#Jewish Heritage

[jewelleria]

“goy” is not a slur.

goy is the hebrew word for “nation.” it’s a neutral term that can have both positive and negative connotations. it simply means non-jewish; as in all the other nations (goyim) that are not the jews. (in general, non-jews who are offended by being called a goy are usually also offended by jews who, for lack of a better word, live jewishly.)

yes, there are some ultra-religious jewish communities who feel negatively about “non-jewish ways of thinking”—and that mentality is the real issue, not the word. the word is in no way a slur, as it doesn’t meet the technical requirements for it. the venn diagram of people who are offended by goy and those who think “jew” (as opposed to “jewish person”) is a negative term is basically a circle.

[fallensapphires]

Holidays: Chanukah (Hanukkah)

The darkness of the whole world cannot swallow the glowing of a candle.

[proudzionist]

[jewish-culture-is]

jewish culture is not feeling super connected to your heritage and feeling like you don't know that much about judaism until you visit a jewish museum and you're like oh wow i recognize all of these things...from centuries ago...and have the same traditions...my ancestors would be proud of me :)

!!

[koenji]

Antique Jewish Hamsa amulets and other Jewish talismans from Morocco, Kurdistan and Israel. 🪬 (png)

[arcadialedger]

Jewish SF/F books for Jewish Heritage Month

I highly recommend you check out these novels! This is just the tip of the iceberg.

[askjumblr]

I was raised as a "messianic jew" as ive gotten older i have realized the, uh issues to say the least, of that community, I would like to connenct with the jewish heritage I have in a better way, my question is if there are any tips or advice for this as i am quite aware of the difference but not the details of things like how jews pray or connect with G-d (? Should i do that??)

.

[ethanfreemanappreciation]

Ethan and Anne Görner in The Phantom of the Opera

Ethan was the first Jewish actor in history to perform the role of The Phantom. A favourite of Hal Prince, Ethan performed the role on West End as well as in Toronto, Vienna and Germany.

Together with Hal he worked to include as many aspects of Erik, the Phantom, from the original Leroux novel as possible in the musical, earning him the nickname "The Leroux Phantom" amongst Phans.

[elder-millennial-of-zion]

I really appreciate your blog.

Your normal about gerim, right? I've seen people use us as a reason to deny Jewish indigeneity, completely ignoring that many if not most Indigenous peoples had practices of "adopting" people into their culture/religion/community before colonialism- the only difference is that instead of getting rid of the practice we just formalized it.

Ilysm <3

This is the second ask I’ve gotten about gerim, which is funny because my dad is one.

Whoever uses gerim as an excuse to delegitimize Jews in any way doesn’t know anything about Judaism. Or indigeneity. Or much about religious and cultural developments throughout history at all really.

If conversion somehow made the Jewish people and Jewish heritage and history less legitimate, Halacha wouldn’t allow it. If hundreds of years of rabbis can be “normal” about gerim, random uneducated goyim on the internet can be too.

[jewishpopculture]

George Michael photographed by Herb Ritts for Interview magazine’s October 1988 issue.

In 2008, Michael revealed to the Los Angeles Times that his maternal grandmother was Jewish, but she married a non-Jewish man and raised her children with no knowledge of their heritage due to her fear during World War II.

Photographer Herb Ritts was also of Jewish descent.

[u-mspcoll]

Shanah tovah pop-up cards from the Jewish Heritage Collections are now digitized and available at the Jewish Heritage Collection Digital Archive!

Shanah Tovah pop-up card. JHC-E0001. Gift of Constance Harris.

Shanah Tovah pop-up card. JHC-E0011. Gift of Constance Harris. 

Shanah Tovah pop-up card. JHC-E0017. Gift of Constance Harris.

View pictures of the other shanah tovah pop-up cards from the U-M Library Jewish Heritage Collection

[mizrahimayhem]

Applications are officially open! 🧿🍉🪬

We are Mizrahi Mayhem, a zine celebrating Jews from Asia, Africa, and the Mediterranean. All proceeds from the sale of this zine will be donated to the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund. We accept submissions in the form of artwork, photography, poetry, recipes, short fiction, and testimonials (creative nonfiction) — so if you’re a Jew of Asian and/or African heritage and you have something to say, we highly encourage you to submit your work!

🍉SUBMISSION GUIDELINES🍉

🪬FAQ🪬

🧿TIMELINE🧿

[zahut]

“More than most, Jews have known insecurity, whether in the land of Israel or elsewhere. Too often home turned out to be no more than a temporary dwelling, a Sukka. Yet with its genius for the unexpected, Judaism declared Sukkot to be not a time of sadness but the ‘season of our rejoicing’. For the tabernacle in all its vulnerabilities symbolises faith: the faith of the people who set out long ago on a risk-laden journey across a desert of space and time with no more protection than the sheltering of the divine presence. Sitting in the Sukka underneath its canopy of leaves I often think of my ancestors and their wanderings across Europe in search of safety, and I begin to understand how faith was their only home.”

— Rabbi Pinchas Hackenbroch, Rabbi Sacks And The Community We Built Together

[burningchandelier]

My mom got a DNA test done and it didn’t tell us anything we didn’t already know.

Ukrainian Ashkenazi. The Wiseman Family.

We know where we come from.

We went as far North as we could when there was nowhere safe for us in Eastern Europe. We made a home for ourselves in Lerwick, Scotland. Scotland, the only country in Europe that has never expelled Jews, kept us safe for a while, but a poor family could only live at the end of the world in the Arctic Circle for so long. There were too many fishermen and not enough people to buy fish.

Between wars, we went South again, to Germany. We didn’t stay.

I am grateful every day that my great-great grandfather could see that there was trouble coming for his family. He sent his four children and wife to Canada and followed the next year. So many of us did not.

We found a place in Toronto where we watched what happened to our loved ones in Europe. We forgot Hebrew. It was easier that way.

My great-grandmother kept secrets:

Her first daughter, born out of wedlock, was raised by her parents as one of their own.

Her second daughter was told that her father was dead, rather than divorced away (it was a different time— divorce was shameful, death was inevitable).

Her job was mysterious. Officially, she worked for the state department as a pay roll clerk. I don’t know why any pay roll clerks would have traveled to Russia during the Cold War, but she did many times.

The secret she kept the longest was her heritage. As far as anyone knew, she was a severe Scottish immigrant and fiercely proud of it. Only my mother, her favorite, had suspicions.

When Granny Annie Wiseman died, she left everything to her favorite granddaughter. The money, the house, and everything inside it. Every memory of who we are.

Years later, my mother fell in love with a Jewish man. They raised me together. I had the privileges and the pains of knowing who I was. I carry our family burdens and I honor them.

Someday, I will name my daughter after the woman I never met who passed our heritage to me through the simple and brave act of survival. Her assimilation kept us alive. Her secrets got me here. She left the breadcrumbs that let us find our way home.

We know where we come from.

[koenji]

Ketubah, Thessaloniki, Greece, 1863. Unknown Artist.