#Jewish neighbourhood

[eretzyisrael]

eurojewcong

The traditionally Jewish neighborhood of Leopoldstadt in Vienna was defaced with numerous "Death to Zionism" graffiti on May 1st. Several organizations marched through the district yesterday with anti-Israel slogans. The reaction of its residents is truly heartwarming ❤️

[sadisticnstoned]

[quasi-normalcy]

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[bauliya]

cherik au where erik hates charles because he's a gentrifier in his neighbourhood and charles is just this mutant in my neighborhood is so fucking hot I'll die for him

[murderballadeer]

also i'm going to have to become a churchgoing catholic for the first three weeks of february bc i have an assignment for a class i'm taking on the anthropology of religion where i have to essentially do small-scale ethnography in a religious community and i figured now is the time to find out what the catholics are up to

[girlfictions]

something i’ve been thinking about lately is like. growing up muslim right after 9/11 is something i’d never really reflected on much because it was all i’d ever known — at 5, my friend’s mum didn’t let her invite me to her birthday party because i was the only brown girl in our class, at 12, my classmates would joke about my family being part of isis, at 16, my dad was interrogated by american airport security for hours — and it always stung and it always hurt but it was just the way things were because the western world hated muslims. but i don’t think i’ve ever fully comprehended the extent to which we were hated until now.

palestine is being turned into a mass graveyard. every single day there are new photos of the atrocities being carried out against them and videos of them pleading for help and still those who can actually intervene turn a blind eye. israel is claiming to only be targeting hamas “terrorists” while bombing a refugee camp. israeli police raided and assaulted a non-zionist jewish neighbourhood. israeli soldiers are posting tiktoks of them torturing captured palestinians. this is not a complicated issue and it never has been. ethnic cleansing is being committed right in front of us. and yet the western world leaders refuse to call for a ceasefire.

and while zionist organisations accuse pro-palestine demonstrations of anti-semitism, while zionist celebrities insist that they’re afraid to leave their mansions in los angeles, a six year old muslim boy was stabbed to death and his mother wounded in the same attack in chicago. a muslim doctor was murdered while sitting outside her apartment complex in texas. hundreds of peaceful protesters have been arrested (many of whom have been jewish). despite what zionists want you to believe, this is not a jewish/muslim conflict. i have so much love and gratitude to my brave jewish brothers and sisters all over the world who are condemning israel for their actions.

ultimately, israel have been granted impunity by the west. they have slaughtered thousands upon thousands of innocent palestinians. they have bombed hospitals and schools indiscriminately. they have used white phosphorus, violating the geneva convention. they have completely eradicated nearly 900 bloodlines. how many more need to be wiped out? how many more children need to be buried underneath the rubble? how many more doctors need to be confronted with the bodies of their own family members? how many more journalists need to detail the horrific acts of violence they are witnessing? what more can be done to the palestinian people that has not been done already?

i truly believe that palestine will be free one day. i believe the palestinian people will receive the justice they finally deserve. but what breaks my heart is how much they have suffered and will continue to suffer before they are deemed worthy of help. and it would be to all of our detriment if we ignored how much of a factor palestine being a predominantly muslim state has played into the way the world has reacted to their genocide.

[srebrnafh]

While I admit that the historical background might be solid here (might - can't find a source that would confirm it), I would not say bagels are... the best. In my scale of bread like foodstuffs they don't even make top 10.

Like... If someone asked me to list good bread-like food, I would not mention bagels, since they are "that annoying bun with a hole in the middle, oh dear, something is leaking here, can someone please please please get me normal bread" food.

(at the same time, i will happily pay good money for a good street-bought obwarzanek, which is a drier cousin of bagel, consisting mostly of crust that's covered with coarse salt, poppyseed or sesame)

But, like, seriously, how bad must the quality of bread be in an area for bagels to be winning...?

I mean. Give me good matzah. I will be a happy girl. Give me challah. Oh, give me any amount of challah, and I will be delighted. Proper Central Europe wheat bread. Proper Central Europe white bread. Any number of rolls and savoury pies...

I understand the cultural significance some might assign to them, but from the point of view of this particular bread enthusiast, bagels are just... inconveniently leaky buns.

Here’s some history behind one of America’s favorite breakfast foods!

Note: There are also different myths/stories of how bagels came to be which are pretty interesting to read too!

Sources: The Book of Jewish Food: An Odyssey from Samarkand to New York. The Bagel: the Surprising History

of a Modest Bread.

Dani Ishai Behan

Jewish Pride Always

[ittibittium]

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[itwasmagic]

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[avi-on-jumblr]

awful tweet warning:

Before I describe everything that's wrong with this tweet, let me transcribe Stephen Fry's words:

I am Stephen Fry, and I am a Jew. The great Irish thinker and writer Conor Cruise O'Brien once said that antisemitism is a light sleeper. Well, it seems to have woken up of late. The horrendous events of October 7th, and the Israeli response, seem to have stirred up this ancient hatred. It's agonizing to see all violence and destruction that is unfolding, and the terrible loss of life on both sides brings me an overwhelming sadness and heartache. But whatever our opinions on what is happening, there can be no excuse for the behaviour of some of our citizens. Since October the 7th, there have been 50 separate reported incidents of antisemitism every single day in London alone, an increase of 1350%, according to the Metropolitan police. Shop windows smashed, stars of David and swastikas daubed on walls of Jewish properties, synagogues, and cemeteries. Jewish schools have been forced to close. There is real fear stalking the Jewish neighbourhoods of Britain. Jewish people here are becoming fearful of showing themselves, in Britain, in 2023.

(Then it cuts off.)

For those who still don't know why this tweet was ignorant and inane, let me explain.

"To hear him conflate antiZionism with antisemitism has shocked me."

Guess how many times Stephen Fry mentions zionism? Zero! Guess how many times he mentions the country of Israel? Zero! (Unless you count "the Israeli response" which is unrelated to the existence of the country, or Zionism at all.) What this person is saying, is that they consider the smashing of shop windows, and the vandalism and marking of Jewish property, to be anti-Zionism. Considering they are an anti-Zionist, by following their logic, we can conclude that they not only believe this destruction and harassment is acceptable, but they believe it is ethical.

Further, they accuse him of showing no care for the Palestinians, even though he explicitly states that the loss of life on both sides brings him overwhelming sadness.

Finally, they accuse him of "[Centring] people in this country". It is disturbing that this person believes one cannot be concerned over two issues at a time. It perpetuates the idea that we can only talk about the "worst oppression" and talking about anything else means you are complicit in "silencing" someone else. If this were true, we would not be allowed to talk about Gaza either, or Ukraine, or police brutality, racism, islamophobia, homophobia, transphobia, and so on and so on, because clearly there are other issues with hundreds of thousands more deaths, and millions more displacements, so why bring attention to it ever?

Unfortunately, people are not talking about those countries, like Syria, Yemen, Ethiopia, Congo, and more, and anyone who does is spammed with "free Palestine" comments. In fact, the most I've heard people talking about Sudan is when these TikTok geopolitical experts attempt to spam the Palestinian flag and get it wrong.

This is not new. This is obviously not new. I have seen tweets like these every single day in the hundreds for the last 80 days. It is not surprising that people think smashing windows is "anti-zionism", nor that they think it good. It is not surprising that they hear a Jew speak, and experience shock and disgust, regardless of what we say.

I do wonder if they would regard anything short of a second Holocaust as antisemitism.

[magnetothemagnificent]

I gotta say, it is terrifying seeing antisemitic vandalism and imagery around the neighbourhood my family lives in, a liberal semi-suburban neighbourhood with "hate has no home here" signs and rainbow flags on pretty lawns. It's like the level of tolerance they've had for the increasing Jewish population in the area has reached a tipping point, and these liberal WASPs and WASP-adjacents have decided they can no longer tolerate having Jewish neighbours. A kosher restaurant was vandalized a couple weeks ago. A synagogue was vandalized twice within the span of a single week. My siblings have been yelled out on their way to and from synagogue on Shabbat.

I feel stupid to have ever thought we lived in a safe neighbourhood. I feel stupid to have ever thought we lived in a safe country.

[xclowniex]

Well what is being done about it? What is being done to assure jewish safety?

Like I get hiding being jewish and not being attacked is better than being openly jewish and being attacked but A) even if a jew doesn't wear judacia, most jews look visibly Jewish so the only actual current probable measure is for jews to not go to those neighborhoods.

But what is being done so jews don't have to avoid certain areas? What is being done to prevent jews from hiding their jewishness?

Is there going to be an temporary increase in police presence? Are there going to be efforts to deradicalize people who are antisemitic? What is going to be done?

Obligatory not all arabs are antisemitic and I am also an arab jew so I better not see any anti arab racism as A) its bad in general but also B) you're being racist to me too - you can critique antisemitism which is ingrained in certain arab and Islamic cultured without veering into Islamophobia or anti arab racism and critiquing antisemitism in certain arab and Islamic cultures isn't inherently Islamophobic or racist.

[applesauce42069]

The problem is people are approaching this from a place of anger and hate first and foremost. They find out a synagogue is hosting an event selling property in Israel. They don’t do research to find out where they’re selling property. Is it in within the Green Line? They don’t care. Half of them probably don’t know what the green line is. They don’t know the difference or maybe they don’t see a difference between the 1948 and 1967 borders, which means a lot of them probably subscribe to the “kick out the Jews” mentality or they’re pretending that groups like Hamas and Hezbollah wouldn’t do that or worse (even though they’ve said they would) given the opportunity. I mean, these are the people who physically attacked and beat Jewish people in their neighbourhood, in front of their synagogue. These are not “peaceful protestors” expressing their discontent over land sales. They don’t even know the details of the land sales. They decided, personally, without adequate information, without a trial, with the principle of guilty until proven innocent, that a group of Jews was marked for violence and harassment. That it was justified to violently harass these Jews in their own neighbourhood. They decided it was ok, and they had a “reason” - but listen, everyone always did. They decided it was ok, and they did it, and nobody stopped them.

[opencommunion]

"The neo-Zionist view on the past is even more nationalist and romantic than the consensual Zionist view of it. Israel of the Second Temple era was the glorious past which must be reconstructed. ... As a result, neo-Zionists took seriously the idea of rebuilding a Third Temple to replace Haram al-Sharif and preparing cadres of priests to serve there when the time would come – although they differ on how to achieve this goal, whether by exploding the two mosques on the Temple Mount, or waiting for divine intervention to pave the way for their scheme.

... The neo-Zionist interpretation of the idea of Israel constituted the ideological infrastructure for the official educational system. The neo-Zionists produced several educational kits (textbooks, curricula, and so on) which would have the power to impact the next generation of Jews in Israel. These kits could produce only one type of graduate: racist, insular, and extremely ethnocentric. The message that came through clearly ... is to fear the Other inside and around you – the Other being the Arab world around Israel, the Palestinian neighbourhoods, the Palestinian citizens inside Israel, and non-Jewish immigrants.

... Another crucial element was the militarisation of the educational system. In 1998 the Ministry of Education announced a new master plan devoted to linking students more closely with the army. The basic idea was to follow children from kindergarten through high school graduation so as to ensure that they would be well prepared for ‘military environment and values’ and that they would ‘be able to cope with situations of pressure and developing leadership skills on a battlefield’. The level of physical fitness required by the army would be a precondition for matriculation and graduation, and an obligatory, integral part of the future educational system would be participation in army manoeuvres and military indoctrination. This was to be complemented by enriched lessons on Zionism and Eretz Israel studies. In the final three years of high school, the scheme aimed at ‘increasing the motivation and preparedness for the IDF’. During the initial year there would be a focus on ‘the individual’s commitment to his or her homeland’, and in the following two years, on ‘actual participation in military life’. In a way, this had always been done at schools, but always as a marginal part of school life; moreover, its features were formulated by more mainstream Zionists. Now the individual pupil would learn the history of the land according to the neo-Zionist interpretation – an education bound to shape his or her vision of the future."

Ilan Pappé, The Idea of Israel: A History of Power and Knowledge (2014)

[identitty-dickruption]

book recommendations masterlist

disability books

Feminist, Queer, Crip by Alison Kafer

Understanding Disability: From Theory to Practice by Michael Oliver

The Right To Maim by J.K Puar

Disability Rights and Wrongs Revisited by Tom Shakespeare

Crip Negativity by J. Logan Smilges

Cripping Intersex by Celeste Orr

The Disability Studies Reader, 4th edition edited by L.J Davis

The Rejected Body: Feminist Philosophical Reflections on Disability by Susan Wendell

other non-fiction

Summoned: Identification and Religious Life in a Jewish Neighbourhood by Iddo Tavory

State of Subsistence: The Politics of Bread in Contemporary Jordan by Jose Martinez

Abductive Analysis by Tavory and Timmermans

Among Wolves: Ethnography and the Immersive Study of Power by Timothy Pachirat

Decolonising Methodologies by Linda Tuhiwai Smith

fiction

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin

The Constant Rabbit by Jasper Fforde

Outside Looking In by C.T Boyle

We Play Ourselves by Jen Silverman

Higher Education by Kira McPherson

[halalchampagnesocialist]

Historically, the violence of colonialism and imperialism has often been obscured behind the veneer of “decorum” and “politeness.” The same can be said for much of Zionism’s history. Another thing that permeates discourses around Israel/Palestine and Zionism is the politics of “moral respectability.” I would define this as morality politics seen as respectable or acceptable according to liberal, Western standards. We see this, for example, in the way that many liberal politicians talk about Israeli violence compared to Palestinian violence and so forth.

The politics of Zionism and moral respectability serve to act as double standards to absolve the Israeli state of its colonial violence. It is a politics that presents Israelis and Jews as deserving of sympathy, compassion, and solidarity, whilst Palestinians are merely a charity case at best, undeserving and facing an oppression of their own making, at worst.

A very recent example of this is the backlash to Mohammed El Kurd’s tweet about Jewish symbolism being appropriated by the state of Israel. For context, a Jewish man entered a Palestinian-owned coffee shop wearing a blue hat with a Star of David and was kicked out. This spawned outrage from many. Afterwards, Mohammed El Kurd tweeted the response below. This also drew outrage from some other Palestinians, Zionists, and everyone in between.

While I don’t necessarily agree with the equivocation of religious symbols with symbols like the Swastika, El Kurd is absolutely correct in his assertion that Zionism (and the state of Israel) have turned the Star of David into a racist symbol. We see the Star of David often graffitied onto Palestinian homes in the West Bank by settlers and now in Gaza by Israeli soldiers. There have been instances of the Star of David also being branded on Palestinian prisoners by Israelis. It is blatantly used as a symbol of violence and Jewish supremacy against Palestinians.

For those unfamiliar with El Kurd, he is a Palestinian New York-based writer, hailing from Sheikh Jarrah in occupied Jerusalem. Sheikh Jarrah, arguably, is one of the main sites of the ongoing Judaisation of Jerusalem. Palestinians in the neighbourhood are battling forced evictions and displacement against settlement organisations who plan to take their houses, remove their Palestinian inhabitants and give them to Jewish settlers to live in. El Kurd and his family are one of those families and he has been documenting this struggle with his sister Muna since he was a child. It is fair to say that El Kurd is not merely posturing about Zionism for ideological reasons, but like many Palestinians, he is a victim of Zionism in practice.

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wrote about zionism and morality politics for my substack. this is just a small excerpt, continue reading in the link.