after the negative report of the spies.

okay so basically this was the idea. we were “playing” these illegal immigrants who had just escaped the holocaust, and were now facing another threat in the form of the british who were doing their best to keep them out of palestine. k so we’re down at the waterfront. all the kids get divided into small groups of about 10 or so, with one or two counselors at the helm to be our “haganah operatives” and guides to the end. what end, you say? so the camp is spread out into 2 areas, the main camp where the younger kids cabins were, and the dining hall and the gym and the waterfront, etc. then there’s a road in the middle of the camp, and beyond it a hill leading up to the senior cabins and some sports fields at the top. the goal was for each group to make it through camp to the top of the hill without getting caught by the “british,” played by the cits who were roaming around camp.

idk if i have to describe camp further for people who don’t know the concept, but basically we’re all in the middle of the damn woods with nothing around us for miles except the lake and the camps on the other side of it or down the road. ill never forget my first ma’apilim (tbh most of my description is from then, which is why its so fuzzy cuz these memories are 20+ years old), i was so lucky to get the tripper as our group leader (the tripper is the “nature dude” in camp, the survivalist ;). he immediately led us underneath the gym (which of course was just insane to my small mind... UNDER the gym??) to plan our route and give us instructions. we organized a roll call and signals, we practiced walking in a single file line silently and dropping to the ground on his signal. we smeared dirt on our faces for camo in the woods. it was *mason voice* intense. k so then as you can guess, we snuck our way up the hill through the woods. sometimes we’d encounter other groups, once in awhile i remember getting caught by a cit, and they’d take all or some of us to the “jail” on the basketball court” where we’d have to wait for a jailbreak (idk how that worked but it did, i remember it happening but not in any detail). a famous prison break that DID happen was at acre prison in 1947 when the irgun (another paramilitary jewish group) blew up the prison and broke out 28 of their members and 214 arab prisoners. if im not mistaken they briefly refer to it in exodus by recreating a prison break. exciting times. ANYWAYS fuck im such a tangential bitch sorry XD, by the end of the night we’d all make it to the top- “jerusalem”- and we’d have hot chocolate and say morning prayers as the sun rose over the hill. 

i feel like my description is a little lacking, but hopefully u get the basic picture. ma’apilim wasn;t even the heaviest part of camp- that was tisha b’av- the fast day when we commemorate the destruction of the temple and every other traumatic destructive event the jewish people have gone thru. that night they’d prepare the camp with candles in sand filled paper bags lining all the paths. after dinner we’d walk with our bunks on the path and watch little skits in different parts of camp- scenes from these moments in jewish history, like the holocaust, pogroms in europe, the spanish inquisition, terror attacks in israel, etc. after walking the path we’d all convene back at the waterfront, where they’d set out a small reconstructed “temple” on a makeshift raft in the lake, and a banner on the beach that said “yizkor”- remember. then they’d light both on fire and we’d sit and watch them burn while singing appropriately somber songs like eli eli, by hannah senesz. after that we’d go back to the gym and lie on the floor in small groups huddled around candles. we’d listen as some people chanted the book of eicha (lamentations), and would slowly fall asleep (depending on our age, of course). anyone that was still up after that was over got to stay in the gym if they wanted to watch exodus- a 4 hour movie. the next day we’d fast all day (only those who wanted- 13 y/o +) and treated it basically like shabbat- no regular activities.

MAN did i get some wild shit imprinted on me from camp!! but i don’t regret one second. i only wish other people could have the experience i did, but i dont even know if they still do that there. they probably do, but this old lady has no excuses to step foot in a summer camp anymore :(

as a completely coincidental aside and not at all as a self promo, idk if u knew this but i’ve been working on a documentary for over a year now and this whole thing is a major part of the plot. i interviewed a lady who was a passenger on the exodus, and about 4 or 5 people who were volunteers from montreal/new york/new jersey/toronto that picked up and smuggled the refugees. the stories are incredible. i just hope the rest of the world will get to hear it from their mouths one day. all we need is 100k to finish the film XD

[thepunisher]

gal gadot praised the Israeli troops on her Facebook. but yeah I do get it was mandatory but the genocide their is horrible and sad. Im palestinian myself and i still have family over there and it scares the shit out of me if something happens. im sorry if im getting you mad this will be my last i just gotta get it out of my system...

*huge virtual hug*

I don’t even know how we got here tbh? I’m literally here trying to fill up my queue and uploading gifsets (with my connection failing me) cause I’m going to be in semi hiatus and I literally have no idea how all this came to happen in the first place.

I don’t mind discussing this stuff, but I also come to tumblr, as many other people I figure, to post about cute stuff and forget that real life sucks, so while I have no problem replying, I’d rather this didn’t start a new discussion on the subject cause I don’t want to bore anyone to death.

tbh, I’m pro palestine myself. you guys deserve a break, you guys deserve that the world gets their head out of their asses and acknowledge that palestine exists and what that piece of garbage netanyahu has said and has been doing is utterly disgusting and that people and children are fucking dying while no one cares cause of course they don’t.

that said, I was as enraged as many when I first heard about this fb post. then I went and see it, and tbh I think people are blowing things out of proportion? like she literally called out hamas, which… terrorist organisation who’s also been slaughtering people, so I don’t see what was the problem with that? and she said something like #prayforthetroops, which? I mean, she was a soldier and she’s praying for her fellow colleagues. I don’t see anything particularly monstrous in saying that. soldiers die for other people’s wars everyday, I don’t think anyone should be shit upon for praying for their safety. 

I mean, again, I’m italian, and we literally couldn’t care less about our soldiers (which I guess sounds awful), but I’ve seen the “pray for the troops” thing a lot in other countries, US especially, and I’ve never seen anyone call out american actors for that rhetoric, despite the fact that the US have invaded countries and slaughtered thousands of people for years, for no other reason that they wanted oil (lol, sure it’s to “export” freedom, sure… cause you can totally export freedom.)

also, about gal, other than that famous post and various interviews in which she simply says that she was in the army, I literally cannot recall anywhere else in which she talked about politics or about her opinion on the matter. So I’m really not sure where people are getting their facts. Which is why I take gal’s hate as antisemitism. Sure, there’s probably people who have different reasons for disliking her, but let’s not kid ourselves and pretend that the vast majority is hating her for something other than the fact that she’s jew.